Time to Change offers the owner of the UK's oldest working fridge a top of the range energy efficient model. Enter our competition and if you're harbouring the country's most ancient guzzler we will trade it for a brand new appliance.
The winner will be one of the 15.4 million UK households whose old appliances are needlessly wasting energy. Their prize fridge will save them, at the very least, £40 a year on energy bills and cut CO2 emissions by over 200 kg. In fact, replacing a very old fridge with an ultra efficient model can save a staggering 80% energy and £137 on electricity bills!
Time to Change is AMDEA's (Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances) campaign to encourage the replacement of old appliances with new generation, green models.
In 2008, SWEA became a partner in a European initiative called the Energy Neighbourhood project. The aim of this project was to inspire and encourage communities to achieve energy savings and reduce their household energy consumption through changes in behaviour alone.
Then in March 2010 our European Energy Neighbourhood Project received the winning prize for the European Commissions' ManagEnergy Local Energy Action Award for being the best Local Energy Initiative. There were 58 case studies submitted to ManagEnergy in 2010 for assessment and as the winning initiative, the Energy Neighbourhood project will be used by the European Commission as a reference for European local authorities as an example of Best Practice.
The EEPH has now published the findings of a piece of research carried out by The Association for the Conservation of Energy into the delivery of energy efficiency improvements into hard to treat homes.
The report outlines a detailed raft of recommendations arising from the research which centre around the need to mainstream the more expensive measures that are used to treat hard to treat homes.
The report also reveals the need to place more emphasis on insulation measures and urgently address the current situation in which the fuel poor living in hard to treat homes are paying for energy efficiency schemes but are not benefiting from the most appropriate improvements to their homes.
The selected case studies of national relevance include SWEA's pioneering work with Stroud District Council, which has in turn led to selection as one of just 5 pilots of the government's Pay as You Save programme.
After months of planning and fund-raising, Severn Wye Energy Agency's 5.9 kW solar photovoltaic array was finally commissioned on a cold, damp February afternoon. Even under these conditions, it immediately began generating around 400W of clean, green electricity - enough to run several office computers. Located on the front roofs of our leased premises, we expect the system to generate over 5,000 kWh of clean, green electricity each year. Much of this will directly offset the electricity we consume to run our offices, with the rest being exported to the local grid.
Our solar PV project was made possible thanks to funding from the ScottishPower Green Energy Trust and the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. We will be holding a launch event later during Spring 2010, so please keep an eye out for more details on this site. In the meantime, do visit our output monitoring page.
A discussion paper on the future needs and priorities of energy advice in the UK, written in October 2009, has now been published.
Severn Wye Energy Agency, working with Stroud District Council, has been named as one of only five national partners for the Pay As You Save pilot scheme. This will explore new ways to finance 'whole house' energy makeovers, and has been awarded £4m funding from DECC.
For full details, see the DECC press release.
SWEA in the News - Mid Wales' fuel poverty fighters (Nov 2009)
Huntley wood chip fuel store opens (Aug 2007)
Launch of Gloucestershire Afforable Warmth strategy (June 2007)
SWEA launch Welsh office (June 2007)
40% House Feasibility report for Stroud District Council (October 2007)
Energy advice across Europe - Full report (October 2007)
Energy advice across Europe report summary (October 2007)