The Government has announced a £2bn investment in ‘Green Homes Grants’ to help private householders make their homes more thermally efficient and reduce bills.
The details of the scheme are still very unclear, and although it is due to start in September 2020, a launch date is still to be announced.
At Tamar Energy Community (TEC) we see a role in providing advice to householders, but do not forsee TEC being part of the delivery supply chain. We would advice any customers interested in this offer to register their interest with us here.
TEC will be working, together with other community energy groups across Devon, to better understand the scheme, application processes and related administration, and the accredited suppliers able to deliver the measures in your home.
As soon as TEC has enough information to provide further guidance we will be in touch and we will contact you to let you know when applications open.
These schemes can be complicated and we will not be able to provide one to one advice to every interested household across our area. In order to give you the information you need, we intend to organise one, or several, online meeting(s) to provide guidance in an accessible format.
Category: Energy Reduction
Tavistock & District Local Economic Blueprint
The Tavistock and District Local Economic Blueprint (LEB) was launched at the Tavistock Chamber Business Show on Friday, 6th November 2015.
Its aim was to provide a supported three year plan to help strengthen our local communities, stimulate jobs and enterprise and enable increasing proportions of our needs to be fulfilled through local supply chains.
The LEB covers local food, local energy generation and domestic retrofit.
The Blueprint looks at how far the £120m spent each year in and around Tavistock on food and energy benefits the local economy, and what opportunities there are for these sectors to deliver more for our future health, wellbeing, resilience and prosperity.
The Blueprint reports and other information can be found here on the Transition Tavistock website; or you can download the Energy report here.
We believe these reports and the information and recommended actions within them could provide valuable insight as we look to Build Back Better.
About the LEB area included
The report focuses on the Southern Link parishes around, and including, Tavistock, but our conclusions and recommendations have wider relevance across West Devon and beyond.
Population: 32,200 (PPSA estimates, West Devon 2012) Households: 13,481 (2011 Census Data)
Energy Clinics
Concerned about energy costs? Like to discuss your heating? Need advice on switching?
Give us a ring on 0800-233-5414 or complete our referral form here.
If you’d like us to arrange an Energy Clinic for your group, clients etc. please give us a ring or email us at hello@tamarenergycommunity.com.
LED Lighting
LED Lighting has many advantages over other forms of lighting in most circumstances.
It is very low energy and good quality LEDs should have a life time of 10 to 15 years.
In our Local Matters community space we sell a range of LEDs at a competitive price. If we don’t have want you want we can make enquiries to source them for you.
We’re open from 11:00 to 13:00 from Mon. to Sat. or you could call us to make an appointment on 0800-233-5414 or email hello@tamarenergycommunity.com.
Tamar Energy Fest 2018 – 24th November
Our 2018 Tamar Energy Fest was on Saturday, 24th November in Tavistock Town Hall. Thanks to all our exhibitors an visitors for helping make it a great event.
We talked about The Power in Your Hands to save energy, reduce bills, generate your own and help the planet, highlighting changes in the industry towards ‘smart’ … opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of homes, business and travel … as well as local generation and storage.
We showcased our progress with our OpenLV pilot including our work with St. Peter’s School and the Eco Club, our Energy Advice Service, our Bedford Cottages work and our Community Solar installations.
We were also delighted to be joined by Precious Plastic Tavistock, our local Community Growers and the local Eco Church community.
Our programme of talks ran through the day. You can download a programme here.
Our trusted exhibitors on the day included Mike Wye Natural Building Products, New Generation Energy, Utility Warehouse, ZLC Energy, and The Fell Partnership … more below …
Adding to the day’s fun and enjoyment were Red Squirrel Tree Care’s free woodland themed photo booth and our Energy Cafe with delicious locally sourced cakes … and warm and hot drinks … PLUS our Energy themed quiz for all the family.
Energy Fest Talks
The Talks were all held in the Rundle Room.
Our Exhibitors
We’d like to thank our Exhibitors for giving up their Saturday to be with us … including
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The Power in Your Hands – our OpenLV project
The Power in Your Hands is a local community energy initiative running in the Greenlands area of Tavistock for local householders and St. Peter’s School.
- Want to reduce your energy costs?
- Find out more about energy use locally?
- Where our local energy comes from?
- How bills could reduce in the future?
If YES, get in touch … Call 0800-233-5414, email hello@tamarenergycommunity.com or let us know your details via our Contact Form.
If you’d like to take part in our Householders Survey here’s a link to it online. It will take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete.
Find out more here.
Free Energy Advice and Support – Eligibility Criteria
Tamar Energy Community and our partners have some very broad eligibility requirements.
We want to be able to help as many people as we can by extending the service to anyone that either is already in, or is at risk of falling into fuel poverty.
It is open to all types of householders – homeowners, private renters and social housing tenants.
You only need to qualify on one of the points in any of the three categories (Income, Health or Vulnerability) below in order to be eligible for the scheme.
If you think you qualify you can call Tamar Energy Community on 0800-233-5414 to arrange a visit or complete our online form here.
Income Criteria
Anyone receiving one of the following:
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income Support
- Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit / Working Tax Credit
- Universal credit
- Child benefit
- Carer’s Allowance
- Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction
- A Disability Benefit (incl. Attendance Allowance, DLA, PIP)
- MoD administered benefits
- Annual income not more than that shown in the income matrix below:
| No. of children / young persons under 18 in household | Household | |
| One Adult | Two Adults | |
| 0 | £14,520 | £21,780 |
| 1 | £19,140 | £26,400 |
| 2 | £23,760 | £31,020 |
| 3 | £28,380 | £35,640 |
| 4 | £33,000 | £40,260 |
Health Criteria
Anyone with one of the following:
- Cardiovascular condition (incl. coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, transient ischemic attack)
- Respiratory condition (incl. COPD, asthma)
- Neurological or neurobiological condition (incl. dementia, Parkinson’s disease, MS, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, ME)
- Musculoskeletal conditions (incl. arthritis, limited mobility, recently attended hospital due to a fall)
- Blood conditions (incl. Sickle cell disease, thalassemia)
- Cancer
- Moderate to severe mental illness (incl. schizophrenia bipolar disorder and depression where receiving regular treatment)
- Severe learning disabilities
- Autoimmune or immunodeficiency diseases (e.g. lupus, diabetes, HIV)
- Terminally ill
- Other illness exacerbated by cold (confirmed by GP)
- In possession of a valid NHS Medical Exemption Certificate
Vulnerability Criteria
Anyone in one of the following situations:
- Victim of domestic violence
- Recent bereavement
- Moving in and out of homelessness
- Recent immigrant or asylum seeker
- Physical or sensory disability
The Power in Your Hands App
The Power in Your Hands project will be providing data on the energy use of households, and St. Peter’s School, which are in the Greenlands area of Tavistock, and connected to the Meavy Way low voltage (LV) substation.
We’re developing a computer based application, which you could also access on a tablet or smart phone.
This will provide information about energy use across the substation area at different times of the day.
Going forward, energy companies will be looking at introducing tariffs with different rates at different times of the day.
We’d like to give you an opportunity to work with us to understand how this could benefit you in the future.
Here’s an example of information we’ll be providing. It’s in the form of graphs and shows usage on October 4th.
The first one shows the power used across the Meavy Way LV substation by each of the three ‘feeders’ (each substation has a number of ‘feeds’ to the different properties. Meavy Way has three feeders).
The second one shows the total power used by everyone connected to the Meavy Way substation.
Tamar Energy Fest 2019
This year’s Tamar Energy Fest will be held on Saturday, 23rd November in Butcher’s Hall, Tavistock. We’ll be open from 10:00 to 15:00 and look forward to seeing you there.
If you’d like to exhibit at the event and haven’t received an invitation, or would like to get involved in some other ways, please drop us an email (hello@tamarenergycommunity.com)
This year’s Energy Fest is focusing on Powering Change – we invite you to drop-in and find out something that can make a difference to your bills and sustainability at home /work and for the planet. It’s also about localising energy and the power of local people and communities to take more control over their energy use.
We’ll be showcasing our progress with our innovative OpenLV pilot, our Warm & Well Energy Advice Service, Warmer Bedford Cottages and our Community Solar installations.
Do come and join us … it’ll be a fun and interesting day for exhibitors, visitors and volunteers alike.
Insulating your Hot Water Tank
It is essential to fit a hot water tank jacket to any hot water tank which isn’t insulated or where the insulation may be old or thin.
Care must be taken to enable air to get to the thermostat(s) and the cables, and make sure that they are not covered by the jacket.
You may also want to consider lagging the pipes to keep the heat in.
If you have a hot water tank in need of a jacket, get in touch with us. We are able to install these free of charge if you are eligible for a free home energy visit.
For more information here’s a fact sheet from Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol and information from the Energy Saving Trust.