Our Octopus Heat Pump journey started in late October 2023. We’d been with Octopus Energy as an electricity and gas supplier for a couple of years and made good use of their Intelligent Octopus tariff. We wanted to decarbonise our house, and the last significant step on that journey was to get rid of gas. […]
Category Archives: Energy Efficiency
Posts and case studies to appear on the energy efficiency page. See also sub categories
15
Oct
Oct
Our friends at Wiltshire Climate Alliance are once again helping to coordinate Wiltshire and Swindon’s Green Open Homes event 2024. Green Open Homes is an opportunity to ask a local Chippenham or Wiltshire resident about an energy saving improvement that they’ve made, and see if it might work for you. People who have made energy […]
23
Jun
Jun
Octopus Energy are rapidly becoming one of the major Heat Pump installers in the UK. This is largely due to their highly competitive pricing, which after the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme £7500 grant is applied, puts the installation cost on a par, or sometimes less than a new gas combo-boiler. It is possible to obtain […]
23
May
May
Zero Chippenham members Jan and Trevor describe their experience of an Air Source heat pump installation in their 1970s house in Chippenham. The Myths Air Source Heat Pump? “It makes too much noise”, “It doesn’t keep you warm enough”, “it’s too expensive”. BUT it does take you away from fossil fuels for keeping your home warm and […]
21
Mar
Mar
We had a fabulous Home Energy Workshop at Chippenham Town Hall earlier this month in association with the Centre for Sustainable Energy. We have funding to run more workshops and would like you to help us shape the next one. If you have the time to fill out our short survey below we’d be very […]
18
Feb
Feb
So you have solar panels on your roof and you’re thinking of buying an electric vehicle (ev), can you charge your ev from solar? Well the short answer is yes, but with a few caveats. When you buy your first Electric Vehicle (EV) or Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), it will probably come with […]
24
Jan
Jan
Our house is a 1930s built semi-detached on Langley Road, Chippenham. It has three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, all original 1930s size and layout. The smallest corner bedroom is not much bigger than a cupboard, consequently the only sensible bed layout was a bunk bed arrangement with a desk underneath. Whilst this makes great […]
12
Jan
Jan
With the government announcing that VAT will be zero rated from February on retrofitted household electrical battery storage solutions, it seems an appropriate time to write up my own experience of retrofitting and living with an AC battery in our 1930s Chippenham house. Following an industry wide consultation in 2023 the UK government announced the […]
09
Jan
Jan
The next stage in Adrian’s Wood Lane retrofit decarbonisation journey was to look at heating and hot water. This followed a process of insulating and draft proofing the house. Adrian looked in detail at the carbon savings using his free Gas/electricity SMART meter data, free Weather data, free Heat Pump Datasheet data, a spreadsheet, and […]
05
Jan
Jan
Zero Chippenham member James Bradbury talks about his experience of installing and living with an Air Soured heat pump. James’ house is a 1980s standard Chippenham estate house with two minor extensions. It has cavity wall insulation. Introduction I’ve been seeing a lot of interest online about heat pumps and some confusion about what they […]