It may be spring but concerns about energy bills and having an energy efficient home are still prevalent and it is never too early to start preparing for the next cold spell. Frome Town Council’s brilliant Healthy Homes Team are on hand to help with hints and tips on everything from lowering your energy bills and addressing energy debt issues, to low carbon heating and home insulation.
Our Healthy Homes Team and Energy Advice Volunteers are trained by our partners, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), and have completed a City and Guilds Level 3 Energy Advice course which ensures they have the most up to date information to share with you. CSE are available for one-on-one discussions at the Energy Advice sessions and our team can also offer home visits.
Following a recent visit to her home from an Energy Advice Volunteer, Mayor Sara Butler said “The Energy Advice Volunteers visit was really interesting and helped to reassure me that we are doing our best to be as energy efficient in our character property as possible and they took into account that it’s in a conservation area with building restrictions, however, there were a few actions we are going to take as a result of the visit including turning down our boiler temperature and popping down a draft excluder at the front door.”
The volunteers can provide plenty of general energy advice including how to tackle a cold, damp home by installing draught proofing, radiator panels and thermal curtains (which are also very helpful for keeping a room cool in the summer months!) and generally boosting insulation throughout your home. An Energy Advice Volunteer can also help with understanding energy bills, and potentially refer you to CSE for grant funded energy improvements and help with supplier issues and energy related debt.
Frome resident Layla Murga said: “I came to one of the free energy advice sessions at the library to talk about damp issues in my newly purchased house. Adam (CSE Energy) and Jo (Frome Town Council) were happy to help, gave me lots of useful advice and offered a follow up home visit which was useful. They also referred me for a grant to have my loft insulation topped up and have new heating controls installed so my new home is warmer, damp free and more energy efficient.”
The CSE is running Energy Advice drop-in sessions between now and June:
Frome Library, 10am- 4pm
- Wednesday 24th May
- Monday 12th June
Healthy Homes Visits can be booked by email or by calling 01373 480381.
There is lots of help available and we urge residents to seek advice and support from the experts and be as informed as possible. If you can’t pop into a drop-in session at the library, email or call CSE’s helpline for free advice on 0800 082 2234.
