A Gloucestershire council will be keeping tabs on the energy consumption of some of Cheltenham’s most iconic buildings by installing monitoring systems across their estate.
Cheltenham Borough Council is investing £151,000 on new systems which they hope will help reduce bills.
Buildings such as Pittville Pump Rooms, The Wilson and Cheltenham Borough Council’s offices will benefit from the investment which council chiefs say will help tackle both climate change and the financial pressures they are facing.
Climate emergency cabinet member Alisha Lewis (LD, St Pauls) said the new building management scheme project is something they will fund with the council’s green investment deal.
She said: “It will allow us to invest in sustainable solutions which will pay themselves off. These are projects that will save us more money than they cost in the long run.
“It will support all the main properties in our portfolio including properties like the Pittville Pump Rooms, Cheltenham Borough Council, The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum to ensure their energy use is properly managed and maintained.
“It will cover everything from making sure we are not powering things that aren’t in use through to ensuring that we can manage everything offsite. So, if something happens and we need to change the heating in response to a weather event we can change that with ease remotely.
“It will help us reduce our energy consumption, therefore making solar panels more viable in the long run. But particularly it will be saving the council considerable amounts of money. It’s a win-win case.”
The council has also applied for government funding to carry out feasibility studies to launch two heat networks which could warm hundreds of homes and businesses in the town.
Council chiefs want to make the most of wasted heat which is generated from mechanical processes including factories or commercial kitchens by recycling the heat.
The town centre and the new Golden Valley Development are being considered as possible locations.
Heat networks work by using water to carry heat from a single source through underground pipes to homes and businesses.
Heat is brought into a building through a heat exchanger, this would remove the need for boilers.
