BRACE is looking for volunteers to carry out home energy audits as partof a new project from Powys Action on the Climate Emergency (PACE). Ideally, we need at least 3 volunteers to undetake half a day’s training and carry out home visits (which would take about 2 hours each). This is a great opportunity to start tackling issues with poor energy efficiency in properties around Llanfyllin, and start making a real difference to the readiness of our homes to meet the needs of rapid decarbonisation. It would be a great way to bring knowledge into the community and enable us to spread knowledge about heating and energy efficiency more widely. Click the button below to register your interest and get stuck in!
Full details from PACE
Call for interest from communities to be part of a Home Energy audit project.
The energy used to heat our homes is one of the highest contributors[1] to CO2 emissions in Powys. In addition it causes residents to spend more of their disposable income on this than would be necessary if their homes were more efficient, especially in the current climate of rising energy bills. Better insulated homes also lead to better health outcomes, so improving our homes leads to multiple benefits.
We (Powys Action on the Climate Emergency) have received funding through the Community Renewal Fund to offer 50 subsidised Home Energy Audits across 3 Powys communities by the end of June. This is part of the Localities Network project being run by PAVO.
We are working with the charity Lightfoot Enterprises to deliver these audits, Lightfoot have over 10 years of experience delivering home energy advice to homeowners.
Lightfoot would work with community volunteers to deliver this advice. The role of the volunteers would be to visit homeowners who request a home audit and complete a questionnaire, with the homeowner, covering the details of the property. Lightfoot would take all volunteers though a free half day training session teaching them how to gather the information that Lightfoot need. This completed questionnaire would then be returned to domestic energy experts at Lightfoot who would write up a report and recommendations including details of local suppliers and installers and potential funding options based on the data gathered. The volunteer would then deliver this to the homeowner, with the option of follow up advice and questions.
Although the audits are 100% subsidised we would recommend communities applying a nominal fee to the homeowner (suggested £10 – £30 based on ability to pay) to ensure that those who have the audits are likely to follow through on the recommendations. This money would be retained by the community group and could then be used to cover the volunteers out-of-pocket expenses or other local costs.
We can work with either a community council or any volunteer-based constituted group based in Powys. If you would like your community to be considered for this project, please could you reply to this email by 8th February confirming:
- Community council or organisation applying for this project
- Main contact (phone and email)
- Confirmation that there would be a minimum of 3 volunteers available and willing to undertake the ½ day training and carry out the home visits (each home visit would be about 2 hours work).Please contact us with any questions you may have.
We apologise for the tight deadline on getting a reply, this is forced on us by the conditions of the funding which requires that all funds must be spent by the end of June 2022.
We have funding for 50 subsidised audits across Powys so if we work with 3 communities this would be approx. 16 – 17 in each, but we may wish to spread this across more communities if we get more communities expressing interest.