The Yarra Valley Community Power Hub is excited to offer local communities a range of services to help upgrade the energy efficiency of homes within the Greater Yarra Valley and Ranges region at their FREE webinar on Monday 13 December, 7.30 – 9.00pm.
It is well known that Australian homes, unlike those in Europe and North America, have not historically been built with thermal qualities in mind.
Often our homes are freezing in winter and like ovens in summer with huge amounts of expensive energy being required to heat and cool them.
For those on low incomes or for others in rented accommodation the situation can be very trying and distressing with electricity and gas budgets going sky high.
This webinar will address what our communities can do to improve this situation.
Lucinda Flynn, a certified Home Energy Efficiency Assessor, is the key speaker and is passionate about taking action on the climate emergency through improving the thermal efficiency of our homes.
Through this webinar Lucinda will help to clarify what is meant by Home Energy Efficiency in simple, easy to understand terms, how to improve the overall efficiency and comfort within our homes for winter and summer, while also explaining how we can use less electricity to create significant savings for a relatively small investment.
Lucinda will make the point that this is an investment because within a year or two the cost will be repaid through the savings on our energy bills and then we continue to benefit from lower bills in perpetuity.
Lucinda, who has many years’ experience in this field, said, ”Running our houses and staying comfortable in them is usually the biggest cost any of us will have in our lives, so it is incredibly useful to understand how our houses use energy, and what specific upgrades will help them use less. As they say – ‘the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use’ – and that’s what we want to help people achieve.”
The webinar will also detail additional Home Energy Efficiency services being offered by the Yarra Valley Community Power Hub which will benefit all households.
On offer is a Home Energy Efficiency Advisory Program – where there is a choice of either a professional advisory service (fee paying) or a free service from one of the YR-CPHub’s trained home energy efficiency community advisors, to visit your home to demonstrate how you can start your efficiency program.
The YV-CPHub is also facilitating the supply and installation of free energy efficiency products to upgrade the energy efficiency of products in your homes and to reduce your energy bills.
A registered installer will provide a range of free products such as LED lights, draft excluders, water efficient shower roses, home energy electricity monitoring devices linked to your mobile phone, and lots more, ABSOLUTELY FREE through the Victorian Government Energy Upgrade Program. These will save households many hundreds of dollars annually on their energy bills.
For those who prefer a DIY solution for home energy efficiency, there will be home energy efficiency kits available through the Eastern Regional Libraries, compliments of three local councils – Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges.
These kits will contain a thermal camera, an electricity monitoring device, instruction manual and more, for very easy DIY projects in home energy efficiency. Community members can register on the YV-CPHub website to be informed when these kits will become available (expected mid-January 2022).
An exciting innovation for the YV-CPHub, is their focus on education and training programs.
A training course at Box Hill Institute (Lilydale Campus) to become a voluntary home energy efficiency advisor for your local community energy group will commence in February/March 2022.
In addition, the YV-CPHub has developed a short course on Community Renewable Energy, being trialed at three local Community or Neighbourhood Houses in Nillumbik, Emerald or Pakenham.
You can register your attendance for the webinar and for these services at https://www.yvcommunitypowerhub.org.au/events/event/home-energy-efficiency/
To learn more about the Yarra Valley Community Power Hub and its initiatives, please visit https://www.yvcommunitypowerhub.org.au/
