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.

Sustainable Cottenham Group

With the end of winter almost in sight, we will stop thinking about heating bills, recover from the Christmas giving crunch, and probably have discarded another diet plan. But while matters hot and cold are still foremost; remember the environment and prepare your pocket before next winter. If your energy bill has been stressing you out, read on.

my best foot

The Sustainable Cottenham group was created to implement the goals of the Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership (SPEP) which helps parish councils support residents and communities to reduce energy bills, tackle climate change and build sustainable communities. The Cottenham group's main project at the moment is to get Cottenham insulated via the Eastern CRI Scheme.

The Sustainable Cottenham Group, has partnered with Cambridge Carbon Footprint who are guiding us in doing home surveys intended to help us find poor insulation, drafts, and other problems in our homes. Consisting of volunteers and some steerage from our councilors I would urge those interested to engage with the group via a councilor or group member. Not only are Cambridge Carbon Footprint arranging learning sessions which take homeowners through the technology, attitude change and available help sources, but they have also made a special thermal surveying camera available to Sustainable Cottenham and other groups. With these tools we can visit your home on request, and help you get started keeping your home warmer, bills down, and eventually greener too. A visit typically takes an hour, and we can help you find the exact cause of the cold air leaks you suspect are there but cannot find. We will show you ways to heat your home more efficiently without spending any money to start with.

my letter slot is letting in the cold

At the moment, thermal insulation surveys done can be particularly effective because cold air leaking into your home is so much colder and easier to detect, so you may want to hurry. A winter survey must be done in the cold of the evenings, with the house being heated at the time. The walk-through starts downstairs, moves upstairs, and then to the outside. Although recently built homes are well insulated, typical problems found are:

• a gap under the front door?
• gaps where door insulation has come away?
• radiators hidden behind large furniture?
• insulation disturbed by recent wiring or plumbing?
  

Get a check list tailored to what is going on in your home, and formulate your own family energy sustainability plan. Then move on to the structural changes and have Eastern CRI quote you on cavity wall and ceiling insulation.

The Sustainable Cottenham group plans to re-show the Age of Stupid DVD and to arrange a visit to the Donarbon recycling center. Energy monitors are available on loan for the power wizards amongst us; please contact Cllr Kelso for further information.

Sustainable Cottenham Group

Probably the easiest way to reduce your carbon footprint is to take steps to reduce permanently, without affecting your lifestyle. People will always reject long term sacrifice, a major reason why all diets start in January and fail in February, so better insulation and appliance use in your home (about a third of your footprint) can reduce impact long term. The Cottenham group are encouraging villagers to take up an offer to insulate your home based on a standardized quote and work order. This has been set up in conjunction with local councils to simplify getting insulation installed and reduce the cost to homeowners.

For anyone using this scheme, a referral portion is given back to the Parish Council through the Sustainable Cottenham Group.

See also -Community escapes big British Freeze and Thermal Imaging for Insulation.

Thermal Imaging for Insulation

Our village has been awarded some funding recently by peoples ITV millions program for our community center. It meant we had to get together and vote for our village via phone over a single day. The number of telephone votes proved, that the village has a lot going for it, and a lot of spirit. Hopefully the Sustainable Cottenham project will see similar support. The part of the program that interests me is energy saving, in all it's forms.

The interesting bit for me at the moment is thermal insulation surveying, and a cool tool called a Thermal Imaging Camera - sometimes used in firefighting, electrical fault detection, and in building inspection.

The picture  left is the kind of thing the camera does. There are a number of conditions that need to be right for the survey to be effective, and even tools that can assist in amplifying the leak detection opportunities.
Aspects like:

• Rain
• wind
• Sunshine
• Heating not actually running

All mess with the survey, meaning it has to be

• Cold at night, or
• Overcast

I can only imagine, this survey - although lots of it is done indoors too will be a lot of hard difficult work. The survey is being assisted by the loan of the device from 'Carbon Footprint'.

Links:

• Transition Cambridge website 
• Thermal images from homes in Cambridge
• Cambridge Carbon Footprint
  

There is no 'away'

Next time you throw something out, try to work out where it goes. It's actually not possible to throw things away, because away is actually somewhere else in the end.
BBC News: Food waste on 'staggering' scale

It's out of mind, but only for you - the planet still has to live with it. So how are we supposed to live in the age of away? It's not easy to pollute less; I had to drive 50 miles to work for 6 months (the alternative was 1.5 hours one way and 2 hours back) and now I drive only 5 miles Travelling 500 miles a week is no healthy, so being closer to the office is welcomed, but now I live closeby, I still cannot go by bus (alternative to driving 15 mins, is about 50 minutes on 2 buses) just to cover 5 miles direct. It is increasingly difficult to access effective bulk-transport, especially if all buses are one size: huge and half-empty half-of-the-time. Do the world a favour, go somewhere by bus tomorrow, it's really not a problem most of the time; and you will probably enjoy the view from the upper deck too.

Finally, those photies, we did not take any (lesson, it takes 3 adults to run a party for 16), but I will post a few recent ones anyway.