SCARF

As part of the renovation project that I am currently doing, we visited Dundee's Sun City Demonstration House. The house is run by Solar Cities Scotland in partnership with Dundee City Council and SCARF, which is an energy efficiency agency in Scotland. It was renovated from the old Janitor's house at Fintry Primary School, which was originally built in the 1960s. The function of the house is to inform people, schools and universities about the benefits of using energy from renewable sources. Whilst there we got a short tour of the building and as well as looking at the way they use renewable energy to power the house, we were told a bit more about it and how they work. The Sun City house uses three different types of solar panels, has a ground source heat pump, underfloor heating and a stove which uses wood pellets (made from compacted sawdust) as fuel. It was disappointing to hear that because Dundee has a clean air policy, that these sorts of stoves are not allowed at the moment, but hopefully in the future they will be.

SCARF is an agency which provides businesses and homeowners with free advice on sustainable energy sources, to help the environment and cut fuel bills. By working with Scottish Power, SCARF have started a Schools Energy Project, to put across the message of renewable energy to Primary 7 children. Through the Sun City Demonstration house and a head office in Aberdeen, SCARF run the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre for the North-east. They also travel to events around Scotland to create a wider understanding of sustainable energy. As well as this, they provide talks and presentations, a telephone advice line, face to face advice at events and they also work with companies to increase the awareness of energy efficiency among staff.

More information on SCARF, as well as fact sheets on various different aspects of sustainable energy and tips on how to save money on your energy bills are at their website: www.scarf.org.uk