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| BBC Spotlight film the Eco-Energisers |
Youngsters from Ashburton Primary School got involved in an Energy Audit on an Ashburton home, wielding a thermal imaging camera to seek out the building’s hot and cold spots.
Ella Laity
and Lloyd Bickham, both 10, are part of the primary’s Eco-Energisers group – exploring
ways to make the school and its operation more sustainable.
Said Lloyd:
“We make sure the school is energy efficient and we’re trying to make the whole
town like that and make sure that we are all energy efficient – to help save
the world.”
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| Camera on-camera: The Western Morning News photographer captures the Eco Energisers and the thermal imaging kit |
Raj Patel, of
Ashburton Futures – the Transition group for Ashburton that commissioned the
energy audits – said: “The Eco-Energisers have been real agents of change. They’ve
been really thinking about sustainable issues in the school and how they can
take that practice out into their homes and the community.”
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| Fraser and householder Chris |
The Year 6
children took part in an Energy Audit at the Beverly Gardens home of Chris
Elmes.
Chris’s
two-bedroom home was built in the 1970s and he’s lived there for 35 years. He
admitted that other than double glazing, he didn’t do much about energy saving.
But the
Energy Auditors Ruth Leonard-Williams and Fraser Durham, of consultancy Anahat
Energy, found that Chris could do a whole lot just by changing his ‘ancient’
boiler.
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| Chris Elmes watching his Energy Audit |
Said Ruth:
“His boiler is ancient and really inefficient. He needs to upgrade to a modern
condensing boiler that is 90% efficient, saving him 20-30% on gas bills.”
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| Ruth making energy-saving calculations |
Thanks to the
Energy Audit, Chris is now very keen to act. “I’m actively thinking about a new
boiler now, and remortgaging to get a combi boiler, and getting rid of the tank
and the immersion heater.
“I had been
thinking about it but today I’ve made a definite decision to change it. I’ve
made up my mind because the audit’s changed my thinking.”
The energy
audits have been arranged as part of an Ashburton Futures initiative called
MASHFFF – Making Ashburton-style Homes Fit For the Future.
At the
beginning of this year, Ashburton Futures qualified for £24,000 of Government
funding to find out the best ways to eco-improve a range of properties in
Ashburton whilst sharing the knowledge with the community as widely as
possible.
The energy
audit findings are being shared at a Results
Reception, to be held in Ashburton
Town Hall on March 30, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, plus a series of short films
of each audit has been made and is being published on YouTube.
