We are aiming to reduce the amount of gas and electricity used in each of the 45 council owned sites across the Borough by 5% every year.
Q. Which of the council owned sites use the most energy?
The sites which currently use the most energy are the offices at Knowle Green; the Depot on the Kingston Road; Staines, Shepperton and Ashford day centres; Tothill and Elmsleigh car parks and the 15 park pavilions.
Q. What actions have the Council already taken to reduce its energy usage?
We have installed cavity wall and loft insulation at Knowle Green and introduced control panels which automatically switch off unused office equipment at both Knowle Green and the Depot.
We have also installed solar panels which produce electricity at the Elmsleigh and Tothill car parks and at three park pavilions.
Additionally, we have also worked with Sport Leisure Management to introduce solar panels at the Leisure Centres in Staines and Sunbury. In Sunbury Leisure Centre we have already reduced C02 emissions by 35.64 tonnes since the installation (a building like Knowle Green emits about 383 tonnes of C02 per year).
Q. What else do you have planned for the future?
We plan to convert all our light bulbs to energy savings bulbs and to introduce sensors which automatically turn off the lights in rooms where no movement is detected.
We are also going to introduce a device at Knowle Green which saves energy by lowering the voltage supplied to electrical equipment which will reduce the annual electricity bill by 16%. We plan to introduce a similar device for gas appliances at Knowle Green and four other sites with the aim of reducing the annual bill by 10%.
Q. What is the Display Energy Certificate?
This is a certificate which is awarded by the government to indicate how efficiently energy is being used in a particular building. We have been awarded a ‘D’ rating (average) for our Knowle Green site and the certificate is on display in the reception. We are aiming to achieve a ‘C’ rating next year and plan to achieve this by reducing our usage of gas and electric and by using energy from renewable sources such as wind or solar power.
Q. How do I get more information on the Council’s progress on reducing energy ?
We will give our next update here in December 2008.
