From Community Energy Group Halesworth, Chris Hart
This project came out of the What’s Next session of the Climate Conference in Halesworth in the autumn organised by the Town Council and Blythe churches. Thank you to Claire at Suffolk Climate Change Partnership for loaning us a thermal imaging camera.
We used the monthly Repair Café to introduce and promote the surveys of homes in the community using thermal imaging. From this we had ten requests. Each survey took about an hour and in each case gave rise to useful conversations about saving energy in heating our homes.
To summarise the results.
- Every home threw up a mystery or unexpected result lying beneath the surface.
- Every home had a leaky front door, except one, which had an inexpensive but robust brush draught sealer along its lower edge.
- We have learned a lot about the capabilities of thermal imaging cameras, and the limitations in interpreting the results.
- The camera often confirmed where people had suspected leaks, and they were impressed with the evidence
Most of our surveys have been with basically well insulated homes.
Only one declared an interest in fitting an air source heat pump.
We have not managed to engage with the energy impoverished. We are working on that. Draughtbusters, is a successful approach, and could involve the local Men’s Shed. https://readinguk.org/draughtbusters/about/
In the New Year we will advertise a public meeting to discuss the results of this steering group and hopefully take forward the project to make our homes more energy efficient.
Co-op Community room at 10am on Saturday 27th January.
We have booked a repeat loan of the thermal imaging camera from 19th March 2024 to 8th April 2024 (collection from Peasenhall)