Fuel poverty is becoming an increasing problem here in the UK, but there are a couple of companies doing their very best to try and combat this growing dilemma. So what exactly is fuel poverty? According to Department of Energy & Climate Change, fuel poverty occurs when a household "has to spend more than 10% of its income on fuel to maintain a satisfactory heating regime (usually 21 degrees for the main living area, and 18 degrees for other occupied rooms)."

There are a variety of factors to take into account when calculating a residence’s fuel poverty, but we won’t get into the finer details of it, however you can find more information here.

According to research, also conducted by the Department of Energy & Climate Change, there could be up to 4.6 million households in England that are currently in "fuel poverty". (source BBC) That has caused the government to vow to eradicate fuel poverty completely by 2016, considering about 16% of all UK households are classifiable as being in fuel poverty.

However, the government aren’t the only body to do their part in eliminating this problem, the Scottish Gas and Link Housing Association will be trialling a new Baxi Ecogen micro-combined heat and power appliance (micro-CHP). That is a mouthful, but in laymen’s terms the micro-CHP delivers renewable electricity and heat by making use of bio-natural gas.

This will also result in lower carbon emissions, because the electricity is generated where it will be used, it bypasses the system energy losses that are generally associated with central power distribution.

The first trial unit (supplied by Baxi parts) has already been supplied to a tenant in Drip Road, Stirling and both organisations are monitoring the progress made very carefully.

Deborah Skelton Business Development manager for Scottish Gas, Contract Partnerships said "This is the first Baxi Ecogen micro-CHP boiler to be installed in Scotland and we are very pleased to be a part of this project with Link Housing Association.

"Baxi Ecogen is a fully automatic gas fired wall mounted condensing heat only boiler which will produce up to 1kW of electricity for the tenant. The electricity excess to requirements at the time of production will be fed back into the national grid which will have good cost savings for the tenant as well as saving energy and reducing carbon emissions."

This could be a great way for all of us, not only the elderly, to save money by "creating" our own electricity at home and if anything should go wrong with the micro-CHP then be sure that if you have any boiler problems, Baxi boiler repair will be able to assist you.