Energising Communities
What If … ?
London residents knew about all the ways to save money on their energy bills through the low-cost interventions we have recommended in our Energy Savers Club.
What If … ?
Estates across London could become mini power stations with rooftop solar on and solar balconies? Residents could then benefit from cheap, low-carbon energy. The UK has some of the highest energy costs in the world and these interventions could help residents navigate their way through the cost-of-living crisis.
What If … ?
As many streets as possible in London have solar panels & batteries on their houses? These streets could become mini power stations, providing low-cost, low-carbon energy to residents. At the same time, residents will become much more aware of their everyday electricity consumption driving behaviour change e.g. residents only putting the washing machine on when the sun shines – this will lead to energy security and drive greater community resilience in the face of an increasingly unpredictable climate and rising energy costs. Another key benefit is that once the payback period has been met for the panels and battery, residents will eventually make money from their generation.
What if… ?
We could train up local residents to show other residents how they can save money on their energy bills?
Energy Saving Ambassadors & Power Rangers
As winter starts to bite, we are spreading the word about low-cost energy-saving initiatives to communities across London, to help residents lower the cost of their energy bills and make their homes Cosy Homes. We are starting this work in the Kings Cross and Somers Town wards of Camden.
What is a Power Ranger?
Our Power Rangers are a group of exceptional ladies, typically from the Bengali community of Somers Town, who have trained to become Energy Saving Ambassadors (ESAs) after some excellent energy saving training by Mat Shreeve at Queens’s Crescent Library. As ambassadors, they will go out and spread their knowledge about energy saving to their friends, relatives, and other members of their local community, to become fully fledged Power Rangers.
The Kings Cross & Somers Town Project
In Autumn/Winter 25/26, we will be taking on our new Power Ranger project to Kings Cross (KX) and Somers Town (ST), kindly funded by Argent.
Our task is to share easy-to-follow energy-saving tips with 300 residents who live in these wards. We are aiming to recruit 30 adults and 18 young people to become Power Rangers to go out into the community tell residents how to save money – up to £351 – save energy and ultimately to reduce their CO2 emissions. To achieve this goal, a select cohort of Energy Saving Ambassadors – Tuli, Syeda, Zara and Halma, who will go out and recruit more Power Rangers, at a series of events across KX & ST, for example at the Goldington Sharing Space.
We are also planning to do some school assemblies at schools in these ward, where we would like year 6 students to then become mini Power Rangers to teach their year 5 counterparts. If you would like to become a Power Ranger (paying the London Living wage) please get in touch with JK at: jk@thinkanddocamden.org.uk.
Keep an eye out on the website and our social channels for further updates.
Energy Savers Club in Brent
At our recent Sharing Space at St Raphael’s estate in Brent, we had an Energy Savers Club (ESC) table, which proved very popular with residents. We even set up a Brent-specific WhatsApp ESC group. If you’d like to join, put your phone camera on this QR code.
Energy Savers Club (Autumn/Winter 24/25)
Last autumn/winter we ran the third iteration of our Energy Savers Club (ESC) from funding received by Camden Council’s Sustainability and Library teams. We spoke to many Camden residents at pop-up events across various locations in the borough, namely:
- Housing estates or TRA halls
- High streets and
- Libraries
At these events we wanted to educate the public and help them save money while decreasing their carbon footprint. Another key aim was sign up as many residents as we could to our ESC WhatsApp group by handing out one free energy-saving item e.g. LED light bulb or draft excluder in exchange for a sign-up. The secondary aim was to hand out ‘energy-saving tips’ flyers to these residents. In total, we ran 10 events across these locations.
We signed up over 250 people to our ESC WhatsApp group by handing out one free energy saving item e.g. LED light bulb or draft excluder in exchange for a sign-up. We also handed out over 200 ‘energy-saving tips’ flyers to these residents. To date, we have 274 members on this WA group who receive weekly energy-saving tips in the form of posters and the occasional video made by a young local Camden resident. Use your phone camera on this QR code to join the Energy Savers Club WhatsApp group. You will get a free energy-saving tip each week.