A new device free to borrow from the Ballarat library could help households save hundreds of dollars this winter by helping them locate drafts in their homes.
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The City of Ballarat has purchased multiple thermal imaging cameras, available to borrow from the library, which can help people find the parts of their homes which are losing heat, such as gaps in insulation.
On July 26, Smart Living Ballarat will be hosting a session at the Central Library Pop Up in Ballarat Town Hall, which will demonstrate how best to use the cameras.
Event host Ellen Burns said the device is perfect for identifying missing insulation, cracks in floorboards or cold spots under the house.
"There's a lot of houses in Ballarat that just have zero insulation in the walls, people don't realise, literally none, not just crappy insulation but nothing," she said.
"It's [the camera] good for, obviously homeowners, but also renters can make use of it as well, because there are interventions that you can do as a renter to plug up those gaps."
Ms Burns said the cameras could be borrowed from the library like any other item, and were a great loan option, as purchasing one could set buyers back upwards of $1000.
"It's the perfect kind of thing for the library to have so that everyone can just borrow it once and find out what they need to do," she said.
"I think front of mind for people at the moment is power bills, so there's no better time to really kind of address these things than in the depths of winter."
According to Canstar Blue editor-in-chief Christine Seib, improving a home's energy efficiency from one to three stars could save households as much as 30 per cent on energy bills.
While energy efficient improvements might sound expensive, Ms Seib said there are steps people on all budgets could make.
There's a lot of houses that just have zero insulation in the walls, not just crappy insulation but nothing
- Ellen Burns
There are several initiatives across Ballarat this winter which are trying to help people manage sky-high energy bills.
From July 24 to September 11, The Ballarat Zero Emissions Alliance (BZEA) will host home energy efficiency workshops at the Ballarat Tool Shed aimed at reducing household bills.
BREAZE president Mary Debrett said they are trying to run a program which will help the community.
"If you can do anything to help people reduce their energy bills and reduce the escape of heat from their homes, then you're also going to be cutting emissions," she said.
"So there's a win-win there for both the individual household, and for the community, and for the environment."
The six workshops will be hosted by accredited Victorian Energy Scorecard Assessors Dale Boucher and Tim Drylie, and have been funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
Ms Debrett said the workshops would include everything from top-end solutions such as putting in solar power and better insulation to focusing on small fixes people can do themselves.
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"It's showing people that there are practical things that they can do, and some of them are not very expensive at all," she said.
"We're wanting to help people who are doing it really tough at the moment, and in Ballarat there are quite a number of people who are having a hard time because of the cost of living."
"We've seen the cost of electricity and gas going through the roof, so something that helps people to keep warm and lower their gas bills or power bills would be a really great thing."
Smart Living Ballarat will be hosting monthly sustainability sessions on the fourth Wednesday of every month, while BZEA while will run six workshops on Monday mornings between July 24 and September 11.
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