This year we were really pleased to get funding from the Bath and West Community Energy fund to support an energy saving project.
Members had told us that things related to energy bills are really difficult to understand, and coupled with the energy crisis, we thought it was time to take action!
Our staff team had an information session from the Centre for Sustainable Energy which was very informative. They then ran info sessions for our members as well. We created some Easy Read guides to make the information easier to understand - this provided a paid work opportunity for one of our members who provided an Easy Read checking service for our new documents.
We found out the costs of running the following electrical appliances per hour:
Electric shower - from £3.06 per hour
Tumble drier - from 85p per hour
Hair drier - 11p for 10 minutes
Oil filled radiator - from 68p per hour
Electric mower - from 34p per hour
Vacuum cleaner - from 31p per hour
Phone charger - almost nothing at all!
We also learnt that by keeping our freezers frost-free, we can save up to £300 a year on our electricity bills! Also, by turning our heaters down by 1 degree, we can save over £100 a year.
If you would like to find out more, you can download the Centre for Sustainable Energy's Easy Read guides here - https://www.cse.org.uk/resource/advice-leaflets-in-easy-read/
You can download our Easy Read guides on Recycling and Food Waste here:
Our Work Skills group also set to work on creating some amazing draft excluders as part of the project! Check out this photo - this one has already gone to a very happy customer!
