List of project ideas for Peckham Power

General

1. Setup a monthly, regular "green drinks", possibly for all of SE London.

Solar PhotoVoltaic

1. Collaborate with ProClime

Solar thermal

Insulation

1. Run workshops on insulation for the building trade and advanced DIYers to improve education about the benefits of insulation, how to fit it and which materials to use. It would be great if these courses could be free to the attendees. Jack has emailed the Energy Saving Trust to ask if - in principal - they'd be interested in giving the courses. If they can't do it then perhaps we could also ask COIN and the Green Building Council.
2. Set up a "you teach me; I teach someone else" scheme whereby individuals pass on knowledge about installing insulation by helping eachother install the insulation. (e.g. if I went on a course about insulation then I'd spend a weekend helping Carl to fit his insulation who could then spend a weekend helping Anna who could then spend a weekend helping Matthew etc etc...)
3. Copy Hyde Farm CAN's "Draft-Busting Saturdays".  Every month the event is hosted at a different house.  Demonstrations are run in the house of how to draft proof the house.  Materials are sold in handy kits.   Printed instructions are displayed.  People eat cake and drink tea.  Contact suppliers to get cheap kit and to get some training.  Run 1 "Draft-Busting Sat" per month.  Make signs.  Leaflet-drop near the venue. http://peckhampower.org/forum/groups/energy-efficiency/draft-busting-project
4. Propose to the council that they subsidise or fully fund solid-wall insulation (there are currently NO funds available for solid wall insulation yet the local area has a substantial number of solid-walled houses)
5. Possibly sign up to the "Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes" network?
6. Have a local repository of insulation (primarily the expensive stuff like Kingspan). We "feed" the store from local unneeded insulation and from picking up the occasional excellent deal on eBay. We keep track of how much has been spent on the current stock and divide this by the number of units and this is the sale price (i.e. we don't make a profit. The idea is that we can do a good job of waiting until good deals come along).
7. Jo (of Southwark FoE) has very kindly offered to run workshops for people who want to build their own secondary glazing. See the "energy efficiency group making secondary glazing?" forum thread.
8. Buy an infrared thermography camera to survey homes.  Please see this forum thread: Proposal that Peckham Power should do IR Thermography
9. Smart Meters, Cleaner Greener Safer & DECC

Training

1. Jack: Listening to the news, there are some very gloomy forecasts for the increase in unemployment over the coming months, especially in the house-building sector. At the same time, we're talking about training up local installers and getting as many ticks from the council as possible. It would seem that a "tickworthy" scheme would be to target out-of-work local builders; train them in installing green technologies and then see if the council will fund or at least subsidise their labour when they actually start work. It would seem that everyone wins: the tradespeople get meaningful jobs; the council get to limit unemployment and show off their green credentials; the trainers get to work with people who already have a good understanding of the building trade and homeowners get a group of local, well-trained "eco" builders. Sure, this is basically the "Green New Deal" idea but with the very slight modification that we target out-of-work builders. Sorry, I know this isn't original but I just wanted to "put it out there"... Anna: In fact, if you look at the Southwark Plan, there's something called MAI (Multiple Agency Initiative) that targets out-of-work people for training - why can't we build on that? (It would also work against the populist argument that climate change is only about jobs for the rich, when what we need is a huge shift in the provision of mass practical skills to a high minimum standard.)
   1. skill up a group of people [committed residents?] to check that work has been done to the necessary standard [since any measures adopted really must work] - this would be easier on the back of a training process.
2. Anna's "library of knowledge" idea. Person X gets training and installs a green product in their home. Person Y wants to know more about that particular green product. We put person Y in touch with person X. At the very least, person Y can then visit person X's home to see how it was done; or perhaps person X could even volunteer an afternoon to help get person Y started on their own installation.
3. Anna: There's also the opportunity/need, as I think I've mentioned before, of influencing the content of training and apprenticeships, given that these are being devolved to local authorities in the near future [next year or so]. But that's a step for the future, after our project[s] are demonstrated successful...

Electrical Energy Efficiency

1. Jack: Perhaps Peckham Power could team up with the Peckham Library who would lend smart meters out (which may also help to attract users to the library). (update 16/03/2010 - See Power Meter Project page)
2. A board of energy efficient light bulbs - either make one or contact www.eco-st.co.uk to ask to borrow one of their demo kits (as seen by Jack at Hyde Farm CAN on 14.02.2009)
3. Volunteers who would visit homes to advise on energy efficient lights and would have a stack of energy efficient lights with them.

Reducing car use

1. Somehow allow users to take supermarket trolleys all the way home. Perhaps users could rent trolleys on a month-by-month basis for a few quid (but really any such scheme should be free to the end user). Or perhaps there could be a weekly trolley collection (e.g. shoppers walk to the shop then return home the with trolley. They then lock the trolley somewhere nearby using a lock supplied by Sainsbury's (who have the only keys) and the trolleys are collected once a week. Or have trolley "garages" dotted throughout the catchment area). Or just make and sell decent trolleys.