Welcome to the Energy Action Group
co-ordinator Chris Palmer
'''TRING IN TRANSITION ENERGY ACTION GROUP'''
Notes from latest meeting
Energy group meeting 9th November 2009
Asked to run next TinT group meeting on 25th February 2010. Open meeting could be used as an introduction for local installers for buyer clubs. Could ask RES (Jont) to speak. Also could ask Lizzy Staincliffe from Dacorum, to speak about environmental issues. ''' Energy auditing''' To business, need to focus on return on investment. For house-holders , help them with local installation.
Brian has written brief notes, for SME, to be plumped out and distributed to local businesses. List of business being identified by Chris.
List for community buildings could be obtained from Carol Mayger at the Tring Information centre.
George to see if he can get contact with large building Project manager, to add experience to our team. Also see if we can get Carbon Trust to work in partnership to begin with (Brian). Need to do quick survey if we get any snow or frost to see who has a lack of insulation, to target house hold insulation. See if Heatseekers could be payed for locally, ( not by Dacorum ) , see how much it costs and if we can get local sponsers. See what the website shows.
Could we hire a thermal imaging camera to produce our own report. Would we be infringing any civil liberties ?
Coppicing David Metcalfe has a coppice that he planted 15 years ago, and now he needs some help with it. Ian and Chris to see what can be done in this area.
Schools Hoping to provide energy audits to both Dundale and Tring schools. Tring are setting up eco-council and looking for input from TinT.
Buyers club Could look at this generating funds for TinT, which could be used to pay for expert advice etc. Ian talking to Travis Perkins to get price list for insulations and other products. Could ask Metcalfe’s and Graces to see if they could come up with a discount card for Transition members – Philip.
26th November for ECO fair planning.
Next meeting aim for 7th December at Ian’s house, 19 Mansion Drive.
Previous meeting
Many things were covered, this being a brief summary of the actions and discussions,
Barr Kazer to pull out of the Energy group , hopefully temporarily, due to busy schedule with Eco Fair, and Schools co-ordinator role.
Elliot – keeping on plugging at schools to see if we can get some progress regarding installation of insulation / micro-generation , with help from low carbon building grants,
Talk to John Allen to see if Dundale School could show example of a business plan
Heatseekers - Chris P to contact Dacorum Environmental and Sustainability officer to see if Dacorum would support Tring in getting Heatseekers to profile houses for insulation improvements.
Also, see if she would be interested in giving any kind of talk at a future meeting, for the Energy group.
Solar installations and buyers clubs – Ian to see if he can make a contact with firm interested in giving bulk discounts for insulation, solar panels etc,
Still looking at possibilities of alterative energy sources. Looking at land options for coppicing, and researching anaerobic digesters , to convert waste into energy. Tying up with waste group and Berko in Transition to get economies of scale.
Energy audit training going ahead on 5th October, Brian inviting other transition groups, Philip to talk to churches together.
Tring in Transition planning discussion, Grennhouse 29th September , 7.30pm
ECO fair is on 10th October , if any-one can help out, please let Brian or Barr know,
Coppicing course identified in Kent , November 7th , run by BCTV. One day at cost of £50
Litter pick being organised for 26th September, all help appreciated.
Next meeting 14th September, at Ian’s house. 19 Mansion Dv, Tring, HP23 5BD
Notes of meeting held 12th May 2009
Reviewed input for TinT booklet, specifically the two pages for the Energy Group. Felt that we need it to be specific to Tring if possible, and also hint/tips people might not have seen elsewhere, not just go over the same info as Act on CO2 etc.
Letter has gone out to schools regarding grants for micro-generation. Elliot fed back that both Goldfields and Bishops Wood are considering this in their budget
We discussed the possiblity of setting up a buyers club , to make insulation, solar panels, bio-mass boilers more affordable by buying in bulk.
Started discussing input for the Energy Descent Plan , for the energy group. Looked at ideas such as energy from waste plants, which were not favoured due to possible pollution, and local objections. Also looked at 'logs' from waste paper. Lastly talked about possibility of setting up a short rotation woodland coppice, as a source of wood for bio-mass boilers. Favoured as no-one objects to trees !
Talked about the need to communicate with other community groups such as churches and charities. Discussed the possibility of contact with the vicar from St Peters and St Pauls, who is very keen on environmental issues.
Elliot has posted the favourite carbon footprint measurement web page to the wiki.
Actions
Chris to work on draft of letter to local charities and churches, re; energy grants,
Jont to find out contact information for Dacorum schools environment officer. To find out if RES have any previous research regarding wind speed and planning in Tring.
Brian to continue looking into energy audit training particularly with regards to commercial and small business premises. Look into local authority and CAFE funding.
Robin to find contact for facilities manager at Heygates flour mill, to give them information about Carbon Trust audits.
Elliot to research carbon footprint measurement websites, and post to Wiki.
Future Meetings
Agreed to meet monthly, at least initially.
Elliot to host next meeting, 15th June, 8 pm.
Energy Grant information
1) Warm Front targeted at low income, elderly or benefit receiving households, can receive a full house assesment and up to £2700 in help
2) Carbon Emmisions Reduction Target (CERT)
This is the goverment scheme to require energy suppliers to achieve efficiency improvements in private households. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/household/supplier/cert.htm The upshot is, many energy suppliers will now help you to get more insulation and better boilers etc,
to see if your house could benefit , see here, a very useful tool from the Energy Saving Trust.... http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/proxy/view/full/2019/grantsandofferssearch
3) Low Carbon Buildings - phase 1.
This is targeted at households who might want to install some kind of micro-generation technique in their property, including panels, turbines, heat pumps etc.
http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/home/
4) Low Carbon Buildings - phase 2.
Targeted at public sector buildings and charitable bodies, again looking for microgeneration .
http://www.lowcarbonbuildingsphase2.org.uk/
I'm afraid that the Low Carbon Building fund for Small to Medium Enterprises has now closed. http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/about/s2faqs/
But there is a fund for enterprises looking at bio-mass fuelled heat and power projects ( such as wood chip boilers )
5 ) Biomass http://www.bioenergycapitalgrants.org.uk/
6) Lottery fund for community projects , including schools, charities and churcheshttp://www.communitysustainable.org.uk/
Fund will provide for the installtion of microgeneration technology and efficiency improvments such as insulation. Can also pay a smaller amount just for feasability studies.
7) E.On customers, who are vulnerable to fuel poverty, such as eldery and low income families. http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Going-Green/Energy-Saving-Advice/Guidance-And-Caring-Energy.htm. Help with energy efficiency measures and advice, amongst others
Planning permission for renewable energy technologies
See this page from the Energy Saving Trust
Planning page from Dacorum Council
http://www.dacorum.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=11
Government Planning portal
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/genpub/en/
Renewable Energy Companies
Probably the easiest way (but not necessarily the cheapest ) of reducing your reliance on carbon based fuel sources is to change your energy supplier. The leader in this field seems to be Good Energy at present, note this is not a personal endorsment of their product, as I do not currently use them myself, http://www.goodenergy.co.uk/
Calculating Your Carbon Footprint
An interesting way to get an understanding of your own personal impact on climate change is to calculate your carbon footprint. The website Click4carbon.com provides a comprehensive method of calculating your personal carbon footprint and then to compare it with the country average as well as anywhere else in the world:
http://www.click4carbon.com/CarbonCalculator.php
Furthermore, it provides additional tabs that suggest ways of reducing your footprint along with calculators to give you a real figure that can be saved!