Wiltshire Climate Alliance is committed to helping the residents of Wiltshire and Swindon to cut costs and save energy through advice, initiatives and getting support. Between 9 and 17 of March there will be a ‘Green Open Homes’ week for Swindon and Wiltshire, where Wiltshire Climate Alliance has joined in partnership with both Wiltshire and Swindon Local Authorities to create the Swindon and Wiltshire Green Open Homes event.
The aim is to enable more people to discover cost savings and enjoy warmer homes from making home improvements such as better insulation and heating fuelled by green energy. How? The easiest and most effective way is for anyone interested in cutting costs and making their house warmer and less energy-demanding to see how others have managed to achieve some benefit.
More than twenty homes have enlisted and there may well be more. Anyone interested can come and talk to those who have already made changes and started to see the benefits. Not ‘selling’ but learning from the experience of others. As Christian Lange of Wiltshire Climate Alliance pointed out – “You can learn about all the benefits and pitfalls to avoid and be provided with details of recommended suppliers without any sales pressure.”
An example – Kate S., a Pewsey resident, took part in a smaller Green Open Homes event last year and welcomed many visitors to her 1965 home which she renovated with double glazing, internal insulation and mechanical ventilation & heat recovery. With just these measures her comparative energy use on the coldest days, when the outside temperature is below 0ºC, more than halved from an average of 55 kiloWatt hours (kW-h) per day to 25 kW-h per day. By adding solar panels and two batteries she saved approximately £1000 in 2023, a return on investment of 6.2% per annum, tax-free. In the summer she will sell her spare electricity to the grid, making the investment even more worthwhile. Kate’s home will be one of those open for people to see during the week in March.
The partner organisations – Wiltshire Council and Swindon Council are keen to support this initiative. Cllr. Jane Milner-Barry, Chair of Swindon Borough Council’s Achieving Net Zero Committee commented: “Many residents are really keen to improve the energy efficiency of their homes but do not know what are the most important measures to take or what to do first. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk to people who have already embarked on this journey and want to share their findings. I will certainly be visiting some of these homes myself!”
Cllr Nick Holder, Wiltshire’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from local residents about the changes they’ve made to their properties to make them more climate-friendly and save money on energy bills.” Whilst adding: “We hope events like these will help residents to make their homes more climate-friendly and we’re really keen to help people on this journey.”
However, whilst Wiltshire Council may be ‘talking the talk’ experience has shown, particularly with older properties that they are less willing to ‘walk the walk’. We’ve reported their reluctance to help listed properties make improvements – whilst asking for large upfront non-refundable sums, even to just get advice…. (see: ‘Wiltshire Council – promoting energy efficiency – but for all‘). Whilst it makes every sense to ensure that all new – or not-too-old – properties are as energy efficient as possible, the most difficult, and energy wasteful tend to be the older properties, particularly those ‘Listed’, and these are those that are right at the top of the priority list for energy saving improvement. But, as ever with Wiltshire not one consistent message comes out and for these older properties it’s ‘Conservation’ that has the last say, and their last word – in the experience of many owners – is frequently ‘No’.
But who knows? With a bit of public pressure, Wiltshire Council might realise that left and right hands should be working together, that what they say should be what they do and to the benefit of their customers, i.e. us.
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