Sentinel is "greening up" homes across their business in a bid to save customers nearly half a million pounds in energy costs over the next couple of years.

We are currently investing around £5m upgrading homes with energy efficient doors and windows, new boilers, cavity and roof insulation, and a whole range of green technology, as part of our green RE:THINK campaign, and Climate Change Strategy.

With residential homes contributing up to 30% of all carbon emissions, we have embraced a range of innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of our homes, whilst generating real value for our customers.

Last year, as part of a pilot programme, we fitted six rural bungalows in Kingsclere with air source heat pumps to replace inefficient storage heaters. This year a further 15 homes in Sherborne St John have been fitted with Micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP) boilers that not only provide gas heating, but also produce electricity to reduce energy bills. We expect that the new boilers will produce overall energy savings for residents of around £450 a year each.

We have also recently completed fitting photovoltaic solar panels to the roofs of a number of our sheltered schemes, giving a cumulative saving of over £1,800 per year to the residents. The panels will generate 3,350 kWh of energy per year which equates to 1,116 loads of washing or 201,000 slices of toast from a toaster. As well as saving money the panels will reduce the carbon footprint of each scheme by nearly one tonne per year, the equivalent of a return short haul flight.

We are now exploring a larger programme to fit photovoltaic panels to up to 300 existing homes across our area. We are actively surveying suitable properties to begin this programme, and hope to get work started early next year

As well as fitting green technology to our existing homes, we have incorporated a range of renewable energy systems into our new homes programme. From Andover to Farnborough, over 300 homes are benefiting from solar thermal panels, air source heat pumps and solar photovoltaic panels.

"This is great news for our customers and the environment", explains Val Bagnall, Executive Director, "especially with the latest hike in energy costs from the utility companies. The energy generated this year by green technology and other energy saving installations will offer combined energy savings of over £150,000 to over 1,000 households, while reducing CO2 savings emissions by some 1100 tonnes."