Sustainability: how to do it in South Hams

But it's not cheap

As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the 12-day COP26 climate conference, Devon campaigners want reassurances that it will be more than just a talking shop.

For most people, the action needed will be more noticeable at a local level than globally. Many local authorities in Devon have declared climate emergencies. But some individuals are making radical changes on their own.

One is Simon Oldridge, a former parish councillor and coordinator of Sustainable South Hams. 

Mr Oldridge moved into a large house in Staverton several years ago, determined to do his best for climate change.

“We put in some solar panels and then we decided to convert our oil boiler to a ground source heat pump,” he explained.

“The electricity – in parts – comes from our solar panels, but as the months move on into winter, we then find ourselves buying some electricity from the grid.”

His efforts are not just focussed on his house and garden. He has also changed how his family get around. 

“We also both have electric cars. In the summer the solar panels provide enough electricity for the house, both cars, all our lights, running computers … everything in the house. 

“So we don’t buy any electricity in the summer,” he says. 

“And of course, we do all our cooking on electric induction hobs so we don’t use any fossil fuels.”

When the sun goes down or there isn’t enough light to charge the solar panels, Simon has that problem sorted too. 

“The way that works is that we have some Tesla Powerwall batteries.”

Those batteries can store huge amounts of energy which can be used for the house and cars when needed.

But Mr Oldridge accepts that the climate saving measures he has put in place are expensive and not available to everyone.  

That is where he thinks central government needs to step up and suggests it is at least as serious as as the Coronavirus pandemic. “This is undoubtedly not cheap to to make this sort of conversion, particularly in a larger house and very many people,” he explains.

Simon Oldridge is coordinator of Sustainable South Hams

“The vast majority of people won’t be able to afford to to do this on their own, which is why we need government to step in and take responsibility for facing this crisis just like they did with covid.”

“The great news is that the government’s adviser, the Climate Change Committee, have calculated that the savings to the UK as a whole if we spend this large amounts of money will actually outweigh the costs. But more importantly than that, we have to do this anyway to prevent climate breakdown, biodiversity breakdown.

“We have to do it to ensure that we have a habitable planet for our children to live in. The challenge is just to work out a way to share the costs around, but the government’s got to step up and front these costs and then we sort the problem out afterwards like we have with covid.” 

The UK government has said it will offer grants to help people install air-source heat pumps and some other low-carbon heating systems.

Critics say the plans, which will ensure the installation of nearly 60,000 heat pumps over three years, fall far short of what is needed and, at that rate, would take hundreds of years to supply all homes with equipment. 

Heating systems account for about 20 percent of the UK’s carbon emissions. 

But air-source heat pumps powered by renewable electricity would heat a home much more sustainably but would require far greater investment than has currently been proposed.