Energy advice at centre of climate change mission

Richard Davies, vice-chair of Stoke Climsland Parish Council, said it is hoped the guide makes residents consider making changes

Parish councillors are trying to fight climate change by helping households reduce their carbon footprints.

Stoke Climsland Parish Council has sent 2,500 retrofit guides to residents with advice about how changes at their property could make them more energy efficient and cut household bills.

Advice in the guide includes lowering thermostats, insulating properties and installing a heat pump.

Richard Davies, vice-chair of the council, said many houses in the parish were not well insulated and were in effect "heating the garden, not the house".

He said it was hoped the guide would help residents consider making changes.

"You don't need to do it all at once, but if you actually have a plan of what you need to do - maybe over 10 years - you can actually then address things in a cost-effective way and a way that you can afford individually," Mr Davies said.

The guide comes two years after the council received £54,000 from Cornwall Council's Good Growth Fund to offer residents the chance to have a retrofit survey at their property.

It was offered on a first-come, first-served basis and 45 properties had a survey costing £150 instead of the usual price of £1,500.

John Lewis, who lives in Downgate, had the survey done at his home and said although he was sceptical at first, it ended up being "very useful" after having a heat pump installed.

John Lewis said he was sceptical at first about having a heat pump because he had an older property but ended up finding it "very useful"

"There's a bit of a myth around heat pumps won't work in old stone built properties," Mr Lewis said.

"Having this study done, I realised this was not the case because particularly where you have these thick stone walls in these old 18th and 19th Century buildings they retain heat almost like a battery.

"If you're using the constant gentle heat of a heat-pump, it helps to warm the walls up and that heat is trapped and maintained within the fabric of the building."