Fighting fuel poverty
Thursday, 21 January 2010
OVER one in four families in the Coleraine borough face the struggle of keeping their homes warm and keeping themselves warm without falling into debt.
It's a startling statistic that reveals over 48,000 households in the Northern Health and Social Services Board area are considered to be fuel poor.
It means 29 per cent of families in Coleraine and its surrounding areas have home heating difficulties, and Coleraine Borough Council has taken steps to try and help families stop themselves from falling into fuel poverty.
A fuel poor household is one which cannot afford to keep adequately warm at reasonable cost. It's when a household is spending more than 10 per cent of its annual income on fuel to maintain an acceptable level of temperature throughout the home.
It has never been more difficult than in the past recent weeks to keep the home warm. The recent severe cold spell saw temperatures plummet to temperatures as low as -13 degrees in some places in the borough.
As the temperatures went down, oil prices went up, as the demand for fuel grew because people needed to burn more oil to heat their homes and keep warm, for their own health.
The result has seen families and individuals struggle to keep their homes warm because of a combination of poor household energy efficiency, low income and expensive fuel costs. Those more at risk and vulnerable to this include older people, families with young children and those with disabilities.
To help address this serious problem, Coleraine Borough Council is running various schemes throughout the Borough.
These include improvements to existing heating systems, installations of new systems, cavity wall and loft insulation, installing thermostatic radiator valves, reflective radiator panels and the provision of energy efficient light blubs.
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