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British Spy Planes Identify Home Energy Abusers

Posted on: Thursday, 26 March 2009, 06:55 CDT

Britain’s monitoring of public citizens has reached an all new height, as local authorities turn to spy planes to search out homeowners who are using too much energy.

Thermal imaging cameras are used to create color-coded maps by which council officers can identify offenders. The officers then conduct follow up visits to the homes to educate occupants about environmental damage and ways to reduce their energy consumption.  

The Broadland District Council in Norfolk has already spent $44,000 (£30,000) hiring a plane with an onboard thermal imaging camera, according to a report in Britain’s Daily Mail Online.  Broadland, which includes the towns of Aylsham, Reepham and Acle, hired the plane for five days in January from a Leicestershire-based firm.

According to the conservative-led Council, the approach has been so successful that other local authorities are now planning to follow suit.

However, the tactic is not without its critics, who warn that the crackdown is yet another example of local authorities expanding their roles to snoop into every aspect of people's lives.

In Broadland, the aircraft captured images of businesses and homes, with those losing the most heat shown in red and better-insulated buildings appearing in blue.

Andy Jarvis, the Council's environmental services chief, said the original plan targeted only businesses, but they later realized it could be expanded to include residential properties as well.

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

"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 realized 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 of all carbon dioxide emissions in Britain come from the domestic sector, such as transport and property.   

Nearly 60 percent of a home’s heat is lost through uninsulated ceilings, walls, and windows, costing the average occupant $554 (£380) per year.  Furthermore, properly insulating a house is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by around two tons annually per home.

Aberdeen was the first city in Britain to construct a heat-loss map, while Haringey Council in London was the first local authority to do so.  At the time, environmental groups said they viewed the approach as a 'gimmick' of little true value.

The TaxPayers' Alliance has expressed concerns about privacy issues related to the practice.

"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," Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Alliance, told the Daily Mail.

"We're in a recession and you would have thought this council had better ways to spend $45,000 (£30,000)," he said.

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

But Broadlands maintains the heat-loss maps will allow officers to find offenders and help the Council obtain grants to improve insulation to reduce carbon emissions.

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

Other government officials support the plan as well.

"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," Liberal Democrat group leader Stuart Beadle told the Daily Mail.

Britain now has more than four million CCTV cameras, 20 percent of all those in use throughout the world.  It also utilizes some 8,000 speed cameras.

Additionally, the nation now has roughly 500 local authorities using anti-terrorism powers enacted under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to conduct a series of strange investigations.  These have included checks on those putting bins out on the wrong day, dog fouling and not abiding by school catchment area rules.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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