Latest News and events

Next forum - 27th June - Insulating solid walls

Save this date for our next forum which will be on ways to insulate homes with solid walls - a big problem for many of us. Now is a good time to be considering it because there is financial help available for all through the Green Deal and the ECO grant scheme. We will have industry experts on external and internal insulation for you to quiz, plus some of our friends who have done it to tell you about the experience.

Wood Burning Stoves - 24th January 2013

Our second Wood Stoves forum was almost as popular as the first - with panel including David Ousby from Cambridge Wood Works and sweep Lawson Wright. More information here

Managing your home heating

The last event in our home energy series was about Managing your Home Heating on Thursday 6th September. We had questions about stuck radiator valves, how you balance a multi-zone system, the reputed underperformance of heating controls, how long condensing boilers last, what are smart controls and how much benefit you get, whether you should fiddle with your boiler settings or not ... We will try to capture some of the answers in our heating FAQ. Also if you missed getting a handout, you can still download one here.

Interactive house heat loss model

Nicola has put together a web page to show you roughly where you are losing most heat from your house. Try it on your house! It is based on the simple house heating model in her book.

Energy Quiz

For the Grafton Centre event we put together a little energy quiz, using cards. It was good to get people talking about their energy use and how little/much they know and where savings can be made. You can download it here.

Electricity monitors

Did you know that you can borrow a real-time electricity monitor for 2 weeks from the Cambridge Central library? - details here. The energy group also has a clip-on monitor which measures your household electricity usage and a plug-in meter for individual appliances. If you would like to borrow this contact Nicola.

PV Best Buy

If you are interested in installing solar PV in the near future would you be interested in liaising with us? We are compiling information on costs from different vendors, so that we can offer advice on who are the best local suppliers. If you are interested please contact Brian

Also, if you have had a system installed recently would you mind letting Brian know (privately) how much you paid for it?

Help Wanted

Please email us if you would like to help or contribute your ideas, whether or not you can come to meetings.

At the moment we are particularly looking for assistance with:

• Manning stalls and helping out at
  • Open Eco Homes launch Friday 7th June 7-10pm
  • Solid Walls insulation - our next forum on Thursday 27th June
  • Big Weekend Sunday 7th July (12-8pm)
• Publicity for the Solid Walls insulation forum
  • Could you put up a poster or distribute leaflets? or do you know any good places for posters/leaflets?
  • Could you submit a piece about it into a local magazine?
• Business admin/advice - we would like to start a limited company or co-op to run communuty energy projects. We have one person in the group with experience running their own company but he is too busy to do admin for another one. If you are business savvy and have a little time, or if you would like to give us advice, please get in touch.
• Authoring FAQ pages and fact sheets, both writing the answers and writing the questions so you don't have to be an expert to help. Some ideas for more: lighting, heritage buildings ...