Case Study - Swavesey Energy Explorers

Swavesey Community Energy Explorers, a bustling community in South Cambridgeshire have successfully applied to the second and final round of East of England Development Agency’s (EEDA’s) Cut your Carbon funding competition.

The community - made up of residents of Swavesey village, pupils and parents in the village college’s catchment area, teachers at the school, Swavesey Parish Council, Swavesey Women’s Institute and local businesses such as the pub, post office and newsagents – asked for £17,000 to use cutting edge heat and electricity monitors to ‘make energy visible’ to homeowners. 

Steve Howard, Assistant Principal at Swavesey Village College explains: “We want to give the community the opportunity to reduce their carbon emissions as a fun and engaging collective activity based over a two year period. The village college will operate a term-by-term loan scheme for 40 monitors for schoolchildren, use the data gained as a teaching resource that can be linked to the national curriculum and share lessons learned to instill long-term behaviour change. We have chosen two types of energy monitor in order to demonstrate the range of options and functionality that are becoming available on the market.

“There will be a Swavesey Community Energy Explorers meeting held in the environment suite of Swavesey Village College at the beginning of each term. This will act as an opportunity to change over the monitors to the new 40 recipients and allow the community to share their experiences of energy monitoring and share tips and advice.

“A pilot installation of this technology at the school has proved the feasibility of the system and also proven which age groups are able to grasp the technology.  By putting the school at the heart of our community we aim to use the pupils as a constant link between the school, parents and community groups. As the pupils have experience in using the energy monitors they will become energy consultants for households, extending their knowledge in energy saving to the wider community.”

The equipment will consist of monitors supplied by Green Energy Options (GEO), which has previously been supported by EEDA proof of concept and research and development grants.