A carbon neutral Portsmouth would require very well insulated housing, with energy efficient appliances and heating powered by renewable energy.
Portsmouth now
88,000
The number of homes in Portsmouth
242,000
Tonnes of CO2e emitted by Portsmouth homes each year
This is about 30% of our city’s overall carbon footprint. Most is from the gas used to heat our homes, provide hot water and cook, and the rest is from electricity use.
11,000
The number of Portsmouth households in fuel poverty
This leads to approximately 40 early deaths per year.
Portsmouth transformed
There are two main ways to green our housing sector…
1. New homes
All new homes need to be much more effectively insulated, and powered by on-site renewable energy and heat pumps. Some examples:
Norwich
Norwich City Council has built 100 council houses to a Passivhaus standard, which means a 70% reduction in fuel bills for tenants, and smaller carbon footprints.
Doyle Avenue, Portsmouth
Portsmouth City Council are giving permission for the building of 16 housing units to Passivhaus principles, with air source heat pumps and PV solar capacity.
2. Existing homes
Insulate our existing homes better, replace gas central heating with heat pumps and solar energy systems, and update all appliances to be energy efficient. Some examples:
Nottingham
Nottingham City Council has used the Dutch ‘Energiesprong’ technique to upgrade the energy efficiency of 155 of its social housing units. Monthly energy bills have dropped from about £120 to £60-£70.
Wilmcote House, Portsmouth
Portsmouth City Council intensively retrofitted three 11-storey tower blocks in Wilmcote House with Rockwool insulation, triple glazing and energy efficiency measures.
Before the retrofit (in 2012) one third of tenants reported issues of damp, mould growth and draughty windows. Residents also found the heating very expensive to run so often tended to stay in one room with the heating on.
Since the retrofit, tenant energy bills have fallen by an average of £700 a year, whilst flat temperatures are significantly higher. Carbon savings worked out at roughly 2 tonnes of Co2e per resident per year.
What you can do personally
Switch your electricity supplier to a 100% renewable tariff. This cuts most household’s carbon footprint by about 16%, and can be cheaper than the Big 6 energy companies.
Get proper insulation to make your house warmer and cut your energy bills / carbon footprint.
Install solar panels on your house, which lowers your bills / carbon footprint and can earn you money.
Change your heating system to solar or an air source heat pump, which can pay for itself in three years from savings on your bill and money back from the government.
Join us
Help us transform Portsmouth’s housing sector so people have warmer, greener and more energy efficient homes. Join our campaign at PortsmouthTransformed@Gmail.com.
