Transition Montpelier » homes

BRISTOL GREEN DOORS 11th and 12th SEPTEMBER

danw — Fri, 21 May 2010 05:01:45 +0000

If you have ever wondered how you can use less energy in your home now you have the opportunity to ask people who know. Bristol Green Doors is a weekend event of open homes showcasing a range of no-cost to high-cost measures that can reduce domestic energy consumption and promote low-carbon living.

A broad range of homes will be showcased in over a dozen neighbourhoods such as Montpelier, Easton, Redland and Fishponds where visitors will be able to see and discuss the changes, refurbishments and renewable installations with the householders and learn from their experiences. These homes will be clustered around hubs such community centres or libraries with publicity, displays, energy advice and workshops.

Homes to be featured include some of the homes on the Refit West scheme, super green refurbished student accomodation, a Montpelier house with hemp and lime walls, housing association flats in Redland and state of the art new builds. There will be something for everyone.

Huge support is gathering for the event which came about partly due to a meeting set up by Transition Montpelier at the Fairfield Resource Centre in February. A significant collection of partners have now come together to make the event happening including the City Council, the EnergySaving Trust and Transition Bristol.

Bristol Green Doors is set to become a major feature of the city’s calendar. There is a website www.bristolgreendoors.org which has lots of information including a page for householders who may be interested in taking part. COULD THIS BE YOU AND YOUR HOME? Please take a look and pass the information on to anyone who you think may be interested.

For more on Transtion Montpelier Energy Group click here

Energy and the older home

Shiona — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:29:04 +0000

If you live in an old house in the Montpelier Conservation Area and are thinking about how to keep warm this coming winter, here’s some food for thought. All comments very welcome!

HOME ENERGY AUDITING TRAINING

danw — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:08:41 +0000

On Monday 22nd March, 25 people from various Transition Bristol neighbourhood groups (including 5 from Montpelier) attended a Home Energy Auditing Training run by the Energy Savings Trust’s Green Communities team at the CREATE centre. The aim of the training was to develop teams of known, friendly and approachable people who can support and advise people on domestic energy efficiency within their neighbourhoods.

27% of the UK’s CO2 emissions are from our homes. This needs to be reduced significantly.

We had an excellent day and our enthusiasm and passion was commented on by our trainer Bev. Comments from some of the delegates include: “Thanks for the great event on monday”, ” I really enjoyed the part of the course I attended on Monday-thanks for organising it”, Monday was an excellent day, Thank you”.

The training course content was put together by people from Transition Montpelier’s energy group (TMEG) and the Easton Energy Group and is strongly informed by the success of the Household Energy Service in Shropshire who have just been awarded a significant grant to furthur the excellent work they are doing with communities in their county. We are hopeful that this training, combined with some significant other work going on in Bristol, can hasten the way forward to our city becoming more energy efficient, secure and sustainable.

Futher information:

Cavity Walls

Programming Central Heating

The follow up document from the training here features links to many other useful sites.

Change to Good Energy and Transition Montpelier receives £25

danw — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:07:39 +0000

By changing to a 100% renewable electricity supplier you can immediately reduce your carbon emissions and secure a financial contribution to the group. We have linked with Good Energy (see below), who will give Transition Montpelier £25 if you sign up through the weblink below (click on the picture) or quoting the affiliate code GE414 if you switch by phone 0845 465 1640.

26% of CO2 emmissions come from domestic buildings with half of this simply leaking out through lofts and walls. It would be great to build a team of people who can support others to make their homes less wasteful. Take a look at the Community Energy Efficiency Programme post for more information.

Training for Home Energy Auditing

danw — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:28:27 +0000

The Energy Saving Trust’s Green Communities team will be providing Training for Home Energyu Auditing to Transition Groups in Bristol at The CREATE Centre March 22nd. Click on the link here for details training. For more info contact Dan at danweisselberg@yahoo.co.uk

A Montpelier Community Energy Efficiency Programme

danw — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:49:23 +0000

Residential buildings account for 26% of UK CO2 emissions and 50% heat loss in a typical home is through walls and loft. By improving our homes, we can all contribute to Montpelier becoming a less carbon-hungry neighbourhood.

Community groups have a major role in improving domestic energy efficiency and with free training for local, approachable, known “energy champions”, can as research shows, genuinely make a difference.

Are you interested in being part of a group which can help householders in both rented and private sector throughout Montpelier access support, advice and grants to improve their domestic energy efficiency and in some cases move away from fuel poverty?

A Community Energy Efficiency Programme like this would be one of the things an energy group could start working on immediately and I am really keen to get it running. For me such a project embodies so much of what Transition is about in terms of a community working to improve its sustainability and, with the resources available, I am sure we can really do it well here.

Through my MSc I have discovered that similar projects accross the country have been the basis for really exciting community renewable projects and with the excellent support for us in Bristol from The Centre for Sustainable Energy to help us with training and to set this up I really feel we can make a significant step towards this. What’s more, I’m not the only one, as there was a really excellent response to this idea at the July meeting and I am keen to add to the list of interested people and get this going soon.

Last week I met with the Easton Energy group to discuss a joint training package and this could see both groups working on similar projects accross the city. This would be really good.

Below are a few pointers of how it could work

Meet as energy group and consider a programme for those renting and owning homes with emphasis on lower income streets
Set up training from CSE / Green Communities
Run the programme before winter kicks in
Visit neighbours and encourage take up of quick fixes and then give advice and support on medium term solutions such as insulation
Reduce fuel poverty
Lower energy use and CO2 emissions
Build community
More insulated, warmer homes throughout Montpelier

The energy group has the potential to be practical, dynamic and really make a difference to people. Does this interest you? If it does, please get in touch using the link below. You may also have other ideas on what an the group could be doing. Lets hear them! We can meet up soon and get it moving.

Take a look below if you want to know more and if you are thinking of changing your electricity supplier to Good Energy (100% renewable supplied) please wait a little while as we are just in the process of fixing up with their ‘affiliates scheme’ whereby if you sign up to them through a link on our website, we get a commission.

Many thanks

Dan Weisselberg