News

Peckham Power is holding a series of events in various Peckham locations during May 2012 in order to meet local people and find out what their ideas for "living and working sustainably" are.

This is part of our feasibility study for an application to the Big Lottery Fund for a 5 year project to help people in Peckham "live and work sustainably".  We are very grateful to the Big Lottery for awarding us the funding to carry out the feasibility study.

The events confirmed so far are:

Peckham Power has been selected as one of 30 groups in England to receive feasibility study funding for the Big Lottery's new "Communities Living Sustainably" (CLS) programme.  This programme is to enable communities address climate change mitigation and adaptation and live and work in more "sustainable" ways (including social, economic and environmental sustainability).

We're delighted to have been selected from over 250 initial applications for feasibility study funding.  From the current group of 30 communities, just 10 will be selected to receive up to £1 million funding for their 5 year projects.

We are now in the process of running our feasibility study, and soon we will be publicising a series of events where we will be meeting with our local community and listening to their ideas.  What would you like to see?

We have some ideas already - we're keen to know what you think of them:

helping people use less gas and electricity

developing a local repair service for small domestic items (not electric or electronic repairs)

developing new types of local jobs

growing our own food

Info about our events between now and early June to follow shortly...

Want to find out what's involved in making an ordinary Victorian terrace house really energy efficient, using the passiv haus concept?

Then join us at 7.30pm on Thursday 9 December; address 73 Gordon Road, Peckham, SE15 2AF.
Read the rest of this post

 "the real thing... insulating Victorian houses" session, which had been scheduled for Thurs 19 August, needs to be re-scheduled.  Sorry for any convenience!  We'll let you know as soon as we have a new date.

The Peckham Power members' event on Saturday 31 July will be at Bellenden Old School, 165 Bellenden Road, Peckham, SE15 4DG, between 1-5pm.  All are welcome.

Bring and share light refreshments will be available from 1pm.  Meeting proper starts at 2pm, with two topics:

1 practical presentation and answer and question session on domestic loft insulation from Peckham Power trustee Jack Kelly, and local architect Clyde Watson who has many years' experience of working with housing associations and on other properties.

We're sorry to anounce that we've had to change the date of our summer members' event.  This event will now take place on:

Saturday 31 July 2010

Light refreshments from 1pm, formal meeting start at 2pm

The topics remain unchanged - demonstration of loft insulation by Jack Kelly and Clyde Watson, and discussion about the priorities for Peckham Power in the short and medium term.

Events coming up

The Real Thing: Fold Up Bikes

Photo by Peddle Power Pete

Thursday, 17 June 2010 7:00pm - 9:00pm, 55 Blenheim Grove

Come along to join a relaxed conversation about the pros and cons of fold-up bikes from people who actually have experience of fold-up bikes in Peckham.

Peckham Power Members’ Event…

Will be on Saturday 3 July, refreshments from 1pm, formal meeting to start at 2pm.  

• Practical discussion about loft insulation  (Jack Kelly and Clyde Watson) 
• what we want Peckham Power’s priorities to be over the next 6 months - and beyond?

Location to be confirmed.  We will email with details.  Or keep an eye on the website page for the event.

Green Jobs conference on 22 June

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) are holding a one-day conference about green jobs, and particularly how to include and build on the experience of the many grassroots community groups in this area, and how to enable the development of green jobs to be socially inclusive and promote economic re-generation.  The experiences of Peckham Power are being used as a case study to inform the conference, and we will also be attending the event.

TTP Renewables Energy Explanation and Funding Advice Event

Transition Town Peckham have very kindly invited Peckham Power to join an event at the end of June providing introductory explanations about how renewable energy sources work and funding advice that they are holding with the support of Creative Energy Networks.  More details to follow nearer the time.

Reports on current projects and past events:

Power Meter project report

We’re continuing to make steady progress on our power meter project.  Hugo Schonbeck from GPX visited two new local renewable electricity sites last week (1st Place Family and Children’s Centre, Sarawak Court) to work out what the technical requirements are for their electricity production to be included in our project, so we look forward to these sites being included in our project in due course.  Many thanks to Hugo for dealing with these tricky technical aspects.

Our draft animation about the project has been shown to some local school-children (thank you to New Gumboots After-School Club) and to a local youth group by a local youth worker (thank you to Andrew Alleyne and Edward James for organising that), and will be shown to the school council at St John’s and St Clement’s Primary School on 9 June.  Thanks too to Pippa Krishnan, our Cleaner Greener Safer officer at London Borough of Southwark who has suggested some new school contacts for us.  

Giona Fiorentino, who’s studying for an MSc in Environmental Design at Goldsmith’s, has very kindly improved our draft animation.  We think it looks really good now – what do you think?

Thanks to the hard work of Bert de Vries at AVIC (the website that collects all the data for the project) we’re also making progress with the consumption meters part of the project.  We will be test-driving 5 households with the consumption meters over the next couple of months.  

Dulwich Fayre

We had a really enjoyable time talking to local people at the Dulwich Fayre on Goose Green on Sunday 9 May, especially focusing on their experiences of loft insulation.  We got a very interesting range of responses, from people not knowing what loft insulation was, to those who knew about it but couldn’t get in to their loft because it had no hatch, and those who wanted to get loft insulation done but pay for it gradually in instalments.  This has been very useful in our ongoing discussions with Creative Energy Networks about what is needed for an effective cavity and loft insulation project in the local area.  

the real thing… solar hot water

Our first workshop bringing together those “Peckham Pioneers” who have already adopted a low carbon technology and those who want to learn more happened on Wednesday 12 May, and was attended by 9 people.  Many thanks to Gill, Benedict and Josephine who gave us their valuable time explaining what their experiences of solar thermal hot water systems had been.  We all found it very useful, and are particularly pleased that it was useful for the speakers too.

A write-up of the event can be found on our website

a photo of one the solar thermal panels that Benedict talked at the event.  Many thanks to Benedict O'Looney for the photo.

Discussions with Creative Energy Networks about local insulation project

We are having discussions with Creative Energy Networks, an energy-focused company that includes insulation installers and energy advice provision, about the delivery of a local insulation project [for both cavity walls and lofts].  Jack Kelly and Clyde Watson who both have technical expertise in this area have been carefully considering all the technical factors that need to be included in loft insulation in particular.  We shall keep you updated about the discussions as they progress.

Upcoming event: “The Real Thing: Solar Hot Water”

• Wednesday 12 May, 6:30pm
• The Montpelier Pub, 43 Choumert Road, Peckham SE15 4AR (map)

Two different types of solar thermal panels (both photos taken by Johny M)

Three local people with experience of using solar hot water will share their experiences with us on Wednesday 12 May at 6.30pm, in The Montpelier pub, 43 Choumert Road, Peckham SE15 4AR (map).  Come along to hear about solar thermal systems from local people who actually have first hand experience living with solar thermal systems, not salespeople.  We look forward to seeing you there!   Many thanks to Momo, the new manager of The Montpelier, for agreeing to host this event. 

Updates

Power Meter project

A quick re-cap: the Peckham Power Meter Project has two broad aims:

• to provide Smart Meters to Peckham Residents to help us to manage our electricity consumption more effectively
• to measure and collect live information about renewable electricity production in the area and to display this on our website and in public spaces

We're currently developing the project and we're thrilled that we’ve now got connections to two local renewable electricity sites and we're successfully collecting live production data.  Hooray!  Many thanks to Donnachadh McCarthy’s photo-voltaic panels, and the wind turbine at TRUE (Trust for Urban Ecology) at Rotherhithe.

The TRUE wind turbine on the left with Canary Wharf in the background

A close-up of the TRUE wind turbine from which we're now collecting data

The grey box on the right is the communications device that Hugo has installed for us.  It collects the production data and sends it over the local cellphone network.  Ultimately this data will drive our online graph.

Live production data from the wind turbine. This graph is just a proof of concept. One of our next tasks is to commission a piece of web software which will make more user-friendly graphs.

The next stage is to get this local renewable electricity production information displayed on our website live, and we’re waiting to hear back from a website designer who may be able build the necessary software.  If you know someone who could help us display graphs on our website that are updated with live data, please get in touch. We're also exploring the possibility of including 1st Place at Burgess Park, and the CHP (Combined Heat and Power plant) at Sarawak Court, Consort Road, as local renewable electricity sites. 

We’ve developed the electricity consumption side of the project sufficiently to mean that we can now start test the equipment in real life situations.

The AlertMe base station

The AlertMe clamp simply hugs the power cable; it doesn't cut into the power cable.  The AlertMe clamp communicates wirelessly with the base station.

We will start testing the AlertMe meters in 5 homes within the next couple of weeks.  Many thanks to our volunteers for this: Jack, Caswell, Zaria, Magda, and Elsie.  The volunteers will be able to keep track of their consumption on the AlertMe website

Jack's energy consumption as shown on the AlertMe website. The tall, thin spikes are the kettle and toaster. The regular bumps along the bottom are the fridge's compressor turning on and off.

Please contact us if you would like to take part in the project and learn about how to reduce your energy use at home as well as learning more about renewable electricity.  Or you can learn more about the Power Meter project on our website.

Vote for Renewable Power!

Have you voted for power yet on our website?  Even if you feel fed up with elections and voting, we'd really like you to support us in our campaign to get more community-owned renewable power production, so please vote for renewable power on our website.

Report from Green Fair in AREA10 on Saturday 17 April

We had a great time at our green fair with the 150 or so people who attended.  The driving simulator, grant advice and demonstration house and loft insulation stall were particularly successful, and the refreshments provided by The Frog on the Green delicious.

The Energy Saving Trust's driving simulator

Dr Bike.  Fixing bikes.

The new Peckham Power Energy Efficiency Model House, funded by a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Peckham Community Council award.

Discussing Peckham Power's draught busting project

Thanks go to all our volunteers who helped on the day, especially Daniel, David and André, EST/CENfor supporting the event and their staff team who helped on the day, Laura McCrea from London Borough of Southwark for her assistance in getting us Dr Bike, and supplying all the information on walking and cycling, The Frog on the Green for the catering and Southwark Greenpeace for welcoming people so well.

Website Changes

We’ve updated our website, trying to make it easier to use, with new, short pages on our current andfuture projects, and more photos.  We've got other improvements planned, so we’ll keep you informed about these as they happen.

We’re trying out keeping a 10:10 diary on our website, as an example of what it’s really like focusing on reducing your energy use at home.  Take a look and comment on the posts.  We'd love to include some more 10:10 diaries on the website.  If you'd like to share your 10:10 experiences on our website or if you're already keeping a 10:10 blog elsewhere then please let us know.

Goodbye and Thank You…

to Polly Raymond who coordinated and helped us organise all our meetings, a vital and huge task,  thank you for all your hard work, especially helping co-ordinate our Low Carbon Communities Challenge bid.  Best wishes for your other activities in Peckham – we hope you will be back in the near future.

Peckham Power and the Peckham Experiment

We were asked to give a presentation about our activities and how this related to the principles of the Pioneer Health Centre (also known as the Peckham Experiment), at a seminar on Thursday 22 April.  The Pioneer Health Centre was an exploration of what made for people’s health, rather than a study of disease, based in the Peckham area between the 1920’s and 1950’s.  It was a really informative event, attended by some very interesting people, and was particularly interesting to learn how many of the principles developed 70 years ago are still really relevant today.  Thank you to the Pioneer Health Foundation for inviting us.

You can see the slides of our presentation here

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Contact Us

• You can e-mail us: info [at] peckhampower [dot] org
• Twitter: twitter.com/peckhampower
• Phone: 020 7617 7650
• Or take part in our online discussions:  for example, active discussions at present include:
  • Developing our community Loft Insulation Project
  • Planning a group trip
  • Developing our online map of local renewables and energy efficiency installations

We had an absolutely fantastic Green Fair on Saturday 17th April with the Energy Saving Trust in Area 10, Peckham.  Over 100 people came to see some interesting ways to manage energy consumption.

The EST's driving simulator was a great success:

Discussing insulation:

Dr Bike... fixing bikes!...

Our new Energy Efficiency Model House:

The electric car, with the colourful Peckham Library in the background:

Discussing draught proofing:

Finally, time to pack up:

More photos on Flickr

Peckham Power are holding a free green fair this SATURDAY 17th APRIL from 2pm to 6pm in AREA10, a warehouse building just behind Peckham Library.  Entrance is to the left of the Library, and back a bit: look for white letters "AREA10" on a black background on the building.  A map is available on our website.

Refreshments by The Frog on the Green.

The theme is 'Saving Energy, Saving Money'. The event is supported by the Energy Saving Trust.

Lots of practical hands-on demonstrations and advice, including:

• Window insulation
• Loft insulation
• Peckham Power's power meter project
• Energy efficiency doll's house for hands-on energy saving things to do at home
• How to make free containers to plant your veg in
• Dr Bike
• Diving simulator
• Snakes and ladders energy game
• Energy help-desk and grants advice
• Heating controls workshop
• Electric vehicles display 
• Energy Saving Workshop

Come to learn about saving energy and to meet other local, like minded folks.