Three of every five homes in Scotland fall below the preferred energy efficiency standard – increasing the risk of deaths and ill-health associated with cold temperatures, housing campaigners have warned. Almost 1.5 million homes, 62% of the total in Scotland, fall below the energy performance certificate band C recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the Existing Homes Alliance has found. The Alliance, whose members include WWF Scotland, Changeworks and the National Insulation Association, called for a political commitment to raise all homes to at least band B.
STV 11th April 2016 read more »
THE Scottish Conservatives will set out plans for a £1 billion investment in warm homes when they launch their manifesto today. Ruth Davidson will say the next Scottish Government should make every home energy efficient by 2020.
National 13th April 2016 read more »
Scotsman 13th April 2016 read more »
The EU has voted to close loopholes that allow home appliance manufacturers to make misleading claims about their products’ energy performance, but environmentalists are incandescent that lightbulbs have been excluded from the new rules. Companies will no longer be able to test fridges, TVs and dishwashers using a 10% margin of error between their advertised and actual energy consumptions, under an amendment to Europe’s ecodesign laws approved by national experts in Brussels on Tuesday. But the lighting sector has been let off the hook for now, due to fears that changing the rules could devastate industry. Jack Hunter, a spokesman for the European Environmental Bureau said: “Europe’s governments have given the lighting industry a free pass to continue deceiving consumers for an indefinite time period. The European commission is exempting the industrial sector with the strongest evidence of the most serious problem, using a flimsy promise to correct this in future.”
Guardian 12th April 2016 read more »