The vast majority of us use gas boilers to keep our homes warm and provide hot water. But, given around 20% of UK carbon emissions are created by heating buildings, we need to find a better, greener way to heat our homes. Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) are one of the leading renewable alternatives for heating homes. They extract heat from the outside air to heat your home and hot water, even when air temperatures are as low as -18°C.

This meeting organised by Derby Climate Community Hub with support from Transition Chesterfield and Derby and Derbyshire Climate Coalitions will cover the pros and cons of ASHP systems and what the government should be doing. the UK’s heavy dependence on gas and failure to insulate our leaky, energy inefficient housing that have left us so exposed. There’s a good analysis by Carbon Brief about the impact of ‘cutting the green crap’ under Cameron – slashing home insulation subsidies, banning onshore wind and scrapping the zero carbon rule that was about to come in for new builds. They find that these cuts added around £2.5 billion to today’s energy bills.

Register here in advance for this meeting.

Speakers:

• Laura Bishop, a renewable energy system designer from Infinitas-Design who will do a short introduction to the technology,
• Josh Hunt, an installer of Air Source Heat Pumps
• Ellen Robottom from the Campaign against Climate Change on the need to invest in insulation
• Anne Thoday, Lisa Hopkinson and Peter Robinson, who have replaced their gas boilers with ASHPs and they will relate their experiences.