Are you wrapped up warmly?

Is your home tucked up warmly this winter?  Want to reduce your carbon footprint?

Have you been thinking that you may need better loft insulation or wondering about getting cavity wall insulation? If so, you might be interested to hear about Eastern CRI, which can help you work out what you need and tell you if you can get a grant to help pay for it.

Eastern CRI is a Local Authority initiative to help give homeowners and tenants affordable loft and cavity wall insulation using the grants that abound in the energy market place. If you have access to the internet, all you have to do is visit www.easterncri.org to get a free quotation on insulating your home. It’s very simple and you’ll be given one price for all your home insulation. If you qualify as a Priority Group customer what you need may be free, otherwise it may cost as little as £149. (To qualify as a Priority Group customer you need to be in receipt of various benefits or allowances.)

The government have now set a target to insulate all homes to today's standards by 2015, this project is doing just that.

Did you know:

    * 25% of the heat loss in your home could be escaping through the roof

    * 27% of all UK carbon emissions are thought to be emitted by our homes

This project will show you some of the best offers being made today, reducing your heating and energy bills as well as reducing your carbon footprint! The Eastern Carbon Reduction Initiative is planned to deliver cavity wall and loft insulation to all properties in the region by 2015, and to deliver wider carbon savings to 2050 by ensuring that existing and emerging energy efficient technologies are adopted by Eastern households.

Want to know more? Visit www.easterncri.org freephone 0800 2321677.

Information provided by Sustainable Cottenham

Refrigerator art

And for something completely different, I present, a combined composition by the great Gregorius and an anonymous friend. This is the stuff little boys are made of, don't we miss it?

Sustainable Villages in Cambridgeshire

Sustainable villages are springing up all over the place, and in Cambridgeshire there appears to be quite a lot of energy, if not, hot air to be let out. Loft insulation is probably the simplest and most cost effective savers, but if you already have some, the grants available make topping up less attractive. I must say, that is crazy, but with an un-loaded cost to insulate your loft at around £400 for a smallish home, it is still a deal if you get that at just over half price through a grant. Because there are so many options caveats and catches and we live in an age of simple, Eastern CRI (Carbon Reduction Initiative) have been created and set up to reduce the cost and complexity of accessing a grant. I must say - I was tempted to say - let's rip the old stuff out, because installing from fresh will cost you about £90 less. But the pink stuff is not safe so do not try this at home kids. I'll not go into the logic of why a top-up insulation costs more than installing 10 inches from scratch though I will segway into another disposal item. Batteries!
I'm just a bit confused as to why it is suddenly that I see bins in Morrisons for your old batteries - we are never supposed to have turfed these into the bin in the first place, so this is my RANT. The UK is so fast asleep in attitude to the disposal of hazardous materials; I have to believe this is because of industry push-back. We throw far too much into landfill, and although I think that paying more for the removal right outside our front door might fix the picture, it's not going to change people's attitudes. Neither will shouting, so perhaps it's time to shame those who have not played their part as model citizens. With so many pressures on our time, our attention and wallets all together under strain, how do we start?

my ceiling (in the picture, the blue area has no insulation.)

So before you go and throw out the toys, and collapse in despair... it's an idea time to head into the loft and spot the gaps, from inside your ceiling. If you live in Cottenham, please talk to a parish councilor, or post a comment on this posting, alternately watch the local village publications and learn about how you can have a volunteer for the Sustainable Cottenham Group help you to better insulate your home today.