About us

Our small community group, part of Zero Carbon North Somerset, wants to help people to reduce heat loss from their homes and become energy efficient. By making their home more energy efficient people can hold onto their heat more and stay warm, save money on energy bill, and reduce their carbon footprint.

We work collaboratively with, and are supported by, the Centre for Sustainable Energy, Low Carbon Gordano, and Bristol City Leap.  If you would like to collaborate or sponsor our initiative, then please contact us.

Energy Advice

We offer free energy advice to people who are looking to make interventions in their homes for the purpose of minimising draughts and making their homes warmer. 

By increasing your home’s energy efficiency, you will help reduce your energy costs, and also reduce your carbon footprint, as you won’t need to use as much energy as before to keep warm. We can discuss which appliances will be using a lot of energy, explain our energy bill if needed, and suggest ways to reduce the energy used.  We can help identify the things that should be done as first steps, using our knowledge and a thermal camera.

A thermal camera is a device that uses infrared to show the temperature of the scene it is viewing. This is incredibly useful for many things, including knowing how to make your home less draughty and more energy efficient.  The images from a thermal camera show up places of cold air ingress and where extra insulation and draught proofing can help retain heat. Using a thermal camera therefore is a great tool to help you increase the energy efficiency of your home as it shows up the cold spots and where action is needed.

If you would like to request a home visit from us please fill in this form.

Draughtproofing workshops

Free Home Survey and Draftproofing Advice

Bright Green Homes

Loan a Thermal Camera

​We have placed two thermal imaging cameras into the North Somerset Library system so people can borrow one for a week for free. These small cameras connect directly to a smartphone or tablet (either Android or iOS).   

The thermal image will show the temperature of the area in view so you can see colder spots.  This will help you identify where you can make improvements or interventions such as draught proofing to minimise the amount of cold air coming into your home and the loss of heat.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us.

Tips to reduce energy consumption and heat loss

There are a number of things you can do to reduce energy consumptions and heat loss. They have different levels of complexity and cost: the easy things should always be done first.  We suggest that you do all the straightforward items first, before starting more expensive measures. ​

• First Step – Reducing air leakage, for example around doors, windows, or letter-boxes;
• Second Step – Improving the insulation of the property, especially roof or wall insulation; and
• Third Step – Reducing energy consumption by using efficient heating methods such as air or ground source heat pumps.

Our advice and help covers the First Step. Given that most heat loss is through doors and windows, these simple and low cost actions should be the first things to do:​

• Fit draught excluders along the base of doors (external and internal).
• Fit brushes and flaps to gaps in doors such as letterboxes or cat flaps, or along the bottom.
• Stick heat reflective aluminium foil behind the radiator to minimise heat loss through the walls.
• Fit thick curtains, or just a thermal lining to existing curtains, to reduce heat loss through the windows.
• Reduce heat loss up the chimney when not in use by using a wool insulator or chimney balloon.
• Cover bare floors, as these can lose a lot of heat loss if not insulated.
• Insulate the loft with insulation making sure to insulate around the hatch opening.
• Modern LED lights use a fraction of the energy of older bulbs. They last for about 10 years, so pay for themselves very quickly.
• If you have a condensing combi boiler, its factory settings will likely overheat your water, making it run inefficiently. Turning your flow temperature down to around 60˚ will keep your house warm enough, save money, and actually help it to work more efficiently. You can also turn off the hot water pre-heat (on some boilers this is done by switching on Eco mode), to save a bit more.  Watch this short YouTube video to find out more and to see how to do it. 
• Turning your thermostats down by one degree can also save money without per year in an average property.  If you have thermostatic valves on your radiator then the setting ‘3’ should heat the room to about 21 degrees.

More advice and information

The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) has a lot of information on its website on how you can better understand your energy bill, how much energy appliances use and what steps you can do to become more energy efficient. 

Low Carbon Oxford North have created a series of Housewarming Guides, prepared by independent experts, to support people who want to improve their homes from basic concepts to insulation and mechanical recovery.  

Contact us

If you have a query about what we do or how you can help, please contact us.