As part of ECO Action’s drive to help people to address our climate crisis, RBWM councillor Karen has agreed to launch and take part in ECO Action’s personal 10% (carbon reduction) challenge.
Karen will commit to: · Measure her initial CO2 or CO2e footprint · Commit to reducing it by 10% year on year by changes to her lifestyle · Measure her improvement step by step
Why? We all realise and experience that the climate is changing. Without us all taking action our young people will experience a very different and challenging life.
This community initiative is to generate enthusiasm throughout RBWM for action, show that our Councillors care and want to make a difference.
Join us in the ECO Action Hub on Saturday 2nd March anytime between 11:00 to 13:00 for a seed swap! Get inspired to grow your own, see great ideas and get helpful tips if you are a novice or an expert. And you don’t actually need seeds to swap… just come along and join in!
What is a Seed Swap? “A great opportunity for gardeners to organize their seed collections and get rid of the ones they don’t want. They can also use the event to pick up seeds that they do want to grow. In all, it’s a win-win for gardeners and reduces wastage and cost.
Back again this year: Maidenhead’s successful Repair Café gives people’s broken or worn-out possessions a new lease of life! See people like yourself rebuilding, repairing and recycling things that might otherwise be thrown away. Open again in our ECO-Action Hub.
Please register here if you wish to bring something for repair to reserve your time-slot: Or feel free to email the Repair Café team on repair.maidenhead@gmail.com.
We open from 10:00 to 15:00. Repair skills available at this next event include: – small electrical items (excludes microwaves and large items) – laptops/computers, phone repairs (except screen repairs) – IT assistance(e.g. anti-virus, software updates) – glass repairs, book binding, fixing picture frames – basic woodwork, small furniture items – sewing and mending, textiles repairs
We aim to fix anything, our volunteers love to solve problems!
Back again this year: Maidenhead’s successful Repair Café gives people’s broken or worn-out possessions a new lease of life! See people like yourself rebuilding, repairing and recycling things that might otherwise be thrown away. Open again in our ECO-Action Hub.
Please register here if you wish to bring something for repair to reserve your time-slot: Or feel free to email the Repair Café team on repair.maidenhead@gmail.com.
We open from 10:00 to 15:00. Repair skills available at this next event include: – small electrical items (excludes microwaves and large items) – laptops/computers, phone repairs (except screen repairs) – IT assistance(e.g. anti-virus, software updates) – glass repairs, book binding, fixing picture frames – basic woodwork, small furniture items – sewing and mending, textiles repairs
We aim to fix anything, our volunteers love to solve problems!
Back again and first time this year: Maidenhead’s successful Repair Café gives people’s broken or worn-out possessions a new lease of life! See people like yourself rebuilding, repairing and recycling things that might otherwise be thrown away. Open again in our ECO-Action Hub.
Please register here if you wish to bring something for repair to reserve your time-slot: Or feel free to email the Repair Café team on repair.maidenhead@gmail.com.
We open from 10:00 to 15:00. Repair skills available at this next event include: – small electrical items (excludes microwaves and large items) – laptops/computers, phone repairs (except screen repairs) – IT assistance(e.g. anti-virus, software updates) – glass repairs, book binding, fixing picture frames – basic woodwork, small furniture items – sewing and mending, textiles repairs
We aim to fix anything, our volunteers love to solve problems!
Back again and first time this year: Maidenhead’s successful Repair Café gives people’s broken or worn-out possessions a new lease of life! See people like yourself rebuilding, repairing and recycling things that might otherwise be thrown away. Open again in our ECO-Action Hub.
Please register here if you wish to bring something for repair to reserve your time-slot: Or feel free to email the Repair Café team on repair.maidenhead@gmail.com.
We open from 10:00 to 15:00. Repair skills available at this next event include: – small electrical items (excludes microwaves and large items) – laptops/computers, phone repairs (except screen repairs) – IT assistance(e.g. anti-virus, software updates) – glass repairs, book binding, fixing picture frames – basic woodwork, small furniture items – sewing and mending, textiles repairs
We aim to fix anything, our volunteers love to solve problems!
Join us in the ECO Action Hub from 10:00 – 12:00 on 16th December 2023
A drop in session to help you build your own nest box and take home for your garden!
No prior knowledge of building boxes or of using the right tools is required
Bisham Nest Box Group will bring all equipment and tools you need to build nest boxes.
From Bisham Nest Box Group: We are a small, not-for-profit volunteer group making nest boxes for garden birds, owls, raptors, swifts, hedgehogs, bats and bees. We just ask for a donation to cover the cost of the materials. Bisham Nest Box Group
In the ECO Action Hub from 10:00 to 12:00 Saturday 16th December. Drop in!
Interest in heat pumps is soaring because of the UK’s need to get off fossil fuels; and the government are now offering a grant of £7500 if you swap your gas boiler a heat pump.
Heat pumps don’t make heat so much as move it, like the way that the pump in your fridge moves heat out of the fridge to the kitchen, but in reverse.
The pump uses expansion and contraction of a refrigerant to create a multiplier effect. So, for every unit of energy that drives the pump, it gives back 3 or 4 times that amount in the form of heat. This is several times more efficient than a fossil fuel boiler – and far less polluting now that so much grid electricity is renewable.
Homes all vary, so the essential first step in thinking about getting a heat pump is to have a heat loss survey; this will tell you how much energy your home needs to be comfortable. It is wise to ensure that all reasonable insulating has been done – draughts, loft insulation, double-glazing etc – but heat pump homes do not need to be super-insulated.
Heat pumps send water round your radiators like a conventional boiler, but at lower temperatures (45-50 degrees compared to 65-75 degrees). This means it takes longer to heat up the whole house but the thermal comfort is steadier than with a boiler. With boilers we are used to instant heat which we then turn off at night; heat pumps work in a slow and steady way – including at night on the “setback” temperature. The radiators usually feel only slightly warm, even tepid.
There are heat pumps available now which use water at higher temperatures. This can allow a simpler swap-out-swap-in installation process (with lower associated costs), although they don’t offer the same efficiency as lower temperature pump systems.
Heat pumps vary, and can be designed for certain weather conditions. The heat pumps which are so popular in Nordic countries are specified differently from UK ones.
One point to bear in mind is that the moment your boiler breaks down is a bad time to think about getting a heat pump, especially in colder weather. It’s not a moment when people want to spend time researching new technologies and assessing heat loss – they just want to be warm, so they tend to just get a new boiler.
Last time this year: Maidenhead’s successful Repair Café gives people’s broken or worn-out possessions a new lease of life! See people like yourself rebuilding, repairing and recycling things that might otherwise be thrown away. Open again in our ECO-Action Hub.
Please register here if you wish to bring something for repair to reserve your time-slot: Or feel free to email the Repair Café team on repair.maidenhead@gmail.com.
We open from 10:00 to 15:00. Repair skills available at this next event include: – small electrical items (excludes microwaves and large items) – laptops/computers, phone repairs (except screen repairs) – IT assistance(e.g. anti-virus, software updates) – glass repairs, book binding, fixing picture frames – basic woodwork, small furniture items – sewing and mending, textiles repairs
We aim to fix anything, our volunteers love to solve problems!
Thinking about getting a heat pump? Got lots of questions? Need to talk to an expert?
Do they make economic & environmental sense?
How can you get the best deal and outcome?
What’s best and are they the right thing for you?
Hear from our experts who have the answers, practical experiences, and have ‘lived’ with them? Put your questions to our specialist panel chaired by Peter Gibbs (From BBC R4 Gardeners’ Question Time and our local ‘Weather Man’). Find out if heat-pumps will work for you.
