Last bit now, lets make it count.

Global warming is causing Santa’s runway to melt. If Santa’s runway melts, his sleigh can’t take off. If his sleigh can’t take off, he can’t deliver your Christmas presents.

Have you seen this new website? Pledge support and keep Santas runway frozen! Fun for kids.

Green Santa!

UPDATE: the website seems to have gone off the air temporarily. Perhaps all the traffic generated from Challenge North Leigh swamped their servers! In the meantime, why not shop for some right-on christmas decorations.

As we recorded in the village newsletter, the Nor’Lye News:

“Is all lost? We think not. First, because it is easier to make savings during the colder, darker months when more energy is inevitably consumed. Second, because we shall get the benefit of savings recorded in the last months of 2008 when the sub-station instrumentation became operational: 2.7% in October, 4.94% in November and 9.54% in December, so all we have to do is top them up to 10! Finally because the CNL team believe we can all find ways to save more.”

That’s about all that can be said about that at present, but three other points are worth making.

It is very clear from many media and internet reports that “The world is waking up to climate change”. That’s good! There are reports on every aspect of it, from “Water wars break out” in Bhopal, to Los Angeles’ intention to stop using electricity generated in coal- fired power stations by 2020, accepting that the 1.45 million customers will see higher power bills in the fight against climate change. The latter tells us that there is no need to wait for central governments to tell us what to do: local actions whether on a large or small scale all help. The former warns us of the realities of failure to perceive the threat and take action.

It is becoming clearer that action is urgently required. 2015 is the year in which the probability of calamity will increase significantly unless the nations of the world have taken action. Climate change is a complex and difficult subject but for a summary of the reasons for that statement, read this month’s article “How long have we got”? Better: read Mark Lynas’ book “Six Degrees”, “Life in a warming world” yourself.

It is equally clear that that North Leigh must not be content to have completed two energy efficiency projects by the end of 2009. Continuing action will be required to sustain our savings record and to expand the scope of our climate change activities. The CNL team have therefore submitted an Expression of Interest to the Energy Savings Trust’s Green Communities scheme.

How do you measure the success of the Green Fair? The glorious weather; number of stalls and stands; percentage participation of local interest groups; footfall on the day; number of hot-dogs eaten; or how exhausted we all felt once everything had been packed up and restored to normal? By all these counts and more, this years Green Fair was a huge success!

Essentially, the longer term impact will be measured by the percentage decrease in our electricity consumption – will we reach our target of a 10% reduction by December 2009? Personal accountability is our approach this year; encouraging households to buy into nine energy and money-saving measures, earn a ‘We’re Doing Our Bit’ Challenge North Leigh window sticker and enter into a draw to win a fantastic low-energy usage computer.

Lots of interest at the CNL stand including the opportunity to win a fantastic low energy computer

Visitors to our display engaged in dialogue about energy efficient light-bulbs, reducing heating costs, insulation, their own challenges in encouraging their entire family to only boil what they needed and switch TVs and computers off standby. Interest was high, dialogue keen and at times, highly technical. Yes, we are engaging the community, but there’s a way to go yet!

What did we achieve? Once again we raised the profile of the project, reached those who are already on board and some newcomers, promoted our window sticker campaign and showed we mean business. Come on residents of North Leigh, New Yatt and East End, with your help we can and will reach that 10% target!

Our thanks to everyone who participated in this great event, if you have any ideas for next year, or are able to provide sponsorship, please let us know!

So where are we now?

The project did not encounter opposition to the idea of saving energy: the threats of adverse effects triggered by climate change, such as inundation of low lying lands, fires, droughts and floods, are fairly well understood. However, the lack of agreed international assessments of the severity of those effects, and the lack of leadership on what must be done to counter them, have fostered inertia. In the absence of guidance, many people, probably most, just want to carry on their busy lives. So the Challenge North Leigh approach was to stage community events which people would join for the fun of it, and thereby induce them to active participation in conserving energy. “Think global: act local” and “Every little helps” appeared to be mantras which appealed to most people.

The results so far have been promising. Savings of just over 9% were recorded in January and February 2009, indicating that “It could be done”. How were the savings made? The change to low energy light bulbs which were made widely and often freely available probably contributed significantly. However, March brought only a 5.36 % saving. We have not discovered any reason for this result and it is clear that progress to a sustained 10% is not going to be a simple month by month progression.

April results showed a 7.87% saving and May 7.6%. These figures probably reflect the decreased use of lights during the long spring and summer days. It therefore makes sense to look to other areas for possible savings and the lead given in the Nor’Lye News July edition is:

“Heating uses much energy so let’s concentrate on that. Yes, I know you have turned off the central heating but what about……… Is the energy-guzzling tumbler dryer rusting away while your washing dries beautifully in the sun and wind? Do you only heat the quantity of water you need? Do you avoid rinsing or washing things in running hot water? Is your water hotter than is needs to be? If your hot water tank is remote from the kitchen, do you use a kettle for small quantities instead of running the tap a long time?”

We look forward to the June results. Meanwhile there has been increased interest in Smart Meters since the government announced that they should replace existing electricity meters by 2010. Smart meters continuously transmit the amount of energy used back to the supplier’s computer making meter readings unnecessary. Most of these meters will also transmit the information to small monitors, somewhat like our Current Cost Monitors, so that people can see how much electricity they are using. Red/amber/green lights on the devices will alert users when the demand exceeds certain thresholds. Electricity suppliers foresee the possibility of using the continuous metering to arrange individual contracts which will save consumers money by allowing suppliers to spread the load more efficiently.

The coordinating group are always alert for additional ways of promoting increased savings. New ideas would be most welcome! So would additional members of the coordinating group. If you can help with either, please contact Candy Kerpache on 01993 882233.

Your old bookmark will still take you to the new site for now but it’s worth updating your bookmark as the old address will expire later this year. This is because, for historical reasons, we don’t actually own the old domain name.

Check back often for updates – the new site will be updated more frequently than the old one.