Experts offer advice on cutting down energy bills

MORE than a dozen experts and organisations offered advice to homeowners at the Energy Show held at Henley town hall.

The stallholders included businesses specialising in supplying solar panels, heat pumps, dehumidifiers, insulation and other green or energy saving technologies.

The event was organised by Rebecca Chandler-Wilde, who chairs the town council’s climate and nature emergency advisory group.

She said she was pleased at the success of the event.

“We had a good flow of people through the door and a few of the suppliers have already made sales,” said Mrs Chandler-Wilde, a Henley Standard columnist.

“It was an inclusive show in the sense that not everyone can afford to put solar panels on their house so I was pleased that we got people like DraughtBusters.”

This is a voluntary organisation based in Reading that draught-proofs households to help people afford their energy bills.

Tony Cowling, a retired builder, started DraughtBusters 12 years ago in response to Reading Borough Council’s appeal for ideas to help people in energy poverty.

Now he has three teams of volunteers who visit households once or twice a week.

Mr Cowling said: “We get referrals from Citizens Advice or Reading council’s Winterwatch and from the Royal Berkshire Hospital. We also get referrals from debt centres, churches and GPs.

“Once they’ve been referred, we arrange to visit them in their home and suggest what we would like to do and then go in and do it.”

The volunteers identify issues such as draughty loft hatches and holes around the pipes or behind the kitchen sink.

Mr Cowling said: “No condensation or noticeably cold temperatures are good indications you’ve got a draught problem. Seeing daylight under a door or through the door is usually the best indication.

“Sometimes you can see black staining where a draught comes in because the dirt from the air gets deposited on the surface as it enters. If the householder is happy, we will fix the problem on the spot and within an hour we’re gone.

“Before we go, we can advise them on weather and managing a heating system, damp, mould and condensation if they’ve got that.”

Household energy bills can be reduced by up to hundreds of pounds once an issue is rectified.

Mr Cowling said: “At the height of the energy crisis I think it was about £300 a year that you would save on energy bills but now for a normal family it’s probably £200. That’s a lot of money.

“The materials that you use cost about £20 so it’s a great return and once you’ve done it, you’re good for five years, so spend £20 and save £1,000.”

Other stallholders included Oxon Energy, a Bix heat pump company. Sam Watson, the company’s sales administrator, said it had been installing heat pumps for 10 years and also offers air source, ground source and water source pumps.

She said that rapidly improving technology as well as a government grant scheme had meant more people were adopting the greener heating systems.

Ms Watson said: “They don’t use gas, so they’re a lot better for the environment and they’re safe because they don’t use toxic gases or anything like that. They’re also more efficient than gas boilers, which can be quite expensive to run.

“Most households can apply for a government grant of up to £8,000 that goes towards the installation of a heat pump to replace gas boilers under the boiler upgrade scheme.

“There are more installs each year and we’ve seen a massive jump year on year. We are so busy.”

Other stallholders included Better Housing Better Health, a nationwide helpline offering free advice to improve energy
efficiency.