HEAT Update – At a Glance-2

Welcome to the February edition of HEAT Matters. This has been an exciting month for the team as not only are we very close to our Energy Fair in The Glens (read more about our exciting event further on in the article) but we are happy to be offering a new service, Home Thermal Imaging! A Thermal Image is a great way to identify problem areas (i.e. Cold spots) within your home, once you are aware of these it will give you a better idea of what can be done to fix them. This service will be offered free (all our services are!) during our Home Energy Surveys. So, if you think your home may be lacking insulation in certain areas or want confirmation that a window is contributing to heat loss within your home, get in touch to arrange a Home Energy Survey & Thermal Image and find out if you were right! Read more about Thermal Imaging and all it’s benefits in our Energy Advisor, Rachel’s, article – “What Do You Give an Energy Advisor Who Has Everything?”

Energy Fair in The Glens

One of our biggest events of the year is happening this week, the Energy Fair in The Glens! This is shaping up to be a great event with several exhibitors filling Kirkmichael Village Hall including Home Energy Scotland, Glenalmond Stoves, Glaze & Save, Scottish Water, Coupar Angus Cycling Hub, Citrus Energy, The Fire Service, Mount Blair Community Development Trust and John Manning Architect. We are very excited to have an “Energy Themed” performance by local pupils from Kirkmichael Primary School who will also be displaying work they created while taking part in our Carbon Literacy Workshops (find out more about what the pupils got up to further on in the article). We are also offering a free prize draw so you could be in with chance of winning one of our HEAT Project Hampers, full of goodies to help you keep on top of your energy usage. With free entry and everyone welcome whether a Glen resident or not, a Landlord or Tenant, Homeowner or Business, it’s going to be a night not to be missed! Pop along and see us between 2pm and 6.30pm, we look forward to meeting you!

Education & Workshops

Our Sessional worker, Jane, & our Energy Advisor, Rachel, have been working with Kirkmichael Primary School this month. They are delivering several workshops with the pupils designed to promote carbon literacy and in turn make children more energy aware. Read Jane’s update and find out what the pupils have been up to.

“The workshops will promote carbon literacy through a series of practical sessions. We are scaffolding one concept & skill upon another and offering real world learning experiences. The children have been very enthusiastic, willing to learn and have thoroughly enjoyed the practical exercises!

In the first session we talked about our daily energy requirements and different sources of energy. We then went out to do a Forest School style fire session. The children were actively engaged in building the fire, ensuring seating was at a safe distance and removing slip & trip hazards. They then carried out a series of experiments.  They looked at states of matter, created charcoal pencils and even got to see greenhouse gases being produced while the pencils where being made. For the final task they got to toast marshmallows which went down very well!

The second session included a review of week one and a discussion about Greenhouse Gases. We then drew carbon footprints with the (previously made) charcoal pencils, one was filled with activities which caused a large carbon footprint and the other was filled with activities which would reduce your carbon footprint.  We also made draught excluders in class and the children took them home in order to be ‘Draught Busters’ along with a Home Energy Survey to deliver to their parents.

In the final session the children will be planting trees to show how we can capture and store carbon.”

Recycle your Crisp Packets!

We are happy to be working in conjunction with the Blairgowrie, Rattray & District Climate Café and TerraCycle to act as a collection point where you can drop off your Walkers crisp packets to be recycled. The scheme allows crisp packets to be recycled instead of ending up in landfill. So, don’t throw your old crisp packets out, save them up, drop them off with us and you’ll be making a difference to the environment! Find out more about the scheme at www.terracycle.co.uk.

Blairgowrie, Rattray & District Climate Café are also hosting a talk next month, “Future-Proofing The Planet” presented by Dr Keith Skene (Director, Biosphere Research Institute) at The Angus Hotel on Wednesday 20th March. For more information or to reserve your free ticket Click Here.

Martin Mathers, Project Manager