[Infowarrior] - UK using UAVs to target home energy efficiency

[Richard Forno]

Council uses spy plane with thermal imaging camera to snoop on homes  
wasting energy

By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 2:40 AM on 24th March 2009

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1164091/Council-uses-spy-plane-thermal-imaging-camera-snoop-homes-wasting-energy.html

Our movements are already tracked by CCTV, speed cameras and even  
spies in dustbins.

Now snooping on the public has reached new heights with local  
authorities putting spy planes in the air to snoop on homeowners who  
are wasting too much energy.

Thermal imaging cameras are being used to create colour-coded maps  
which will enable council officers to identify offenders and pay them  
a visit to educate them about the harm to the environment and measures  
they can take.
Enlarge   Thermal imaging home

A council has spent £30,000 using a spy plane carrying a thermal  
camera to determine which homes are wasting energy. (File photo)

A scheme is already under way in Broadland District Council in  
Norfolk, which has spent £30,000 hiring a plane with a thermal imaging  
camera.

It said the exercise has been so successful other local authorities  
are planning to follow suit.

But critics have warned the crackdown was another example of local  
authorities extending their charter to poke their noses into every  
aspect of people's lives.

Broadland, which covers towns including Aylsham, Reepham and Acle,  
hired the plane from a Leicestershire-based company for five days at  
the end of January.

The aircraft took images of homes and businesses, with those losing  
the most heat showing up as red, while better insulated properties  
appear blue.

The council's head of environmental services, Andy Jarvis, said the  
original plan was to target businesses but it was realised the scope  
could be extended to include residental properties.

'The project we put together was for a plane to go up on various  
nights flying strips of the district and taking pictures,' he said.

'Through those images, a thermal image photograph can be created in  
which you can pick out individual properties which are losing a lot of  
heat.

'We do a lot on domestic energy conservation already and realised it  
would be useful to see if any of the homes which were particularly hot  
were properties where people had not insulated their lofts.

'We were also able to look at very cold properties and think we might  
have picked up people on low incomes who are not heating their homes  
because they cannot afford to.'

More than half the UK's carbon dioxide emissions come from the  
domestic sector, which includes property and transport.

Almost 60 per cent of a household's heat is lost through uninsulated  
walls, lofts and windows, costing the average home £380 a year.

Insulation is estimated to reduce each home's carbon emissions by  
around two tonnes annually.

The first city in the UK to make a heat-loss map was Aberdeen, while  
the first local authority in England was Haringey Council, in London -  
although environmental groups at that time said they viewed the  
practice as a 'gimmick' of little real value.

The TaxPayers' Alliance has added concerns about the issue of privacy.

Chief executive Matthew Elliott said: 'People are sick and tired of  
being heckled and spied on by local government and this council has  
shown an utter disregard for the man on the street.'

He added: 'We're in a recession and you would have thought this  
council had better ways to spend £30,000.

'Taxpayers are already footing the bill for innumerable advertising  
campaigns at a time when families are struggling to make ends meet.'

But Conservative-led Broadlands insisted the heat-loss map would allow  
officers to pinpoint offenders and point out how to get help and  
grants to improve insulation to cut carbon emissions.

Council leader Simon Woodbridge said the project would 'effectively  
pay for itself within a few weeks in terms of the amounts of money we  
can help people to save'.

Lib Dem group leader Stuart Beadle added: 'Cameras are in place all  
over today and we have to accept them. So long as the right guidelines  
are in place and it will bring benefits, I think the scheme is a good  
thing.'

Britain now has more than four million CCTV cameras - a fifth of those  
in use around the world - and around 8,000 speed cameras.

Almost 500 local authorities have been using anti-terrorism powers  
brought in under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers  
Act to launch a string of bizarre investigations.

These have included checks on dog fouling, putting bins out on the  
wrong day and people trying to cheat school catchment area rules.