Okehampton College achieves another 25% drop in gas across year

Okehampton College had already achieved impressive energy reductions when it received an Ashden Award in 2010. But the College's steps to reduce their energy consumption and CO2 did not stop there. Over the last year the College has reduced its gas consumption by 25%.

Keith Webber, Community Technology Coordinator at Okehampton, says:

"Our energy budget was set at £100,000 for the financial year - which is typically what we had previously been spending. But our net energy expenditure for this financial year will be around £55,500. This includes sports pitch floodlights and all electrical meters on site and takes into account the clean energy cash back of around £7,000 from feed-in tariffs. I believe there is still a further £10,000 of savings we can make."

Okehampton College's total energy consumption has gone down from 649,286 kWh in 2005 to 252,000 kWh in 2010. This represents a huge cost saving.

"If we were consuming at our 2005 rates, our bill would now be 2.5 times as much. We now have well-developed plans to use further renewable energy installations to realistically reach zero bills by this time next year. Importantly, this will also dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions as well."

Keith says there are strong financial incentives to continue looking for more energy savings:

"We currently are still only paying 9p a unit for electricity but can expect a sharp rise when the contract expires, this could increase by over 30% to maybe 12 or 13p a unit."

(Pic: Keith Webber, the Community Technology Coordinator at Okehampton College)

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Nine solutions that work to combat rising fuel prices

Three companies - British Gas, ScottishPower and Scottish & Southern – have announced price rises in recent weeks. At the same time, freezing weather and snow across Britain has boosted energy demand.

Jim Dale, senior risk meteorologist at British Weather Services told Bloomberg News that December may be the coldest in more than 30 years. “We are expecting a return to Arctic weather including blizzards and deep frosts from around Dec. 17.”

The Arctic weather has pushed up demand for both electricity and gas. Between 35-40% of the UK’s electricity is generated by burning gas, so the prices are linked. Since the price of gas has risen in recent days, it has also become more attractive for generators to switch to coal or oil, causing a rise in carbon emissions. (Carbon emission permits have also gone up in price.) The most expensive form of power generation is oil, so this too will have an impact on electricity prices.

The UK’s natural gas storage facilities are currently about 70% full, compared to 95% this time last year. If temperatures continue below average, we can expect to see prices go even higher, as we'll be forced to import more gas when storage runs low.

If that's not bad enough, today's Independent reports that energy prices may rise by 25% over 10 years.

The best option, of course, is to manage demand. The best way to do that is through energy efficiency and home insulation. The best people to follow are our Ashden Award winners. Here are nine inspirational approaches within the UK:

Kirklees Council, Huddersfield has rolled out free insulation to its residents.

Second Nature has developed and marketed effective roof-insulation material made from sheep's wool.

Northwards Housing, Manchester has converted housing stock into energy-efficient homes with no charge to tenants.

Leeds City Council has improved the energy efficiency of housing by over 21% since 1996.

Arun District Council, West Sussex has introduced energy efficiency throughout its operations.

Energy Agency, Ayrshire used a community fund to promote energy efficiency intensively in three local villages.

Cumbria Energy Efficiency Advice Centre provides an integrated service of advice, funding and installation for home insulation.

Community Energy Plus provides free energy efficiency advice and efficiency measures

Gloucestershire Warm and Well has linked seven local authorities with a range of organisations working on health and community support.

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Award-winning presents for Xmas: energy monitors

Do you know anyone who loves gadgets, likes to save money, and cares about the planet? If so, Juliet Heller knows the perfect present.

The OWL energy monitor, and similar gadgets like the Efergy, are really easy to use, but beware, they are quite addictive. I gave one to my partner a few years ago and he’s obsessed with it. He checks the temperature and electricity consumption several times a day. But I mustn’t complain. It’s cut our electricity bills by 25%.

Then I gave one to my nephew Max for his 16th birthday (really, he asked for one). Max likes gadgets and enjoys fixing electrical equipment. Now he’s Mr Energy Monitor around the house too, and is using the OWL for a school project that studies why rooms in the house are different temperatures.

Jo, our Head of Communications, says she's a compulsive OWL watcher at home.

“It’s been quite an education. I was amazed to see how electricity use surges when one of us switches on the kettle or the vacuum cleaner. And it’s great for checking if things are left on, which often happens with young children (and forgetful husbands)."

Jo encourages schools to get a monitor as the first step towards sustainability. The Ashden Awards runs a project called LESS CO2 (Low Energy Sustainable Schools) which motivates school leaders to reduce their energy consumption by working with some of our award-winning schools.

An energy monitor hasn't in itself won an Ashden Award, but OWL electricity monitors, for instance, allowed households on the Isle of Eigg to keep an eye on how much power they are using, and many schools who have won our awards, such as St Columb Minor School in Cornwall and Ringmer Community College in East Sussex, use energy monitors to track energy consumption and reduce electricity use. The teachers also use the data in maths and science lessons, which helps integrate climate change learning across the curriculum.

Another, more sophisticated tool, the Eco-Driver software programme is used by Ashley C of E Primary School in Walton on Thames to monitor the energy generated by their solar PV as well as their energy consumption. It helped reduce the school’s electricity use by 50 per cent in the first year.

The BBC News says the next generation of smart meters

“should cut electricity consumption by around 5%, so if all Brits used one the emissions savings would be roughly equivalent to taking 600,000 cars off the road.”

OWL monitors are available on Amazon for £25. It’s worth reading the reviews.

See also: Award-winning presents for Xmas: the cookstove

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UK faces double whammy of price rises and Arctic weather

The UK faces a double-whammy this month of price rises for gas and electricity (here here, and here) and the arrival of a blast of Arctic weather.

It's a good moment to check out our Ashden winners for home insulation (here and here) and remind ourselves of the achievements of Ashden school winners in making energy reductions.

See also Mike on saving £500 on his energy bills, Juliet on how to turn a small, cold, dark house into a Superhome and Simon on how the government's policy is shifting on fuel poverty.

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Mike set to save £500-£600 on gas and electricity

The story so far: three years ago Mike Pepler, our UK Awards Manager, and his wife Tracy, bought an eight-acre wood. This year they bought a house. Now they are heating the house with the logs from the wood.

Since this is the last day of Energy Saving Week we've asked Mike to update us on progress, now he's been in his new house a few weeks. It's going so well, he reckons this year he'll save more than £500 on gas and electricity bills.

Mike writes:

We’ve had our woodburner and solar thermal installation running for a month now, and the loft insulation has been complete for a few weeks as well, so how’s it going?

The good news is that the house certainly isn’t cold. After a bit of experimentation we’ve figured out how to set the stove to burn slowly overnight when it’s cold, and then in the morning there’s a few embers glowing so it can be quickly got back up to full heat if it’s needed.

We’ve found that as the house faces almost south, there’s a lot of solar gain on sunny days, reducing the need to light the woodburner, even on relatively cold days.

The solar thermal is working well, getting the tank up to 70C on sunny days, and pre-heating the water at the bottom of the tank to 30C even on somewhat cloudy days. Combined with the heat input from the stove, there’s been no shortage of hot water.

We’re pleased with the way the heat from the stove is circulating through the house, both by convection and using the radiators. Although the main thermosyphon (or gravity) loop is to the hot water cylinder and bathroom radiator, quite a bit of heat can also thermosyphon to the radiators, which are all controlled by thermostatic valves. This has meant that we haven’t needed to turn on the central heating pump.

Now that we’re only using gas for the hob on the cooker, daily usage has dropped to under 1kWh, which should lead to an annual bill of £25 at most.

When it comes to electricity, the main guzzlers in the house are the fridge and freezer, although both are A+ rated. We chose a “larder fridge” (i.e. no ice box), as this improves efficiency a lot, and our freezer is a slimline version that opens on the top, as this is much more efficient than having a door on the front, which lets the cold air spill out every time you open it. All our lighting is low-energy CFL bulbs, and our computers are energy-efficient laptops. Oh, and we don’t have a TV, though we do use the BBC iPlayer. The upshot of all this is that our electricity usage so far has been a bit over 3kWh a day, so annual usage will hopefully be between 1200 and 1500 kWh, resulting in an annual bill of around £200.

Overall, if our gas and electricity costs come in at a bit over £200, this will be significantly less than the average of perhaps £7-800 for a household like ours.

Of course, we still need to get the wood for our woodburner, and although we’re not buying that, we do have to work hard to get to it, but at least that’s something we enjoy. We’re currently cutting wood for use in two year’s time, after it’s properly seasoned. It’ll be great to see the trees we’re coppicing now growing back next year as well.

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In 2050 most common type of British home will be 100 years old

Ashden's Senior Advisor, Dr Anne Wheldon, attended two talks on buildings and energy efficiency, at the Royal Academy of Engineering, as part of the London Design Festival. Anne reports:

"It’s often mentioned that most existing buildings will still be around in 2050, but Peter Bonfield, CEO of the Building Research Establishment put this in a way that I had not heard before.

He said that in 2050 the most common type of home will be 100 years old (from the 1950s) and the second most common type will be 150 years old (late-Victorian).

So it's crucial that we develop really effective ways to improve the energy efficiency of these buildings, and that we get on with doing it now."

Northwards Housing, one of our 2010 UK Award winners, is putting this into practice and has already overhauled 12,500 local authority homes. Find out more about the work of all our UK winners.

pic: 1950s housing in Leacroft, Derbyshire

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10,000 jobs to be created by insulating homes

The Guardian reports:

A plan to create more than 10,000 jobs in the construction industry by insulating homes in the private and public sectors will be announced by Alistair Darling in today's pre-budget report.

The government will bring forward future capital spending in an attempt to reduce energy bills this winter and to employ some of those laid off during the worst downturn in the property market for two decades.

While the main thrust of the report will be emergency measures to prompt a pre-Christmas consumer spending spree, Darling will today emphasise that Labour remains committed to its goals for the environment. Some of the increased spending will be used to upgrade social housing to make it more fuel-efficient, and there will be a small boost to spending on flood protection schemes. Read the full story here

Several past Ashden award winners have worked with insulation, click here to see a list of them, including documentary videos and case studies.

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