Energy supplier British gas has come with an energy efficiency initiative that is designed to help some of the country’s 50,000 most hard-pressed households cut their bills.

And the energy efficiency initiatives come in the form of assessments and schemes (such as loft insulation) which could cut the average bill by around £250 a year. Some £10 million has been allocated to the scheme.

And British Gas reckon that as well as making savings in terms of their bills, households will also be helping the environment, saving an estimated 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

The boss of British Gas, Phil Bentley, said:
“Improving energy efficiency in our homes is the quickest way to cut our bills and lower carbon emissions. And this initiative will particularly help our most vulnerable and hard-pressed families.

“By targeting free energy assessments and other measures at those who need it most, we can make a real difference to the quality of their lives and do our bit for the planet at the same time.”

Working alongside British Gas will be a number of charities including the Money Advice Trust and Scope, the RNIB and the National Energy Action. Local MPs will also be on hand to provide advice and ensure that the energy initiatives are properly targeted.

Those eligible for the scheme include British Gas customers who are aged over 70, or those who are receiving income, or disability benefits.

Coming within the scheme’s remit is a major energy efficiency survey of the household. This will include an insulation survey, as well as a printed and personalised energy assessment (which comes complete with behavioural pattern assessments). Free products will range from standby savers, to energy monitors and insulation products.

This energy efficiency announcement from British Gas is one of a number of initiatives including £15 million of solar panels for up to 750 schools.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The Labour Government has been reported to be considering a scheme by which a homeowner could fund eco-improvements through a long term loan, possibly provided through the energy companies.

And although an inevitable row has broken out between the political parties as to whose idea it is – both the Tories and Liberal Democrats claim they had the idea first – it is a genuine attempt to help people afford home improvements with the environment in mind. We have already seen the boiler scrappage scheme has been welcomed with open arms as lots of people have jumped on the chance to buy a new gas boiler at a discount. So if it goes through it will hopefully have a positive affect.

It has always been a dilemma for anyone contemplating making changes to their house and more energy efficient, is that the pay-back can be decades.

Take double-glazing which undoubtedly makes a property warmer. Although it will save hundreds of pounds off an average energy bill every year, that won’t cover for a long time the actual cost if installation which will cost thousands of pounds.

Even the simpler job of installing loft insulation is not that cheap, especially if a householder cannot do it as a DIY project.

So the Government plan is simple: provide people with access to long term funding so they can make their home more energy efficient.

The crux is of course, can the Government afford such schemes, especially as over the coming years the public purse is going to have to be considerably tightened and home grants will be hit hard? If you look at the welcomed boiler scrappage scheme, this has proved very popular, but the scheme itself has a limited shelf life, grants for new gas boilers cannot last forever. What’s more, various consumer groups are already complaining that a number of home improvement grant schemes are being withdrawn, or wound-down. Will this result in many of the government boiler grants being forgotten by the power companies as well?

So, it’s perhaps inevitable the Government will want to involve the energy companies in the scheme. Maybe not to wholly bank roll-it, but to act as a clearing house, although you could see the temptation of ministers asking the big energy companies to put their hands in their pockets for people’s house improvements; almost a corporate tax by proxy.

But the cynics might also point out this is the period before the general election, when the Government and opposition parties alike will promise many things which are then conveniently forgotten when they become leaders.

So, it’s a great idea, but don’t hold your breath!

Guest Article by Neil Camp

When it comes to insulating your house for the coming winter, don’t ignore sheep’s wool.

If we know anything about sheep, it is that they don’t freeze to death in fields during the winter, so suppliers who recommend such materials for keeping houses warm, might be on to a good thing.

Sheep wool is now being used extensively to make rolls of loft insulation material. And experts reckon it is up to 20% more efficient, meaning that you only need a depth of 225mm of sheep’s wool insulation, as opposed to 270mm of normal (fibreglass) insulation.

Now this depth figure is important, because it is the government’s minimum recommended thickness needed to keep the heat inside the house and not heating the street outside. And this figure is not arrived at in an arbitrary fashion. It’s derived at by estimating the amount of fibreglass (depth) needed to arrive at the standard of current loft insulation of 0.16W/m2K. This might sound like a tricky mathematical formula, but it refers to watts per square metre per degree Kelvin. This is referred to as the U-value and the lower the U-value, the better the insulating effect.

The trouble is of course, and this is a fact that many DIY insulators find to their cost, is that most attic roof joists are 100mm deep, which means that the insulation is way thicker than the joists. And if you want your attic boarded over to create a usable floor, then you cannot just compress the fibreglass as it’s insulating properties will be cancelled out. So, people who want to board over are usually faced with the decision of having to add to the current joists with new pieces of timber up to the required depth.

Adding new timbers in even a comparatively small loft space can be an expensive and time consuming job, which will dramatically increase the cost of insulation.

The base cost of laying down fibreglass is around £5 per square metre. If you choose say mineral wool fibre, which is said to not irritate the skin so much as fibreglass when laying, you still need a depth of 270mm, but it will set you back nearer £8 per square metre. You can get various types of non irritant fibreglass and lesser thicknesses, all achieving the desired U-value of 0.16, but some of these will cost between £10 and £25 per square metre.

And sheep’s wool? That will cost you £20 per square and say the salesmen, this will last the lifetime of the house and will not degrade like synthetic and mineral fibres, which will eventually collapse and lose their insulation properties.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The government scheme that is meant to guard consumers against fuel poverty has upped the level of money now available.

Grants of up to £2,700 have been available to households who opt for energy efficient initiatives such as the fitting of a new boiler, loft and wall insulation, and double glazing. That figure has now increased to £3,500 and for those households that are not on the national grid and have to rely on oil, or LPG, they can now apply for a grant up to £6,000. Also, grants for new carbon friendly technologies, such as air source heat pumps and thermal heating, will now be available.

But critics point out that the grants are not usually 100% and top-up fees are often payable by the householder. Furthermore, many people on the receiving end of work carried out say that much of it is below standard and over priced. Some 22,000 people who originally applied for a grant over the last three years have either pulled out of the scheme, or put their applications on hold, fearing that they would not be able to afford the top-up contributions.

The government has ear-marked a total of £959 million for the Warm Front scheme until April 2011, although there are many who see this as promised and not secure funding.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Britain’s most eco-friendly neighbours live in Green Lane, Cookridge, Leeds, just in case you were wondering.

In an experiment masterminded by British Gas, the Leeds residents won a competition which saw eight families on eight different streets throughout the U.K. try to cut their energy consumption by 25%. And the prize, some £30,000 for the street to spend on energy saving light bulbs, solar panels, loft insulation and energy conscious kettles.

The project highlighted some families which achieved a whopping energy saving of over 50%, and many coming in with a still impressive 30%.

One family in Green Lane achieved a dramatic 45% reduction, saving what they believe was £700 off their annual energy bill. They were helped in their quest with a smart meter that allowed them to monitor real-time their consumption. They told reporters how shocked they were whenever they boiled a kettle, or used an iron. The amount of electricity they used was incredible they said and encouraged them to only boil the amount of water they needed, and to use the iron less. They also gave up on their electric mower and used a manual one.

By running the competition, British Gas were keen to highlight the fact that households account for a quarter of the total U.K. emissions. Furthermore, that for every £3 spent on heating a U.K. house, on average £1 is lost due to poor insulation.

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), an independent think tank, monitored the experiment and will make a report to the Government. It’s been pointed out that if all British households took the same measures as the families in the competition, the country could easily beat the target to cut U.K. emissions of carbon dioxide. In fact, it would save 35 million tons of emissions, which is equivalent to what three coal-fired power stations produce every year.

Guest Article by Neil Camp