Heating Initiatives Project

Curry Rivel's project

Curry Rivel Parish Council was awarded £6,460 by Somerset County Council for a project looking at how we can improve heating the buildings in the village. We contracted a specialist company to get advice on what will work here. You can download their report from here.
The original project is now complete. However, we will continue to help people in the parish to get advice from local and national organisations that are set up to provide it.

How to get advice on saving energy and money

Local organisations who can provide advice include:

• Retrofit Somerset: https://retrofitsomerset.info/
• Centre for Sustainable Energy: https://www.cse.org.uk/my-home/
• Homeowner Assessment Accelerator: https://www.retrofitwestadvice.co.uk/homeowner-assessment-accelerator

Other local organisations working on energy and climate include:

• Somerset Climate Action Network: https://somersetcan.org.uk/
• Climate Action Taunton: https://www.facebook.com/p/Climate-Action-Taunton-100064689788292/
• Somerset Council Climate Emergency team: https://www.somerset.gov.uk/environment-and-food-safety/climate-and-ecological-emergency/, email at climateemergency@somerset.gov.uk

You can contact the Curry Rivel Heating Initiatives team on crheatingproject@gmail.com.

Retrofitting

Most of us live in houses that are at least a few years old. Improving the insulation and heating of an existing house is called "Retrofitting". As every house is different, the help of a trained and trusted advisor is needed. Retrofit Somerset are a good place to start.

Heat pumps

Heat pumps are a good way of providing cheap and sustainable heat to your house. However, both the financial and technical aspects of installing them are a complex minefield. One organisation that could help is Thermly ( https://www.thermly.co.uk/ ). They are a company that helps householders to understand and finance heat pump installations, and puts them in touch with trusted installers.
https://app.visitaheatpump.com alloiws you to visit people who have installed a heat pump and see how they got on.

Getting approved and impartial advice

The best source of advice on heating in Somerset is probably the Centre for Sustainable Energy. They have a freephone energy advice line specially for Somerset, on 0800 038 5730. You can email them on home.energy@cse.org.uk. See https://www.cse.org.uk/contact-us for details.

Beware cold callers and cowboys

We hear that there are some less than honest traders touting for business right now. I'm sure that we all getting phone calls out of the blue offering help with insulation and heating. Beware! Consumer organisations like Which recommend that you don't respond to traders who "cold call" you. A big part of this project is to help people get honest, local advice. We suggest some good contacts above.

Levels Climate Forum

If you are interested in what Curry Rivel Parish Council and nearby councils are doing about climate change, you might like to look at the Levels Climate Forum. It meets mostly online, and you can see some excellent presentations by local experts at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPmSkTNHHjQjnkyiDPeXkXQ.