Home Energy Conservation - Background

There are three main motivations behind Home Energy Conservation

• economic
• social
• environmental

Wasting heat is quite literally burning money, it is also bad for the environment as its contributing to global warming. Cold homes are also a social problem resulting from fuel poverty.

The conventional, and now widely accepted definition of fuel poverty is where a household needs to spend 10% or more of income to meet fuel costs. It is estimated that 4 million people in the UK live in fuel poverty and the best strategy to prevent this is obviously to use fuel more effectively.

The government has set out a strategy to manage these issues in its White Paper on Energy entitled 'Our Energy Future'

The issue is considered so important for the United Kingdom that it has resulted in specific legislation being passed by the government in the form of 'The Home Energy Conservation Act 1995'

This sets local authorities targets to reduces CO2 levels from housing in their area. Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council annually reviews and reports on what progress we have made to achieving these targets, the latest reports are available below.

As a result of HECA we have calculated that 73,734 tonnes of CO2 has been abated from the Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough.  (To visualise this you can think of a tonne of CO2 as a 10m diameter hot air balloon).  

This has resulted in an overall improvement in energy efficiency from 1st April 1996 to 31st March 2004 of 24.49%.  This means that we are well on track to meet the governments target in the Borough which is something we can all be very proud of.

For more information contact -

info@keepshropshirewarm.org.uk