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Ian McDermott, Julian, Ann, Lucy, Colin Woolway, John Wallace, John Henderson, Lee, Adrian, James, Jacques, Eleanor, Paul, Glenys, John Swanson, Yvonna, Ian Chester, Robert and Colin Hines

Firstly, thanks so much for those people who attended last night in what was a really inspiring, thought provoking meeting that came up with a number of concrete ideas for what to do next to keep the street’s momentum on improving energy efficiency going. We will have a further meeting with the remaining households interested, but who couldn’t make last night, at 8pm on Friday 13th. That means that around 20 households just under a third of the street are already involved.

Park House Gardens is a road of 64 art deco, semi detached, houses in a cul de sac in East Twickenham. The street has a very good community atmosphere and before Covid a few of us discussed trying to improve the energy efficiency of the homes in the road as a contribution to dealing with the climate crisis. We even took some heat sensitive night photos to see how inefficient most of us were. Colin has now reintroduced the idea since even this street where, despite most residents being relatively comfortable financially, they are now concerned about energy bills as well as climate and so are keen to look at how they can improve their efficiency. Helpful as swapping information between us is in encouraging the introduction of low hanging fruit energy efficiency measures, through to whole house refurbishments will be for our street, Colin’s reason for initiating this pilot project is to use it as an example of what the political parties all should have at the centre of their manifestos in the next election. This is part of his work as Convenor of the Green New Deal Group https://www.greennewdealgroup.org/. At present nationally beyond the odd individual early adopter and some newbuilds, virtually all the funds and the projects that are being carried out on existing buildings are understandably for the fuel poor. However, this leaves the nearly two thirds of the UK’s 28 million homes who are owner occupiers virtually untouched. To really tackle the climate and cost of living crisis we therefore need to make this a pilot that politicians can’t ignore!

Share information on what we have already done and some idea of the costs and any difficulties we have encountered. This will of course enable people who want to do future work to chat directly with those who have already taken such steps. See John Henderson’s, John Wallace’s and Colin Hines list attached.

Borrow an infrared camera and take photos of all our houses to give an idea of where our homes are leaking heat.

Each house should get an Energy Performance Certificate https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/guide-to-energy-performance-certificates-epcs/  Lee will provide the contacts for someone he has used and was pleased with. They generally cost between £50 to £60, so the survey will be useful, but for that money brief, however if lots of us want to use this service then a bulk buyers cost reduction might be possible!!

The government wants privately rented property to have an EPC of C by 2030 and an EPC B rating by 2030 for privately rented non-domestic buildings in England and Wales. Park House Gardens could therefore set itself the goal of becoming a ‘B Road by 2025’.

Julian’s advice from an engineer friend on the basic steps necessary about how to upgrade a house like ours is attached. It’s from couple of years ago  before current energy price hike!

James forwarded a tip for adjusting your boiler to make it more efficient:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T022zY9I__0&ab_channel=TheHeatingHub

Adrian and Julian mentioned radiator control valves and Genius digital controls for where and when you want heating: https://www.geniushub.co.uk/#:~:text=Genius%20Hub%20helps%20you%20reduce,while%20keeping%20your%20family%20warm. ·     

Paul warned against the health hazards of strapping hot water bottles to your legs to cut the incredible costs of electric fire heating in his office! More seriously this led to a conversation about how even PHG residents are feeling concerns about the cost of heating our houses. The question was raised about the very long payback times for some of the energy efficiency measures and so would people bother. Colin made the point that this cant be the only consideration and that we are going to have to pay a lot to make our contribution to the increasingly worrying aspect of the climate crisis that will affect our children and grandchildren. However, there are a few measures to lessen the economic pain such as green mortgages and green equity release and limited Green Home grants. Colin will investigate these further.

Colin and Ann are having an Eco Furb Whole House Plan for their property which will cost £540 (see attached) and will ask, given last night’s discussion, for what measures will be needed to get to a B grade, how much they might cost, and what carbon savings will occur. Given the similarity of structure of all the PHG homes this will be shared and will hopefully help us achieve our streets upgrade.

John Swanson raised the question of builders being less the ‘trusted traders’ than they might appear. The Whole House Plan Colin is having done should also provide suggested people they know who will do a good job.

John Wallace is clearly an expert on analysis of energy use and costs which will be needed to log the effects of any improvements we make. When the question of energy tight versus ventilation came up John came up with an interesting idea about using our existing chimneys that perhaps he could give further thought to- as given Covid, the ventilation question has become more urgent.

Ian Chester has done a lot of research on community heat pump systems and domestic HP. Colin’s fantasy of a community heat pump based in the street’s roundabout Ian felt is a possibility. Colin has met the CEO of the Kensa Group and they are happy to look at the street for its community heat potential as well as answering questions about domestic HPs.

Ian McDermott said that this grouping has a huge range of expertise and contacts including heading up a Housing Association, his son Will isworking for the innovative Octopus Energy, Julian’s Architectural knowledge and Colins contacts with industry, the local MP and the energy efficiency lobby. These and other members knowledge and contacts could make PHG BEEP a ‘proof of concept’ ‘living case study’ that business might feel able to support. This is because it is attempting to address how to increase energy efficiency in the two thirds of homes in the UK that are home owners and hence a huge market.

Glenys raised the question of using the Twickenham Park Residents Association website as a method of communication. Colin said that we will be organising a joint TPRA -Ribra meeting to discuss Energy Efficiency in the area probably in late Feb, so it would be best till see what emerges from BEEP and then use both the Residents Association’s websites later.

Jacques suggested we should set up a BEEP website where we can exchange all our information and indeed straight away after the meeting registered: http://firstbeep.org. Colin was gobsmacked at such instant techno suaveness

Finally Eleanor and Jacques discussed saving energy by having warm space houses to jointly work in….but do we need to be EPC B first?!!

Colin Hines 6th January 2023