We always knew we would learn heaps about how to serve community groups better from the first year of our programme, and we certainly have! We’ve just been consolidating everything to provide much better information about how to assess and carry out some of the practical actions groups can take, and are happy to have released a new version of the Programme Guide.
We still need to move it to its proper HeatHack branded home – something we should have done from the beginning!
The biggest changes are to the introduction, which now makes it the best place to understand how the programme works, and to the background information on how to make sure any gas or oil boilers that will be in service for a while aren’t wasting fuel.
We thought this would be an important part of the programme from our previous experiences in optimising heating systems, and it is. Some of our venues expect to save 1/4-1/3 off their current energy use through better heating controls. We found several venues heating two halls whenever they need one because they are either not zoned – but could do something with smart thermostatic radiator valves – or because the zones aren’t under proper control. Other venues in occasional use expect to make the savings through optimised start control. There are currently serious challenges in finding workers who are willing to make heating control changes and we’re trying to find our way through that.
We’ve also revised the card game to remove a few cards and add 100 word summaries of the actions with links to the right background in the guide. You can read the new cards on line. They come back from the printer on Tuesday and will be ready for posting out to new groups.