The team at 361 Energy have produced our annual report for 2022-23 and are pleased to show how we have been able to benefit our local community. This was our 10th anniversary year and over that time we moved from being a purely voluntary organisation to have 5 employees and working with 7 self-employed contractors.
The scale of our work has increased significantly since the energy crisis. We had approximately double the number of referrals into our home energy advice service in winter 2022/23 compared to 2021/22. Our free home energy advice visits were delivered through several projects with the following funders:
- Energy Voluntary Redress Scheme (Warmer Homes project)
- Northern Primary Care Collaborative Board
- North Devon Council
- Local Energy Advice Partnership (LEAP)
During 2022/23 we completed 870 home energy advice visits. We estimate that households saved just under £600k from the visits and casework delivered in 2022/23. This represents roughly a 4:1 return on the cost of operating the advice service.
We also have a retrofit advice team that supports households in making their homes more energy efficient. This includes 2 of our team who have worked as the Retrofit Coordinators on the UK Government’s Green Homes Grant LAD3 and Home Upgrade Grant HUG1 schemes managed by Devon County Council. In North Devon and Torridge, there were 27 properties which received measures through these schemes. These included:
- 3 cavity wall insulation
- 10 loft insulation
- 4 replacement of windows
- 2 replacement of doors
- 13 solar PV systems
- 8 fitting of high heat retention storage heaters
- 1 underfloor insulation for a park home
Our team were also the Retrofit Coordinators on the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund wave 1 project for North Devon Homes. They supported the retrofit of 48 properties in Witheridge and Bishops Nympton.
Our Business Energy Advice team has worked with Plastic Free North Devon as Sustainable Business Resource (SBR) and supported 70 organisations to produce energy and carbon reviews with recommendations for energy saving measures. We supported 24 farms on the Future Farming Resilience project and produced 206 carbon footprints for clients during the 2022/23 financial year.
We organized many events for home energy advice and retrofit over the year. The largest was our 361 Energy Fair in Barnstaple Pannier Market which had nearly 30 exhibitors and over 1,200 visitors.
We hope to produce our Annual Report for 2023/24 later this year.