Cooler Dumfries and Galloway Council buildings to help cut energy costs

A Scottish council is being advised to turn down the temperature in its buildings in a bid to cut energy costs.

A report to the local authority in Dumfries and Galloway said properties were currently heated to 21C over the winter “heating season”.

It is being advised to turn that down to 18C and also reduce the period of time the heating is turned on.

A report said it would save the council money although the scale of the savings was “difficult to quantify”.

The recommendation is part of a wider examination of annual energy costs which are expected to go from £6.4m to £9.7m in 2022/23.

A string of measures is being advised to try to reduce consumption in the years to come.

One of them is to turn down the temperature at council buildings throughout the region.

Current council policy is that heating systems are set to 21C across a season which runs from 16 September to 31 May.

A report said that could be cut to 1 October to 31 March depending on the weather.

It added that milder conditions had already allowed a delayed start to this year’s heating season.

Exceptions to the new lower temperature settings would be made for the likes of nurseries, additional support needs (ASN) provision and activity and resource centres (ARCs).