The National Energy Foundation (NEF) is an independent British charity, established to improve the use of energy in buildings.
Aims
The charity aims to ''improve the use of energy in buildings''. This statement simplified the earlier stated mission to mobilise individuals, businesses and communities to make their contribution to reducing
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
emissions through
energy efficiency
Energy efficiency may refer to:
* Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process
** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed
** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
and use of sustainable energy sources (notably
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
) to maintain affordable energy services and combat global
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
.
Activities
NEF was founded in 1988 by
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
Development Corporation to preserve for the future benefit of the UK public some of the energy initiatives that had been undertaken within the new city. Its initial projects included extending a technical home energy label (known as the Milton Keynes Energy Cost Index – MKECI) into a more generally applicable home energy rating called the
National Home Energy Rating
The National Home Energy Rating Scheme (NHER) is both a UK accreditation scheme for energy assessors and a rating scale for the energy efficiency of housing.
The NHER was owned and operated by National Energy Services (NES). Until 2011, NES was ...
(NHER), and technical energy monitoring work on low energy homes in the Milton Keynes Energy Park. In 1994, the NHER Scheme was injected into a subsidiary company (sold in 2011) to run the business on behalf of the charity. In recent years, many of its projects have more of an applied research element, including collaborative projects with UK universities.
From 1993 to 2001 NEF worked closely with the
Energy Saving Trust
Energy Saving Trust (EST) is a British organization devoted to promoting energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the sustainable use of energy, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to prevent man-made climate change. It was f ...
, setting up the UK's network of Energy Efficiency Advice Centres (EEACs) on their behalf, and managing the network for the first five years. But as domestic energy efficiency moved more into the mainstream, NEF expanded its interests into Renewable Energy (from 1995) and non-domestic energy efficiency, through its management of the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme from 1998 onwards. In 2005 this scheme was transferred to the
Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust was developed and launched in 1999-2001 as part of the development of the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax on business energy use that still operates today. The Carbon Trust was originally funded by around £50m of tax revenue ge ...
but still managed by NEF; in 2008 it was relaunched as the Carbon Trust Standard with some NEF administrative involvement until 2013. NEF's current focus includes post-occupancy
building performance evaluation, as well as identifying strategies to minimise the performance gap between the design and in-use energy consumption of buildings. It also works with housing stock owners (such as UK local authorities and
housing association
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budge ...
s) to minimise tenants' housing use, and operates a number of regional programmes to combat
fuel poverty A household is said to be in fuel poverty when its members cannot afford to keep adequately warm at a reasonable cost, given their income. The term is mainly used in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, although discussions on fuel poverty are increas ...
.
After around 2002, most local and regional domestic energy efficiency activities were handed over to the United Sustainable Energy Agency (formerly Milton Keynes Energy Agency – MKEA), but NEF retained involvement in projects such as Milton Keynes' Low Carbon Living (formerly ThimkAgain!) campaign, and in 2013 agreed to merge with USEA. The Foundation undertakes work with local communities across the UK in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Academy, most notably through the Superhomes project (originally known as Old Home Superhome), and through its involvement with the Local United and Communities & Climate Action Alliance projects.
Most of the charity's work is within the UK, although it participates in a number of EU projects, has undertaken some work in SE Asia and actively supports international standardisation work through
CEN and
ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Iso ...
.
Renewable Energy
NEF has also been active in the area of
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
and, in particular, with integrating it into buildings and assisting local authorities and other bodies to create the right environment for a wider uptake of
sustainable energy
Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...
. Since 2015, it has operated the formerly independen
Yougenwebsite, targeted mainly at UK households wishing to install small-scale renewable energy measures. Historically, it also provided secretariat functions to trade associations such as the Solar Trade Association and the Ground Source Heat Pump Association, as well as running from 2010 to 2015 the Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme that implemented Ofgem's guidelines for marketing "green" electricity.
Work with young people
Although working mainly with organisations and the general public, NEF has from time to time run projects aimed at educating young people. This includes the Energy Envoys project, aimed at encouraging students undertaking the
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (commonly abbreviated DofE) is a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, that has since expanded to 144 nations. The awards recognise adolescents and young ...
to become involved in saving energy.
In 2007-8 it launched a
global warming game
A global warming game, also known as a climate game or a climate change game, is a type of serious game. As a serious game, it attempts to simulate and explore real life issues to educate players through an interactive experience. The issues par ...
called ''
Logicity'', funded by the
Defra DEFRA may refer to:
* Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law
* Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department
{{Disambiguation ...
Climate Challenge Programme, in an attempt to raise interest in the subject among young adults. For several years it ran a mobile education unit called the Green Energy Machine.
Buildings
Until 2019, NEF occupied a purpose built low energy building designed to demonstrate some of the features that it espouses. Built in 2002–3, the building is heated by a
Ground Source Heat Pump
A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that uses a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through ...
, with hot water being partly provided by an evacuated tube
solar water heating
Solar water heating (SWH) is heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for residential a ...
system. There is a winter back-up heating system in the form of a
wood pellet
Pellet fuels (or pellets) are biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets can be made from any one of five general categories of biomass: industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, and ...
stove. The building is naturally ventilated, with ''
brise-soleils'' to prevent overheating in summer, and use of daylight is encouraged through
light tube
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...
s ('SunPipes'). Around a fifth of the office's energy is supplied by a 6.47kWp
photovoltaic
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
array. As well as energy features, its environmental credentials include the use of rainwater for toilet flushing and a low thermal mass sustainably sourced timber-frame structure.
The adjacent low energy building was constructed in 1999 for NEF on land provided by the
Commission for New Towns
English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...
. This was designed to show how super-insulation could enable a 1,000m
2 building to be heated from a single gas
condensing boiler
Condensing boilers are water heaters typically used for heating systems that are fueled by gas or oil. When operated in the correct circumstances, a heating system can achieve high efficiency (greater than 90% on the higher heating value) by cond ...
little larger than would be used in a typical UK home. This served as NEF's headquarters until 2004. A 39kWp photovoltaic array was added to this building in 2012, taking advantage of special fixings that had been designed into the original building.
Both buildings are now owned by Return on Investment Ltd, and NEF operates from offices in
Bletchley
Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley.
Bletchley is best known ...
.
Leadership
*Patron:
Dame Mary Archer
*President: John Walker
*Chair: (Rotates among Trustees)
Past chairs include
Brian White,
Eryl McNally
Eryl Margaret McNally (born 11 April 1942) is a former Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East of England constituency.
Personal life
She was born in Bangor, North Wales and Professor John Chesshire.
See also
*
Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
Energy in the United Kingdom came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021. Total World energy supply and consumption, energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 142.0millionTonne of oil equivalent, tonnes of oil equivalent (1,651TWh) in 2019. In 20 ...
*
Global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
*
Renewable energy commercialisation
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include b ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Environmental charities based in the United Kingdom
Low-energy building in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in Milton Keynes
Climate change organisations based in the United Kingdom
Charities based in Buckinghamshire