News

Community Group Members Gather to Tackle Climate Change

Thu, 11 November 2010

More than 75 people will gather this weekend to share ideas and experience of communities tackling climate change.
 
Marches Energy Agency is assisting the Nottinghamshire Climate Change Partnership to organise the Living For Tomorrow conference, a free event which will see climate change community group members from the city and county come together with organisations who can support them.
 
Workshop will cover a range of topics from how to set up a community-owned renewable or a community run allotment to how to help your town or village go plastic bag free. Many of the workshops will be provided by community group members themselves.
 
Keynote Speakers will come from community groups further afield. Mike Kinghan is a part of Whittington and Fisherwick Environmental Group which has helped 15 people to install solar thermal panels on their homes and 80 to install insulation. Helena Cooke and Nick Green of Incredible Edible Todmorden have helped created community vegetable patches and have even turned public flower beds into edible plant growing havens!
 
Caroline Harmon of Marches Energy Agency said:
 
‘We’re really excited to be able to help climate change community groups in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to pool their skills and experiences. So many groups in the area are doing so much to tackle climate change – we’re expecting it to be a really inspiring day.’

Latest Speaker at Nottingham's Corner Encourages Energy Saving

Tue, 9 November 2010
The latest person to take on the crowds at Speaker's Corner in Nottingham has encouraged people to save money and help tackle climate change.
 
Kris McGowan of Marches Energy Agency was in Nottingham on Saturday 6th November to demonstrate how the cumulative energy savings made by fitting a low energy lightbulb costing just £1 could eventually lead to being able to pay for a solar panel which could generate an income of more than £35,000! Intermediate steps included fitting insulation and a new boiler.
 
The speech was accompanied by the Fantastic Home trailer which gave away energy saving devices such as TV Powerdowns and Showersaves to more than 500 passerbys and also offered advice on a range of energy efficiency issues. Nottingham Warm Zone were also on hand to offer subsidised insulation for £49. Representatives from Nottingham City Council also conducted a questionnaire about people’s attitude to climate change which will help inform their production of a city wide climate change strategy.
 
Kris said: 'Thank you to the organisers of Speaker’s Corner for making us so welcome and also to the Nottingham City Council representatives for their support and assistance on the day.'

 

 
Visitors:                                                               540 (approx)
Bulbs distributed:                                                  270
PowerDown Units distributed:                                104
Sava Flush distributed:                                         110
Shower Timers distributed:                                     90
Self Audits:                                                           60
Shower Savers distributed:                                     23
Solar Referrals:                                                       1
 
CO2 saved (lifetime):                                             111,143kg
Retained economic benefit (lifetime):                      £60,826
Water saved (lifetime):                                          3,227,850 litres

Fantastic Home Visits Clays Cross

Tue, 2 November 2010
50 people visited the Indoor Fantastic Home at an event organised by Housing Association Rykneld Homes In October 2010.
 
We were occupied talking to people for most of the event. As well as offering advice and energy saving devices to tenants we also spoke to all the other stall holders and staff from Rykneld Homes and were able to give them advice and giveaways too. Towards the end of the event we also had a few visitors from the council offices directly opposite who had heard there were freebies being given out!
 
The new giveaways were really well received – especially the TV and computer powerdowns. The only objection to them seems to be that people have their equipment plugged into powersurge protectors; we were able to point out that the powerdowns include surge protection.
 
One person approaching the stall admitted that he leaves his home computer on 24 hours a day because he doesn’t like to wait for it to boot up when he comes to turn it on. We pointed out that it only takes a few minutes to boot up a computer compared to the many hours it is on without being used. He came back later in the day to ask for a for a computer powerdown and promised to give it a go!
 
A number of Rykneld staff tried out the Energy Bike. We also spoke with two members of their staff about domestic renewables and gave them factsheets on various kind of reneweable, FITs and RHI.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visitors:          50
 
Items given away:
  • TV Powerdowns: 40
  • Computer Powerdowns: 28
  • Save-a-Flush: 34
  • Showertimers: 16
  • Showersaves: 1
  • Lighbulbs: 22
 These items were given to a total of 49 people. One further person didn’t take any items.
 
Retained Economic Benefit (lifetime): £16,092.04
Co2 Savings (lifetime): 10,459.48kg
Water savings (lifetime): 441,120litres

 

 

Alfreton Residents Get Help With Energy Efficiency

Tue, 2 November 2010
More than 300 people recevied energy efficiency advice and freebies at an event in Alfreton recently. 
 
Friday 29th October was overcast and gloomy but that did not stop people flocking to the Fantastic Home exhibition trailer in the centre of Alfreton. After a tentative start we were soon rushed off our feet and two hours passed in the blink of an eye. Jo and Heidi from Amber Valley joined Kris and volunteer Simon for the day. We were able to gain the interest and support of local shop keepers who in turn sent their customers our way (and coffee and sausage baps!)
 
Amber Valley is currently running a highly subsidised cavity wall and loft insulation scheme for the residents of Alfreton. The presence of the Fantastic Home was a useful focus point to help promote the scheme and ten people seem highly likely to take advantage of the scheme.
 
After the early rush we were able to spend longer with people and answer some more complex energy questions. People also got braver with the carbon countdown game (despite the dice being blown away by the high winds!) and the energy bike. We even had an ‘old rock and roll fan’, a lady of some 74 years up to the challenge of powering six low energy light bulbs.
 
Our new volunteer, Simon from Cirencester got stuck in straight away and was a big hit with visitors to Fantastic Home. Without his assistance and that of both Heidi and Jo from Amber Valley we would have struggled with the waves and waves of visitors in the morning. We look forward to the next two events in Amber Valley on the 5th and 19th November.
 
Visitors:                                                        340 (approx)
Bulbs distributed:                                           72
PowerDown Units distributed:                          253
Sava Flush distributed:                                   107
Shower Timers distributed:                              112
Tap Inserts distributed:                                     51
Shower Savers distributed:                                52
Insulation Referrals (minimum):                         10
 
CO2 saved (lifetime):                                    259,942.98kg
Retained economic benefit (lifetime):             £143,599.13
Water saved (lifetime):                                 7,482,720 litres

Staff at Newark and Sherwood Get Pedalling!

Tue, 28 September 2010

Staff at Newark and Sherwood District Council were given the opportunity to power lightbulbs with leg power at a health event on 22nd September.
 
Marches Energy Agency's Energy Bike sat alongside a Wii Fit, a stall serving healthy fruit smoothies, a stall where people could get their blood pressure checked and a Carbon Footprinting stall. The bike provided the opportunity to combine learning about saving energy with doing some exercise.
 
Attendees also received a range of energy saving freebies including TV Powerdowns, low energy lightbulbs, showersaves, shower timers, save-a-flush bags and tap inserts.  These items will collective save people more than £50,000 on their energy bills over their lifetime's use, more than 65,000 tonnes of carbon and more than 4 million litres of water!