May 06, 2007
A LONDON city council has declared war on energy wastage. And its
weapon of choice - spy planes.
The Times reported that spy-in-the-sky cameras are being used to
identify householders who are wasting the most energy and to shame
them into turning the central heating down.
Maps identifying individual homes have now been placed on the
Internet to encourage occupiers to reduce their wastage and carbon
emissions by fitting insulation and turning the thermostat down,
the report added.
Thermal images of homes have been taken by a light aircraft fitted
with military spy technology to record the heat escaping from
people's houses.
The aim - shaming households into saving energy and raising
awareness of how much energy is wasted daily.
The report added that the drastic action is seen as part of the war
against global warming, which scientists are convinced is worsening
because of man-made carbon emissions.
Haringey Council is the first authority in England to place
house-by-house thermal maps on the web, after the example of
Aberdeen in Scotland.
The report added that Haringey's mapping took place on a winter's
night when households were likely to have the heating turned up
high.
Its a battle in every sense of the word.
An aircraft, fitted with a military-style thermal imager, flew over
the area 17 times to take pictures of almost every house in the
area.
Footage of heat loss was converted into stills, then laid over a
map of the area, before each house was given a colour-coded
rating.
Officials have shrugged off suggestions of a Big Brother-style
invasion of privacy by prying on people's properties and then
publishing the information.
Robert Wilkes, the owner of hotmapping.co.uk, which conducted the
thermal surveys, said: 'It's not a photograph; it's merely a
measure of heat loss. I think everybody should find it very useful
- particularly businesses, schools and hospitals.'
Almost 60 per cent of a household's heat is lost through
uninsulated walls and lofts, according to the Energy Saving Trust
(EST), costing the average home up to ãpounds;380
($1,14
each year.