MELTON PARISH COUNCIL
WARM HOMES – THERMAL IMAGING PROJECT
2023/4
MPC(23)101
Suffolk County Council are planning to repeat their project to loan cameras to groups who are willing to take thermal images of homes to identify heat loss. The purpose being to advise householders on where they are losing heat and what can be done to reduce this or, more generally, to reduce emissions. Some groups also used the project to get residents talking about climate change.
Melton Parish Council took part in last winter’s project, scanning about 40 homes and providing the householders with copies of their scans and an information sheet. However, most of the homes scanned were large, detached properties and few showed great heat loss. We also struggled with bad weather and interpreting the scans.
I joined a Zoom meeting of others who took part before to identify “lessons learned” recently. It became clear that, although the project team are hoping to purchase more cameras this time, they really expected parish and town councils to purchase their own. This would allow the smaller groups more time with the cameras available. They did not say that parish councils could not take part but I got the feeling we wouldn’t be very welcome. Perhaps my bias.
Some of the environmental groups who took part last time spent over an hour with each householder talking about ways they could make the homes more environmentally friendly. Many did both inside and outside of the homes.
On behalf of Melton Parish Council, I have signed up as being “interested” in this year’s project but the council need to decide if we wish to go ahead. If we do want to continue helping residents identify their heat loss and advise on what can be done to reduce this, we need to decide if we are prepared to purchase our own camera, or possibly join with another council/group to share one. We would also need someone to take the lead on the project though this does not need to be a councillor. I am willing to pass on all that we learned last time but not to take the lead again.
Decisions to be made:
- Do we want to “do it again”
- Are we prepared to fund a camera
- Who will lead the project
Katy Martin
August 2023
