Cricklade Sustainability Project

Home efficiency is key to reducing energy bills and emissions. It covers draught reduction, insulation, heating, cooling, solar, batteries, keeping cool in heatwaves, EV charging and many more aspects.

CriSP seeks to help householders to understand what may be appropriate for them to consider. We can put Cricklade householders in touch with others in the town who have already made changes. We will be able to assist with thermal camera surveys and other local knowledge on similar houses to identify options.

There are many different ways to improve home efficiency. Online resources can help. Some possible websites to start with include:

         Centre for Sustainable Energy - Advice Leaflets

         Energy Saving Trust - Advice Leaflets

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is currently providing £7,500 grants for the installation of heat pumps by qualified MCS installers. This has recently been extended to support heat pumps with both heat and cooling capability, provided the heat is the primary function. The grant is supplied through the installer as a discount to the invoice.

Through the Warm Homes Plan, grant funding is available for upgrades to social housing.

For other homes many upgrades pay for themselves within a year, or only a few years. These, depending on the details, often include LED lighting, draught exclusion, window films, solar, batteries.

The Warm Homes Plan promises zero or low interest loans for home energy upgrades. While the details of these loans has not yet been provided, the current expectation is that some funding will become available in 2027.

It is very early days for the Project in Cricklade. We have a number of initiatives we are pursuing:

Green Open Homes - Arranging for those interested in hearing how local homes have made changes, the challenges, benefits and experience along the way, to share their experience with others less far along the home improvement journey. If you are interesting in these please contact William at info@crispaction.org.

Listed Property Upgrades - We are engaging with Wiltshire Council to explore ways to make it easier for those in listed properties to improve their property energy efficiency. Again, if you are interesting in these please contact William at info@crispaction.org.

Switch Together - Switch Together is a Wiltshire Council programme to lower the cost of solar, batteries, heat pumps and other efficiency measures through group buying. The Council has used a bidding process to select a small number of suppliers with verified delivery quality to provide very competitive quotes for interested households. There are further discounts available if several households in the same location order the upgrades together. To find out more click here. If you would like assistance to form a group to order together please contact William at info@crispaction.org.

The map shows the average Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating for each of Cricklade's central postcodes. While EPCs are usually only updated when a house is sold, they do give an indication of the houses most likely to benefit from efficiency upgrades.

Recently built houses are usually rated 'A' or 'B' (green on map), while they can benefit from LED lighting, solar, batteries and heat pumps, they would be expected to have good insulation and draught proofing.

Relatively new houses, and those slightly older who have already taken some measures, are frequently 'C' (yellow on map) and would have straightforward opportunities for improvement beyond the measures mentioned for 'A' and 'B' above.

The darker red postcodes, 'D's and 'E's, could often benefit significantly from insulation, window upgrades and/or draught proofing. 

Note that the map shows the average EPC for each postcode. To see the most recent EPC for your home, which will contain an initial set of ideas for energy efficiency improvements with an indiction of the potential benefit from each visit the Government EPC register.

Electric vehicle purchase prices, both new and second hand, are now approaching, or level, with their petrol equivalents. The running costs for an EV, charged overnight with an overnight tariff, are significantly lower, with the potential to save about £1,000 for every 10,000 miles driven. A home charger, for those lucky enough to have their own off road parking, can typically pay for itself within a year or so.

Those without the space for off-road parking currently have few equivalent alternatives. Street chargers tend to be far more, even 10x more expensive. There is work happening to find slutions to this, such as channels to run cables across pavements. CriSP will work to keep abreast of these changes and bring you solutions as soonas they become available.

We are local volunteers not tied to any suppliers, and are keen to help those interested in home efficiency. If you have any questions please email us at info@crispaction.org. We will do what we can to help you.

We would love to make contact with anyone in the community interested in finding out more or helping in our work.