Healthy Homes is a new partnership between Frome Town Council, Frome Medical Practice, and the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), designed to ensure that people in Frome who are at risk of the dangers of living in cold homes get the support they need. It has recently launched as part of the National Lottery funded Green and Healthy Future Programme.
It’s well known that living in a cold and damp home can have a negative impact on people’s physical and mental health. As well as blood pressure increases and common colds, heart attacks and pneumonia, living in a home that is draughty and loses heat through uninsulated windows, walls and roofs also leads to households paying too much for their heating and increasing their carbon footprint.
The Healthy Homes initiative has been created to help tackle these problems and ensure that residents receive support to make their homes more energy efficient. The project is kicking off with Energy Essentials training especially designed to enable people to provide energy advice for people in Frome.
Cllr Rob Collett said, “Supporting people to recognise, and in turn act on, energy issues in their home is not only crucial to people’s health and wellbeing but also the planets. It is an important aspect of our work to address climate change and environmental sustainability. These workshops will benefit anyone who is in contact with the public or would like to become a Healthy Homes volunteer; helping people in their local community to reduce their energy bills and carbon emissions.”
The free course is split over two 2-hour sessions, taking place on Thursday 10 June and Wednesday 16 June 3.30-5.30pm and will be held online. The training will equip attendees to support householders with issues with their energy suppliers, meters, bills and debt. It will also give an introduction to different heating methods and getting the best from your heating system, an understanding of how to deal with damp and condensation and the different types of home insulation as well as advice on the costs of running various electrical appliances.
Find out more and register for the Energy Essentials training at www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/healthy-homes.
