Peckham Power Post May-June 2010

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.