How we helped the WI slice their energy usage
As a bespoke energy audit company we give a personal service. But unlike many other companies CLPM don’t just churn out standard reports with meaningless figures. We always approach each project in a tailored way and provide valuable, actionable advice.
THE PROJECT
We often help clients undergoing building work to make their homes more energy efficient and cut their fuel bills, but we also help clients with larger, more complex buildings too.
Denman, near Didcot in Oxfordshire is the Women’s Institute own Residential and Day Adult Education College near Oxford. It is a graceful Georgian house, set in 17 acres of beautiful grounds. Denman runs day and residential cookery and crafts courses which are popular with both WI members and the general public.
THE CHALLENGE
The National Federation of Women’s Institute in London considers being a role model in reducing climate change a priority. Denman was experiencing problems both with the comfort of users across the site and higher than expected fuel bills. Our brief was to carry out a thorough energy audit to determine the performance of the buildings, to assess the effectiveness of the heating systems and to highlight the opportunities for improvements in both energy usage and comfort.
THE SOLUTION
We started by carrying out an energy audit and a staff survey.
This resulted in a series of very specific recommendations on where insulation could be boosted as well as re-adjusting the settings of the various heating systems across the complex. We suggested the replacement of a number of windows and detailed the payback potential of installing photo-voltaic arrays. We also proposed carrying out additional metering to determine even more savings.
THE RESULT
Our recommendations have helped the WI make immediate utility bill savings. They also now understand their energy usage much more fully and this information has given them a plan for prioritising investment and their remedial works.
If you work for or run a charity that needs help cutting running costs then why not get in touch? There are often grants available that we can help you access.
CLPM Services used by our client:-
Energy Audit and sustainability review.
Going forward it would be absolutely fantastic if we could make Denman as energy efficient as possible with what we have got to play with. It will be nice to know we have done all we can with the limitations we have. It is going to be a potential long process but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Thanks for all your help with this. We couldn’t have done it without you!