TTT Draught Busting

TTT Draught Busting Project

The TTT draught busting project involves a wide range of activities, but all designed to encourage householders to make their homes less draught and more energy efficient by making relatively easy, low cost changes.

Following a train the trainer session, generously led by Sarah Nicholl of Transition Belsize in November 2011, a number of  free, hands-on workshops showing households how to draught-bust their homes were held in and around Totnes. This initial draft busting work was funded from TTT's share of the Feed-in Tariff income from the Totnes Civic Hall solar PV system.

The workshop attendees all received a draught busting manual, which has been updated overtime to include additional measures and recommended products. Many of the draught busting materials are available from Mary Popham at TTT- see page 23 of the manual for details.

For those who don't want to go down the DIY route, the project can also recommend local handypersons who are experienced in draught busting work.

The trained and experienced  handy persons have  also been draught busting in the homes of householders referred by Totnes Caring through the Totnes Keeping Warm project.

One older,  listed home in Totnes that has had a number of draught-busting measures, including draught-stripping to windows and doors and the installation of a chimney balloon, was air-pressure tested before and after the work. These tests showed  energy losses from air infiltration had been reduced by 44.3% . The original  energy audit estimated the losses from air infiltration as contributing to 32% of the total energy bill for heating. Therefore, the draught proofing is estimated to lead to a  14.18% reduction in their total heating bill.