\n Sustaining Musselburgh\u2019s community heat team is gearing up to launch its ‘Warmer\u00a0Homes, Cheaper Bills and a Greener Planet’ project.\n<\/p>\n
\n The group is looking for homes to survey and new volunteers to carry out the work.\n<\/p>\n
\n The heat team is armed with two thermal imaging cameras, which show the temperatures in rooms and enable the team to see where heat is escaping from.\n<\/p>\n
\n Volunteers use a handheld thermal camera that can \u2018see\u2019 the heat or infrared radiation given off by objects to take thermal images of the inside of\u00a0\u00a0buildings\n<\/p>\n
\n The thermal images can help locate many sources of heat loss including draughts, areas of missing insulation and damp patches.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cLast winter, we surveyed 30 homes and found out which areas of the house was losing heat,\u00a0and almost every house we went on to do some sort of improvement such as replace old draught excluders and one home had a heat pump fitted,\u201d said Sustaining Musselburgh chair Gaynor Allen.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe do not aim to replace professional building surveyors or provide technical advice, but to help make householders aware of how and where their homes might be losing heat and who to speak to about this.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Although there is a waiting list, the team is hoping to survey as many homes as possible and is keen to take on new volunteers to help deliver the surveys.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFull online training will be given, and we send our volunteers out in pairs,\u201d added Gaynor.\n<\/p>\n
\n The service is free but a donation can be given which will go towards running costs.\n<\/p>\n
\n The cameras were given to Sustaining Musselburgh by East Lothian Climate Hub; Musselburgh Area Partnership gave a small grant to allow the team to get up and running.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Once the survey is complete, a report will be emailed to the householder and, if there is further work to be done, a referral can be made to Home Energy Scotland.\n<\/p>\n