Futureproofing Our Homes
Think Globally - Act Locally
Start At Home!
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Next event TBC (Jan)
Come to the
Langford Budville Village Hall
10am - 12:30pm
Come along to the
This page is designed to help people around Langford Budville adapt their homes for our changing weather, economics, and energy system. This cuts through the overwhelming amount of information available about how we can keep our homes warm in winter, cool in summer, and less polluting overall.
START HERE
A great starting point is to talk to friends and neighbours about their experiences. You don't have to walk far to see solar panels, heat pumps, batteries and EVs outside people's homes and we have a growing list of neighbours who will happily show you what systems they have in their house, how they work, and who installed them.
COME TO THE ELECTRIC CAFE
If you're curious about getting more efficient home heating and cooling, having electricity stored for power cuts, generating electricity yourself, or just cutting your fuel bills, come to our quarterly "Electric Cafes"at Langford Budville Village Hall, where locals help each other out on their electrification journeys, and share ideas for greener homes and communities.
You can also ask the Electric Cafe community on our WhatsApp group.
If you have experiences or advice to share, or an engineer to recommend, we'd love to speak with you.
READ ON...
Ways to make your home cosier
ONE - INSULATION & EFFICIENCY
As appliances and fittings reach the end of their working lives, if they can't be repaired, replace them with more energy efficient models.
Home improvements aren't cheap. However, there is government support available to most of us, either up front or over time. For example, currently there is a £9,000 grant for help towards replacing old oil boilers with heat pumps, and energy companies are currently paying over 10p/kWh for any spare electricity from your solar panels that you don't use.
The Energy Saving Trust has great resources, including funding and support options.
TWO - SHADE
Prepare for our hot summers - the cheapest cooling is to stop the heat before it enters your home. Shading the outside of a building - rather than trying to cool it back down afterwards - is consistently the most effective single step. Growing plants on the south side of your home is a beautiful way to cool your home and a great excuse to buy that climber you've always wanted!
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THREE - SOLAR, BATTERY, HEATING, COOLING, & EVS!
A petrol or diesel engine converts approximately 20-30% of its fuel into propulsion. This means that from a tenner's worth of fuel, £7-£8 is going up in smoke!
If you had an electric car and could charge it at home around £8.50 of that tenner would be used as propulsion.
An average sized petrol car, filled at the pump with £2 of fuel will get you around 15 miles.
A similar sized EV, charged at home with a typical EV tariff, will get you around 120 miles.
Try HSBC's Electric Vehicle Cost Comparision
With the fabric of your home as resilient and efficient as possible, the next step is to harness the efficiency of electricity. The order you do this in will be down to your circumstances and priorities - for instance your transport requirements or the age of your boiler - but if you want a framework to play with, consider this route, where each system supports the next. At the very least - it's a conversation starter for energy geeks!
Solar PV > Battery > Heat Pump (or alternative) > EV
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Solar panels will cut your energy usage across the year (here's a short info sheet) and here's some information about Plug In Solar, which has an estimated payback of approx 4 years.
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A battery will allow you to store excess solar or electricity from cheaper tariffs for use across the day and night;
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Heat Pumps are incredibly efficient at moving heat between your home and the outdoors (air-to-air heat pumps can cool as well as heat!). Pairing with a battery and a variable energy tariff like Octopus Cosy allows you to run the pump using cheaper rate electricity whenever it's needed. This document has further info and compares daily variable rate tariffs (2026).
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Electric Cars - wow! Currently beyond my expertise - I'll need some help on this section...
The Energy Saving Trust is a brilliant website and has information for all levels of understanding.
Dave Mansell is one of our two Green Party councillors and his super website gives an up-to date local context as well as useful further links.
There are many YouTube channels which can demystify these amazing technologies. Here are just a few:
A NOTE ON AIR CON
This is an excellent podcast from the BBC World Service, discussing the growing need and expectations of Air Con. With our hotter summers becoming a serious annual public health risk, the need to keep our homes cool becomes ever more apparent.
The conversation is developing, but if you are considering updating your heating system, do consider a ducted Air-to-Air Heat Pump system, AKA Air Conditioner, as used as standard across Europe and the US. The key is to use them efficiently, in tandem with other, low energy strategies.
Heat that never enters the house is the cheapest heat to deal with. Shading the outside of a building - rather than trying to cool it back down afterwards - is consistently the most effective single step.
Watch this really useful video short
and
download this useful document all about how to stay cool in summer without cranking up AC.
FOUR - RENEWABLE ENERGY
and
All score top marks from Which? for their renewable energy supply.
Solar and wind are now generating more electricity in Europe annually than fossil fuels.
Here's some food for thought - approximately 50% of global shipping emissions come from transporting fossil fuels. Switch today and help stop burning stuff!
If you choose to switch to Octopus use our referral code GOOD-STAR-594 and get £50 off your first bills. Langford Budville Village Hall will also receive £50, which it will donate to charity.
CHECK OUT OUR PAGE ON EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Come to the
Langford Budville Village Hall
The National Emergency Briefing
Further Information
You may already have heard about the National Emergency Briefing, when ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed an invited audience of more than 1,200 politicians and leaders from business, culture, faith, sport and the media in Westminster. The briefing set out the implications of climate and nature breakdown for health, food systems, national security and the economy, and did so on the public record. Its purpose was to demonstrate what a clear, evidence-led national emergency briefing could look like and why it is needed.
The film is based on the National Emergency Briefing in Westminster (featured by ITV, Channel 4 and The Times) with appearances from Chris Packham, Deborah Meaden, and a range of voices from across the UK. If you are interested in watching the film or hosting a screening go to the NEB Screening Map.
