Stay Informed With HeatingSave | Page 19

The coalition is making energy plans that will reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels. Moves to boost investment in renewable energy and nuclear power stations were set out by the Government as it promised to reduce Britain’s dependency on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions. Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, pledged the “lights are not going to go out on my watch” as he announced 32 measures to make the country less reliant on imported oil and gas.

A new scheme has been launched in collaboration with businesses and the government to increase insulation in British Homes. The “Insulate Today” plan is part of the “we will if you will” campaign and is being backed by the Energy Saving Trust along with Accenture, Aviva, HSBC, Sainsbury“s ACT ON CO2 and EDF Energy. The scheme will include:

Average petrol prices spiralled to a record high of 120p a litre this month – and went even higher in remote communities. As well as ingenious individual and collective schemes (Liftshare.com promotes the use of car pools), HeatingSave is a more straightforward method of cutting a quarter from your fuel bills.

Manchester United footballer Gary Neville has submitted plans for a subterranean £6m carbon-zero home. It is due to go up next to the 12-bedroom property that he and his wife have already constructed on the site of the hamlet he owns in Harwood, in the Lancashire Pennines. The defender commissioned one of the country’s leading architects to come up with the design.

The new coalition government is almost literally banking on the green vote as part of initiatives announced in the Queen’s speech. As well as promising a new energy bill in the next parliament, the Conservative and Liberal alliance said it would set up a green investment bank so that householders will be entitled to borrow money to pay for carbon-reducing measures. The idea is called a “pay-as-you-save” approach. Households would repay the loan using money saved through lower energy bills.

The Office for National Statistics have said that over 16 million households in the UK now have an Internet access, up by about 10% on 2007. With every Internet access goes a PC, a PC that could be running the latest HeatingSave software and reducing the cost of central heating bills.

Concerns are growing that more and more people are going to be pushed into fuel poverty this winter. This was likely to have happened because of the rising cost of fuel but has been accelerated by the recession and in particular the sudden and increasing rise in unemployment. Some sources say this will affect hundreds of thousands more households.

Home Information Packs (Hips) are compulsory in England and Wales. They were introduced to give buyers more information and to preventing sales from falling through. Although the National Association of Estate Agents are calling for them to be slimmed down, they still want an Energy Performance Certificate to be included.

Crude oil prices have hit a high for the year at $75.17 a barrel today, before edging back slightly. The rally comes amidst a general sentiment in the world that the worst of the recession is over and economic output has turned the corner; with some sort of recovery on the way. Evidence of this has been a reduction in China”s declining output and the strengthening of output from some Euro Zone countries. A weakening US dollar has also made oil cheaper when purchased with other currencies – all except the UK which has seen the pound slide against the greenback.

Homes or business wanting to cut their carbon footprint can enlist the help of HeatingSave, using its low-cost energy management and boiler controller device that is proved to give more efficient fuel usage. Heating buildings result in carbon dioxide emissions, and the more efficient your heating system is, the more your carbon footprint will be reduced.

The global price of oil has a direct impact on the amount that UK home-owners pay for their fuel and energy. With a 70% price rise of oil in the past year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced concerns that the price of oil could bring instability to global economic recovery. This may have a direct impact on the prices that you pay for fuel and energy in your home.

The price of heating oil went higher today as the cost of crude oil rose ahead of the tropical storm Gustav that is moving towards the Gulf of Mexico. Several firms are evacuating staff from oil rigs as a precautionary measure. The Gulf has many off shore installations and these could be badly affected if Gustav is as strong as feared.