I went to the Green Communities launch in Manchester a couple of weeks ago and complained to the Energy Saving trust because their number 1 energy saving method was "Turn your heating down". I felt that this immediately told people that they were going to suffer and that it would put people off - looks like I was right. We ran our own energy saving evenings where we invited the neighbourhood round to look at our renovation work to show them how we have saved energy. We pitched our message like this:

1, Financial. If you have £100, what can you do with it?

Investment	Total
Cavity Wall Insulation	£0.00
2010 (Saves £100 on gas)	£100.00
2011 (Gas price increase, saves £110)	£210.00
2012 (Gas price increase, saves £120)	£330.00
2013 (Saves £120)	£450.00

The actual saving would vary, but is about right for a three bedroom house on this estate.

2, Environmental. Whether you believe in climate change or not, burning more than we need to is definitely a bad idea.

3, Security of supply. The less we use, the more there is for later—simple.

This message seemed to come across better and about 20% of our estate has made improvements which is a start. Some of the neighbours have even started passing the message on themselves to others who didn't come. So the basics can be done, but getting deeper cuts is going to need a stronger message and I must admit I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to do that.

Bri.

Thanks Nick, there are lots of things that can be done for under £100, it's just hard work deciding which one will benefit the most. We are lucky here, because all the houses were built by the same company 13 years ago, so fix one, you can fix them all. I think my other favourites are a bathroom extractor fan with powered shutters and a programmable thermostat, but sometimes inexpensive things like your draught excluder give the most benefit.

I am going to get the council to come round and do a thermal imaging survey of the estate in the next couple of weeks. That, along with the cold weather might inspire a few more.

Brian.

I can ask them. I assume that the problems mentioned on the snow on roof thread http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1542&page=2#Item_27 apply to this sort of thing too. Still think it is a good idea though.

I think more detail would also be useful, especially with the houses being similar. The problems with our porch on this http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=5067&page=1#Item_0 thread also apply to downstairs toilets for some of the houses. I am hoping that a more detailed survey will show up other defects that can be improved.
Bri.