Helping conserve electricity in Harris
This week saw a concerted effort to deliver the last of the Home Energy Packs to households in North Harris. The main part of the Community Carbon Challenge project was to install insulation. As the project comes to a close, we have installed nearly 100 loft insulations and cavity wall insulations -all at no cost to the households. The good news is that people are starting to comment on the difference it has made. People are coming down in the morning to a warmer house – heat is being retained over night.
The Home Energy Packs have been delivered by a team of Directors of the Trust. We started off going from door-to-door in the more remote villages, and have slowly worked our way in towards Tarbert. Last week I took advantage of the sunshine and delivered 50 packs in Carragreich and East Tarbert myself. No easy task, when few of the houses are numbered or named. The next edition of DeThaDol?, the community news letter has an item on the packs. This will ask for anyone we’ve missed out to come forward. Hopefully then, we’ll have covered the majority of the estate.
 Arguably the most important item in the pack is the Energy Monitor. This, once set up, gives you an instantaneous read-out of the electricity being consumed and its cost. I installed one for someone who had had a few problems herself. Immediately it connected, it read over 3kW of electricity being used- the lady of the house had forgotten to turn off the immersion heater! This was a quick lesson on what to look out for.
Also in the pack is a Powerdowner – this neat device automatically turns off the monitor,modem,printer etc, when you close down your computer. There’s also another version that does the same thing on the TV for the DVD and Sky box. Some energy efficient bulbs are included in the pack, and some light reading on Energy Efficiency… all aiming to reduce North Harris’ carbon footprint, and to reduce Fuel Poverty.
Thanks must also go to the project sponsors: Climate Challenge Fund, CnES, Scottish Hydro and E-on and our partners TEAS:The Energy Advisory Service