By Claire Warrender

FIFE COUNCIL is helping people save money on fuel bills, and at the same time helping save the planet by cutting carbon emissions.

An investment of almost £100 million over the past seven years is paying dividends by making homes across Fife more energy-efficient.

The council’s home energy conservation programme has also stopped 337,800 tonnes of carbon emissions going into the atmosphere from homes across Fife since 1997.

“In global terms, we are making an impact by cutting harmful greenhouse gases as energy- efficient houses use less fuel. In human terms, people’s houses are warmer and their fuel bills lower,” said Councillor Alex Sawers, the council’s housing spokesman.

Mr Sawers was speaking as Fife Council celebrated achieving a target of reducing carbon emissions by almost one-third over seven years, three years ahead of schedule.

Fife Council tenant Mrs Jean Clark was also celebrating the council hitting its energy conservation milestone early—she has seen the fuel bill for her Cowdenbeath home drop.

“Plus my house is a lot cosier,” Mrs Clark said. “I’ve been in the house for 42 years, and when I first moved in the only heating was a coal fire downstairs and a coal fire upstairs.

“Now I have double glazing, central heating, new cladding on the outside of the house, a new roof, new rone pipes, and the house is a lot warmer.”

A priority for the council since 1997, the home energy conservation programme has delivered improvements to council homes.

A total of 13,300 new central heating systems were installed, 14,500 homes received secondary or double-glazed windows, and 13,900 homes were insulated.

A new focus for energy conservation is using renewable energy to heat and light council homes. So far, solar heating panels have been installed at more than 100 homes.

Fife Council is also working with landlords and owner-occupiers to make their homes more energy- efficient.

The council is one of a handful in Scotland to have a dedicated home energy management service where staff give practical advice and help to access grants for home insulation and on how to cut fuel bills.

The advice can be as simple as telling people to change their central heating timers to giving information on the newest green-powered alternatives such as heat pumps which power radiators by using the ambient heat of outside air.

Housing service investment and environment team leader Osato Osaghae said, “Over the past three months alone we’ve helped private home owners access £63,000 worth of grants to make their homes more energy-efficient.

“The housing energy management service is working more and more in the field of renewable energy—using energy sources that don’t rely on electricity, gas or coal and don’t contribute to harmful greenhouse gases.

“We’re getting prepared to run a pilot programme using heat pumps to heat homes. They work on the same principle as refrigerators,” said Osato. “They heat up the air from outside a house and convert it into heat for radiators. They are very cheap to run and much less harmful to the environment.”

Mr Sawers added, “Fighting poverty in all its forms is one of Fife Council’s main priorities. A key plank of that is ensuring the people of Fife live in well-insulated, well-heated homes that are economical to run.

“We’ve estimated that our tenants in energy-efficient homes are saving around £300 on their annual fuel bills. The good news for owner-occupiers is they also have access to grants to make their homes more energy-efficient.”

Fife Council has had support from a variety of organisations, notably ScottishPower.

Mark Murphy, energy efficiency project manager with the company, said, “Our partnership approach has helped Fife Council in maximising the energy efficiency of homes in their area and look forward to continuing this work with them in the future.”