draft busting

 Last Saturday (26th Oct) Peckham Power held its first "Draft Busting Saturday" at Anna's house.  Over the course of a few hours, we draft proofed all the single-glazed sash windows and the front door.  Folks popped along to have a look and to buy draft proofing materials at very low cost.  We ate cake and met some more of our neighbours.

Draft proofing is the most cost effective way to reduce the energy consumption of the old Victorian houses which are typical in Peckham.

We're hoping to have another draft busting event in the near future.

Hi folks,

On Saturday a few of us spent an hour getting to know the draft proofing materials that we're hoping to use in our Peckham Power Draft-Busting days.

We're planning our first draft-busting training session on Thursday 2nd July 2009 and then we'll aim to run monthly draft-busting events on Saturday afternoons.  Hurray!

Dear All,

Just a quick note to say that Anna and I are keen to get a draft-busting project running soon (as well as several other projects!)

Whilst it's true that draft-busting isn't particularly sexy or ground-breaking it does significantly reduce heat loss from old buildings and it is also very apt for a community organisation.  It should also be quite an easy "first project" to demonstrate that Peckham Power actually does stuff!  The proposal is that we'd copy Hyde Farm Carbon Action Network's excellent "Draft Busting Saturdays".  I'll briefly describe the "Draft Busting Saturday":

The event is held about once a month.  Each event is held at a different home.  Demonstrations are run in the house (e.g. "how to attach draft proofing to a sash window" or "how to draft proof a front door").  Materials are sold in handy kits.   Printed instructions are displayed.  People eat cake and drink tea.  The events are advertised through email, the web and by leaflet-dropping the local streets.  Large, friendly signs are displayed outside the location.  Several volunteers are on hand to help out with the cash flow and packaging of the materials.

The materials are sourced directly from the supplier (GTi insulations) and the supplier also ran some training for a small number of people from Hyde Farm CAN.  The matterials are of a higher quality than can be found in most large DIY shops and are supplied at a lower cost.

At the moment, I'm about to contact GTi to ask about the training sessions.

Please do let me know if you have any ideas about the Draft Busting project or if you'd like to help out with the organising.

Thanks,

Jack