The plight of a pensioner in Skipton has highlighted one of the many discrepancies of the privatised energy market.

Pamela Barton, a widow living on Brougham Street, Skipton, has this month received an energy bill of £2,843.41 – a final demand for payment that includes current usage and arrears.

The bill was issued by E.ON, which has been receiving £42 per month from Mrs Barton since 2007. Unfortunately, the regular payments made by Mrs Barton have not been enough to clear her account, which continues to grow as her energy usage exceeds £42 in value each month. Mrs Barton has now resorted to candlelight to save money on electricity and gas central heating.

Mrs Barton said: “My pension is only £120 a week – I just can’t afford to pay all this. I’m just getting deeper into debt. I’m keeping the lights and gas off as much as I can. I sit with something warm around me and use a candle.

“I’ve even thought about selling the house. I’ve cried about how it could have come to this”.

Mrs Barton’s plight is one that is shared by many thousands of other energy consumers in the UK. Fuel poverty is a growing problem in the country and efforts to ensure the most vulnerable households can afford adequate energy appear to be failing.

Highlighting an apparent disparity of the energy market in the UK, whilst Mrs Barton, a fuel-poor pensioner and widow, struggles to afford enough energy to light a room or heat a stove, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has announced a deal with British Gas that aims to provide help for low-income households.

Under the deal, British Gas will invest around £3.6 million to improve the energy efficiency of 785 private and council properties in Northwood. Energy efficiency measures include installing solar PV panels, loft insulation, draught proofing and new condensing boilers. The measures should ensure that households in the area are able to save hundreds of pounds on annual energy bills.

Unless similar help is afforded to households in Craven, Mrs Barton may be spending her Christmas by candlelight.

Come March, the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme will be underspent by a whopping £4.5 million, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

As if those figures don’t make for gloomy enough reading, statistics released recently by DECC make it appear unlikely that anything remaining in the budget will be rolled over into the second phase of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

The RHPP was introduced as the first phase of the renewable heating incentive, as a means of encouraging homeowners to switch to renewable heating technology.

Launched in July, the scheme was set to spark a new era in home heating, with the Government making up to 25,000 renewable heating installations eligible for a one-off payment, which would help fund the upfront cost of a green heating system. Under the grants, homeowners can install biomass boilers, heat pumps and solar water heating

The Government has made £15 million available, however in order to benefit from the scheme, applicants will be required to demonstrate that their homes have the minimum levels of energy efficiency. They will also need to monitor the renewable energy system and provide feedback.

If you want to install a solar thermal system, a grant of £300 is on offer. If your home is without mains gas heating, and you’re interested in benefiting from heat pump technology, you could qualify for a one-off payment of £850 towards air source heat pumps, or £1250 for ground source heat pumps. For biomass technology, a £950 grant is available to help with the upfront cost of a biomass boiler

The RHPP scheme closes on 31 March 2012.

It’s Energy Saving Week, and money saving website Confused.com has teamed up with the Energy Saving Trust to offer consumers energy saving tips.

Turning TVs off when not in use can help reduce your electricity costs

A recent poll conducted by Confused.com revealed some surprising, if not shocking, results, not least that more and more people seem to be engaging in desperate measures to fight rising gas and electricity bills.

The survey revealed that around 45% of households in the UK won’t switch their lights on, with 3% of people taking that to the extreme by eating their dinner by candlelight to save on energy bills. As romantic as dining by candlelight can be, it’s doubtful that romance is the driving factor for most Brits!

When it comes to keeping warm, an alarming number of older people – 70% of 55s and over – would rather wear more clothes, if it means they can avoid switching on their heating. And 14% of people who responded to the survey say they share their bathwater with other members of their family, as they look for more and more ways to save money.

Confused.com said 97% of its customers who switched their gas and electricity tariffs between November 2010 and April this year were able to reduce their bills, with 10% saving at least £400. But besides switching energy suppliers to source a better deal, other methods, like draught-proofing your windows and doors, using energy efficient light bulbs or installing loft and cavity wall insulation can all help combat those skyrocketing energy costs.

To help consumers save energy, Confused.com and the Energy Saving Trust have put together a YouTube video, which shows their energy experts suggesting home energy saving tips to help you save money on your energy bills.

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aYvwyQ2R2L4

The British public are far more interested in banking energy savings, rather than invest in further energy saving measures, says the Energy Saving Trust.

The findings of a new study – released to coincide with the launch of the Energy Saving Trust’s Energy Saving Week – reveal that five times as many UK householders would opt to bank the money they would save from “greening up” their home as would implement further energy saving measures.

ICM Research conducted the survey, which sought the opinions of 2,086 householders. Those that participated in the survey were asked what they would do with the money they had managed to save from implementing energy-saving measures around the home. While 49% of respondents said they would save the £400 in question, a mere one in ten said they would reinvest the money in more  energy-efficiency measures, such as cavity wall insulation, double glazing and loft insulation.

Some 12% of respondents said they preferred to use the money to buy new gadgets and appliances, such as flat-screen TVs, washing machines or smart phones.

“We are currently in austere times so it’s no surprise that UK householders are trying to make every penny count,” commented Philip Sellwood, Chief Executive of the Energy Saving Trust.

“But we are missing a trick by choosing to bank our cash from energy-saving measures or spending the money saved on more gadgets. If we chose to reinvest the money saved in further greening our homes we could make even bigger savings in the face of rising energy costs,” he added.

The survey also revealed that:

• Almost one in five people are more interested in increasing their comfort levels by leaving their heating on for longer rather than maximising their fuel bill savings.
• Three quarters of householders want to use gadgets and household appliances as efficiently as possible to try and save money on their fuel bill.
• When buying household appliances or gadgets, 50% said price is the main factor.
• Almost nine in ten householders have no idea how much it costs to power a 45-inch plasma TV for a year.

Perhaps even more startling, the survey revealed that the country would collectively save nearly £2bn on their annual fuel bills, if everyone in the UK was to put their £400 saving towards additional energy efficiency measures. That’s enough to not only power a city the size of London for three years, but it would also stop almost nine million tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere every year.

Today sees the start of the Energy Saving Trust’s Energy Saving Week, which highlights how you can take back control of your bills by implementing a variety of energy saving measures.

A unique annual event, “Take back control of your energy bills” will give homeowners the opportunity to learn how to become more energy efficient, from making their home better insulated to installing renewable energy technologies.

The Energy Saving Trust’s 15th annual Energy Saving Week will show homeowners how they can make a difference when it comes to saving energy and reducing household bills.

With the average home capable of saving up to £280 a year by being energy efficient, this week the Energy Saving Trust will be turning up the heat on saving energy, offering energy saving tips and impartial advice on everything from energy saving measures to available grants.

For example, energy saving light bulbs can last up to ten times longer than ordinary bulbs, and could save you around £30 a year if you were to fit them to all the lights in your house. That works out at around £480 over the lifetime of all of the bulbs.

It’s also worth considering replacing your central heating boiler with a new energy efficient one, particularly if your boiler is more than 15 years old. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that around £886 million a year would be saved if all homes with gas or a G-rated boiler were to fit a condensing boiler.

Insulation is also pivotal to energy saving, whether it’s insulating your hot water tank, getting cavity wall insulation or fitting loft insulation. In the latter case, it’s a well known fact that something like 15% of what you’re paying for your heating could be escaping through your roof if it isn’t insulated. Which could save you around £175 a year off your heating bills. But you need to make sure that your loft is insulated to the recommended 270mm.

If you’re a homeowner and you would like to know more about the Energy Saving Week, give the Energy Saving Trust a call on 0800 512 012 to speak to a dedicated advisor.

According to an independent report written by Professor John Hills, thousands of people in Britain are dying every year as a result of illnesses caused by fuel poverty.

Such is the seriousness of fuel poverty at the moment, Professor Hills’ report recommends the term be redefined to include any household that is pushed below the poverty line at any point by relatively high energy bills.

The current definition of fuel poverty describes any household that spends at least 10 per cent of its income on electricity and gas central heating. Current estimates suggest there are as many as 6.6 million homes in the UK that might be described as fuel poor. Professor Hills’ revised definition of fuel poverty would reduce that number, but it would also bring into focus the health-related consequences of cold housing.

Drawing on data supplied by the Office of National Statistics and World Health Organisation, Professor Hills estimates that around 2,700 people in the UK die every year as a result of conditions caused or made worse by fuel poverty.

Also citing details from the Marmot Review, which found that 20 per cent of the 27,000 extra deaths caused by cold conditions in the UK each year occur in the coldest 25 per cent of homes, Professor Hills said: “It’s a very serious problem. There are people dying, maybe more people dying each year than die on the roads, it’s a problem of hardship for low-income families who are having to pay out more when they’ve got hard-to-heat houses and it’s a problem for countering climate change”.

Energy conservation is seen as the most effective remedy for deaths caused by fuel poverty. If the coldest quarter of homes in the UK had double glazing, cavity wall insulation and loft insulation, energy bills would drop significantly. Unfortunately, insulating the home costs money, which is obviously something that fuel-poor households do not have in abundance.

Chair of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, Derek Lickorish, said: “Insulating the homes of the fuel poor is the only long-term and sustainable solution to solving this problem, but they will need financial help to make this happen and this takes time. Urgent action must start today”.

Properties that are shown to be the most energy efficient sell for more, according to the findings of a new report by the Australian Property Institute.

The report reveals that energy efficient properties achieve a higher selling price and command higher rents compared to less efficient buildings. Which is certainly going to be welcome news, not least because the UK Government has set itself targets to make all new homes carbon free by 2016, with the same aim for non-residential buildings to be achieved by 2019.

Whether it’s fitting a new energy efficient central heating boiler, installing double glazing or making sure your property is better insulated, by implementing a few energy saving measures, homeowners can not only add value to their property – making it more attractive to buyers – but they can do their bit for the environment at the same time, helping to use less energy and reduce CO2 emissions.

The UK Green Building Council hopes the findings revealed in the report – which was conducted by the Australian Property Institute, in conjunction with the Property Funds Association – could help create a business case to industry in the UK for green buildings. The UK Green Building Council was launched in 2007 and campaigns to improve the sustainability of the built environment, in a way that benefits people and the planet.  

Written by Graeme Newell and John MacFarlane from the University of Western Sydney, and compiled in conjunction with the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, the Building Better Returns report analysed the performance of green buildings in Australia. It is the first major Australian study to assess the value of green office buildings and their financial performance.

If you’re a builder, renovator or simply someone interested in making your home greener and more energy efficient, then the Big Green Home Show is going to be right up your street.

A one stop shop for eco and sustainable help and advice for the thousands who visit, the Big Green Home Show 2011 is held annually at the National Self Build & Renovation Centre in Swindon.

Catering for all your eco-friendly needs, the three-day exhibition plays host to a wide range of industry experts who can help you find ways to reduce your energy needs. Offering impartial and comprehensive advice, the Big Green Home Show is dedicated to people keen to reap the benefits of a more eco-friendly and sustainable home.

The best and brightest experts in the renewable energy industry will be in attendance. From the Renewable Heat Incentive and the Feed-in Tariff, to solar PV systems and ground source heat pumps, industry experts will be on hand to deliver a packed schedule of seminars, lectures and presentations to held guide you through the maze of eco options available. There’s even a walking tour – undoubtedly one of the most unique elements of the exhibition – which is designed to give visitors an in-depth understanding of the sustainable building and eco technology options currently available.

“You will find free expert advice and guidance on the essential eco elements along with a wealth of seminars, products, new technology, systems and services, all on hand and designed to help you achieve an energy efficient and more sustainable home,” explains Verdi Taylor, from the National Self Build & Renovation Centre.

“It’s the UK’s brightest eco exhibition, and could help you save pounds as well as the planet.”

Now in its fourth year, the Big Green Home Show exhibition will take place at Swindon’s National Self Build & Renovation Centre from 28 – 30 October, 2011.

For more information, or to obtain free tickets, visit www.biggreenhomeshow.co.uk

A social housing property in Oxfordshire has been chosen to showcase the energy efficiency benefits of installing green technologies as part of a ‘Retrofit for the Future’ scheme to improve the UK’s social housing stock.

Owned by Soha Housing, the fairly nondescript property in the South Oxfordshire town of Didcot has been transformed as part of the Technology Strategy Board’s Retrofit for the Future programme. The largest social housing provider in South Oxfordshire, Soha Housing manages more than 5,500 homes, and the energy efficiency programme is designed to showcase innovative technologies, and how using them can reduce emissions.

As part of the retrofit scheme, the Didcot property has been “upgraded” to include a new energy efficient boiler, solar water heating and increased draught proofing. As part of the programme, the home’s energy performance will be monitored over the course of two years, but the property’s tenants are already reaping the benefits of the modifications, which are helping to reduce their energy bills.

“We intend to use the lessons we learn throughout the two years that this project runs to improve the energy efficiency of our stock,” commented Steve Lynch, SohaHousing’s director of property and development.

“We are very grateful to the residents for enduring the inconvenience disurbance.  Without their enthusiasm and support, this project would not have been successful,” he added.

The Government has set a target of an 80% reduction in CO₂ levels by 2050, and retrofit programmes like this are essentially a means of implementing best practice retrofitting, to determining how the nation’s existing housing stock – the majority of which is poor insulated – can be upgraded to be more energy efficient.

Under the Retrofit for the Future programme – which is funded and managed by the Technology Strategy Board – some 86 social housing units across the UK will be retrofitted with innovative new technologies, such as solar thermal panels, heat pumps and solar PV systems. As part of the scheme, emissions and energy usage will be monitored for two years.

E.ON, one of the leading energy suppliers in the UK, has announced plans to offer customers free gas and electricity for two months under a new deal. As households in the UK find themselves on the cusp of an energy crisis this winter, E.ON’s offer may seem too good to be true.

The deal is for customers to sign up for the ‘Energy Fit Plan’ tariff for a minimum period of two years in exchange for two month’s free gas and electricity, Tesco Clubcard points, online energy advice and a free energy smart meter.

Whilst not the cheapest tariff supplied by E.ON, the deal does afford customers the opportunity to save a little cash ahead of Christmas. The benefits of committing to E.ON’s two-year energy tariff must be weighed against the negatives. In this case, the energy supplier is asking customers to tie themselves into a long-term deal for short-term benefits (namely the two months of free energy and the smart meter).

Although committing to a long-term energy contract is usually unwise, energy prices are rising at such an extent that the deal may provide stability to customers who might otherwise be at the mercy of more flexible tariffs.

The cost of electricity and gas central heating is causing many households to seriously consider going cold this winter to save money. According to a recent uSwitch.com survey, 32 per cent of energy customers in the UK are adamant that gas and electricity tariffs are unaffordable. Unfortunately, prices are set to rise further as energy providers prepare to implement a more environmentally friendly infrastructure.

Currently averaging £1,293 per annum, household spending on energy bills is expected to reach £1,500 in the near future, at which point 77 per cent of households will ration usage whilst 36 per cent will feel compelled to turn off heating altogether.

Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com, Ann Robinson, said: “This is a wake-up call and the clearest evidence yet that the UK is on the brink of an affordability crisis when it comes to household energy. We are now just £207 or 14 per cent away from hitting an affordability ceiling, after which consumers will start rationing their usage as though they are living in the third world”.

With energy costs becoming more and more unaffordable, there are some relatively inexpensive home insulation measures worth implementing to make your home more energy efficient. Cavity wall insulation and loft insulation are both effective ways of insulating your home, which will help reduce your heating bills.