01768 210276|office@cafs.org.uk

Home energy efficiency

Research to find good businesses who do retrofit work in Cumbria

Over the last year, a growing number of householders across Cumbria have taken up our paid energy advice service and report: the “Home Retrofit Planner”. In order to help householders onward through the retrofit process, we are now collecting information on the building and retrofit industry in Cumbria.  If you’ve had work done to your home to make it more energy efficient, we would love to hear about your experiences of the suppliers and trades you used.   We will use your feedback to help us identify companies that might wish to join our network of suppliers involved in retrofit [...]

By |2021-07-29T12:27:00+01:00July 29th, 2021|Home energy efficiency, Homepage, Insulation, News|
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Great feedback from our carbon calculator users

Lots of individuals and businesses have now had a go with our carbon footprint calculators and some have fed back to tell us about their experience. Which is incredibly helpful! Happily, the vast majority feel that it was definitely a worthwhile experience, which has helped improve their understanding of their environmental impact and focus their efforts to reduce it. Here are some of the comments received. “I was impressed with the tool, having looked at a number of other, much more gimmicky tools which claim to do the same thing, didn't in my view ask all the right questions… [...]

By |2021-05-31T16:10:58+01:00May 31st, 2021|Climate politics, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, News|
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Energy services to expand across Cumbria

We are delighted to announce that our home energy team has secured more funding from the Energy Saving Trust as part of round 10 of the Energy Redress funding. What this means in practise is that two of our projects, Cold to Cosy Homes and Retrofit for Cumbria, will be expanding their scope to serve more people in the county in improving energy efficiency. First of all, Cold to Cosy Homes will be taking on some new staff and extending the services it offers to parts of Cumbria that the popular service has yet to extensively reach. This means: [...]

By |2021-04-29T11:28:29+01:00April 29th, 2021|Draughtproofing, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, Insulation, News|
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Ambleside to Zero – what we’ve learned so far

by Molly Hogg, Low carbon communities project manager CAfS is proud to have supported Ambleside Action for a Future (AAFAF) for the past two years. Established in late 2018, this local sustainability action group has grown to over 100 members and is committed to reducing the whole town’s carbon footprint to net zero by 2030. Their outstanding ambition is being backed by South Lakeland District Council (SLDC). They see this as an opportunity to develop a whole-place approach to community decarbonisation that can be expanded across the district and replicated elsewhere. SLDC engaged CAfS to support AAFAF to shape [...]

By |2021-04-19T15:32:29+01:00April 9th, 2021|Ambleside to Zero, Community energy, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, News, Renewable energy|
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Good take up of the new CAfS carbon footprint calculators!

We‘re delighted to see good, early enthusiasm for our new carbon footprint calculators that were launched in early March 2021. Since then, they’ve already been used by 50 households and 10 businesses. You can find the calculators on our website here. They are available to use, for free, across Cumbria and Lancashire. One is for households and one is for businesses, both based on the same model. Measuring your carbon footprint is a great way of understanding the size of your environmental impact, specifically, how much greenhouse gas you are emitting from your daily activities or from your business. [...]

By |2021-04-19T14:30:48+01:00April 9th, 2021|Food, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, News, Renewable energy|
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Energy events for January

Two free online events will welcome many Cumbrians into the new year with the chance to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses. The two webinars are being hosted by Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) in partnership with South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) but are open to anyone who feels that they could benefit from the advice on offer. The first of the two events, Heat pumps for homeowners is taking place on 19 January at 6:30pm and is focused on the user experience of domestic heat pumps. A heat pump is a device that transfers heat [...]

By |2020-12-21T13:48:19+00:00December 21st, 2020|Cumbria Green Build Festival, Draughtproofing, Fossil fuels, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, Insulation, News, Renewable energy|
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Support offered amidst ‘bleak winter’ forecast

Many families are facing a difficult winter ahead with increased hardship, a new report shows. Higher energy use resulting from having to stay at home for longer and a huge reduction in income have produced a toxic combination, researchers at Sheffield Hallam University have found. In Cumbria, adding our already problematic leaky housing stock to the equation, the evidence is that the risk will be heightened for vulnerable groups who will have to make a heat or eat choice this winter. This combines to produce a bleak forecast of the next few months for many residents. The report Stuck at home in [...]

By |2020-11-26T16:11:02+00:00November 26th, 2020|Draughtproofing, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, Insulation, News|
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Events shed light on funding for home improvements

Two online events by CAfS are offering households and landlords the chance to find out about support available for home improvements, including the government’s new Green Homes Grant. The free sessions will shed light on some of the main schemes that households can take advantage of now, to make their homes warmer and use less energy. “This is a really good time to get on with improvements to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, given the support that’s out there right now,” said Andrew Northcott, energy services manager at CAfS. “But it’s not always easy for people to work [...]

By |2020-10-22T16:32:32+01:00October 22nd, 2020|Draughtproofing, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, Insulation, Renewable energy|
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Cold to Cosy Champions training goes virtual

The Cold to Cosy Homes team here at CAfS are announcing a brand new roster of free training sessions for people interested in becoming a Cold to Cosy Champion. The training will give you (or relevant members of your team or community) a thorough understanding of the service, how to refer clients and what their customer journey will be. You’ll be able to fully explain the service to clients and help them to access this fantastic free support for vulnerable individuals. Cold to Cosy Homes offers clear advice and practical help on how to save energy in your home [...]

By |2020-08-21T13:13:28+01:00August 21st, 2020|Draughtproofing, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, News|
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Cold to Cosy Homes scheme responds to Covid-19

Our Cold to Cosy Homes Cumbria service has been modified in response to the Coronavirus situation. We are currently offering only the free-of-charge emergency service to vulnerable households whose gas boiler has broken down. Call free to the LEAP call centre on 0800 060 7565 to find out if you or someone you know could be eligible for a free boiler replacement. This emergency boiler scheme, called ECHO, will run for the next few weeks, until the fund is used up. The scheme is aimed at households that are vulnerable and need immediate assistance to stay warm and well [...]

By |2020-03-19T11:07:10+00:00March 19th, 2020|Draughtproofing, Home energy efficiency, Homepage, News|
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