Challenge North Leigh

Challenge North Leigh group meets every month on the second thursday of the month. The coordinating group members are listed below with contact details.

Candy Kerpache 01993 882233 candy[at]kerpache.freeserve.co.uk
Greg Matthews 01993 869091 yattstead[at]googlemail.com
Jowanna Lewis 01993 869091 yattstead[at]googlemail.com
Steve Kennett 01993 880425 skennett[at]silcockdawson.co.uk
Annie Reynolds annie.reynolds[at]btinternet.com
Matt Lane matt.lane[at]eco-st.com
Geoff Feasey feasey.two[at]virgin.net
Margaret Lupton mflupton[at]aol.com
Rita Cudd rita.cudd[at]scottishsouthern.co.uk
Rob Pritchard robgp[at]supanet.com

Rob Pritchard is your local Southern Electric “meter man” who comes round to check your electricity meter. He can also provide advice on energy saving and help set up your current cost meter.

How and why it all began.

A record of North Leigh experience for anyone new to the village and which may interest anyone starting an energy efficiency project.

In February 2005 North Leigh initiated an energy efficiency project, in collaboration with the Thames valley Energy Centre, with the challenge “Could we make North Leigh Oxfordshire’s Leading Energy Efficient Village?” After obtaining funds and commissioning a study by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, volunteers reported quarterly meter readings of their use of electricity and gas for two years from July 2006 to June 2008.

Some contributors improved their energy efficiency during the first year – it would have been improper to stop them saving energy merely to provide a more scientific datum – but during the second year they were encouraged to pull out all the stops and further electricity savings of 8% were achieved. The use of gas increased during the second year because it is mainly used for heating but when adjusted for temperatures a saving of 7% was recorded.

The project soon attracted the attention of Southern Electric (SE) – later to become part of Scottish and Southern Energy – and in July 2007 North Leigh was adopted as one of three projects. These were part of a government policy of engaging the energy supply companies, rather unusually, in efforts to reduce demand for their product. Motivation of the consumers was recognised as the key to saving and the projects were to try ways of motivating communities to reduce their electricity consumption. North Leigh became the English component, the others were in Scotland and Wales.

Specifically, the SE challenge was to reduce consumption by 10% for three months of 2009 compared with the same months in 2008. Success would be rewarded by a £20,000 SSE contribution to a community project. Residents no longer took meter readings: instrumentation installed at the appropriate sub-stations transmitted usage directly to SE and the group coordinating the village efforts received monthly reports, corrected for differences in weather between ’08 and ‘09, of the energy used each day.

Funds were made available to North Leigh’s co-ordinating group by SE. These covered costs such as the hire of marquees and bouncy castles for fairs on the green, booking the village hall for Bring or Take events, banners promoting events, printing of newsletters, publishing a village calendar with energy saving hints, raffle prizes, and much more. Monthly articles were written for the village newsletter and contacts with the media were promoted by both local efforts and SE’s PR professionals, providing some radio and TV coverage and articles in the local newspaper. SE supplied Current Cost Meters to all who wanted them and made a company representative available in the village to support the project by visiting people in their homes and provide advice on these meters and other energy matters.