Tel: 03450 450 500
Email: sustainability@scambs.gov.uk (This link will open in a new window)
About these pages
- The Low-Carbon Living pages have just been launched and are currently under review. You are welcome to send your comments to sustainability@scambs.gov.uk (This link will open in a new window)
Our Partners
- South Cambridgeshire's Environment Group
Help address the issues and monitor the progress of the Community Strategy, which contains a series of actions to help improve the quality of life across the district and that tackle climate change.
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Change Network
A cross-sectoral partnership providing support to public and private sector organisations as well as local communities seeking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
- South Cambridgeshire Strategic Partnership
The South Cambridgeshire Strategic Partnership (or LSP: Local Strategic Partnership) is a partnership between the council and various partners to work together towards achieving economic, environmental and social standards for the district.
4.2 Action!
In this section:
- What you can do now
- Invest a little, save a lot
- Over the hurdles
Over the hurdles
1. Install a condensing boiler
A condensing boiler is a high efficiency modern boiler that incorporates an extra heat exchanger so that the hot exhaust gases lose much of their energy to pre-heat the water in the boiler system. When working at peak efficiency, the water vapour produced in the combustion process condenses back into liquid form releasing the latent heat of vaporisation. You can purchase condensing boilers whether your fuel is mains gas, LPG or oil.
2. Heat your water from the sun
Solar energy can be captured by solar panels. These panels absorb the energy from the sun and transfer it to heat water. Solar Power Solar water heating systems are the most popular form of solar energy used in the UK. The system is connected to the hot water system. Solar water heating systems can provide over half of a household's hot water requirements over the year. There are 2 types of solar water heating collector: flat plate and evacuated tubes.
3. Heat your house from the ground
When the sun shines on the ground its heat energy is absorbed. Ground source heat pumps extract this energy, to use for space heating. So strictly speaking, the energy source that is used for ground source heat pumps is the sun and not the heat from the earth.
4. Heat your house with wood (in a clean way!)
In order not to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it is important that the wood burned as a fuel comes from sustainable sources. This means that as trees are felled to be use as a fuel, more trees should be planted. That way, the carbon released during the combustion of the wood is reabsorbed by the new trees growing and the process is carbon neutral. Wood can be used as logs, wood chip and wood pellets in wood/pellet burning stoves or wood chip/pellet boilers for space and water heating.
More information on wood heating
5. Fit double glazing
Double glazing is the UK's most popular energy saving measure. If your windows need replacing, make sure that you specify "Low-e" glazing, which has a special heat-reflective coating between the two panes of glass. This will reduce heat loss through the glass by nearly half. You can also ask for Argon gas filled windows: argon is a gas found naturally in ordinary air, but it transmits heat much less readily than the other gases in air, so helps you save even more money. Finally, look at the air gap between the panes; 6mm or 8mm are not really adequate, but 12mm to 20mm are much better are stopping heat losses (and also for reducing noise transmission).
6. Generate your own power from the sun
Solar energy can be captured by solar panels. Photo-voltaic (PV) or solar electric panels transform the solar radiation directly into electricity. PV or solar electric offers the ability to generate electricity in a clean, quiet and renewable way. The variety of applications for solar electric are numerous. Photo-voltaic (PV) cells are used in simple applications e.g. calculators and watches and also for domestic and larger applications. Large PV systems can be integrated into buildings to generate electricity for export to the national grid.
More information on photo-voltaic (solar electric) panels
7. Generate your own power from the wind
The power of wind has been used for many years to produce mechanical power for milling grain and pumping water. In recent times wind turbine technology harness wind to generate electricity. The electricity is then exported either to the grid for use locally or to power a stand alone application. This renewable source of energy has great potential in both onshore and offshore wind farms. Wind power is one of the cleanest and safest of all the renewable commercial methods of generating electricity.
More information on wind power
8. Generate electricity using water
The energy potential of moving water has been harnessed for thousands of years, originally using water wheels to drive mills and machinery. Hydro-power currently produces 2% of the UK electricity needs. Whilst most of this comes from large dam projects installed many years ago, there is still an untapped small hydro-power potential in certain parts of the UK.
