Original article by Brenda Boardman, Environmental Change Institute UK households need to achieve at least a 60% reduction in their carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 if we are to avoid significant climate change. A new research project, the ‘40% house’ aims to show us how.

Introduction

Dr Brenda Boardman from Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute is identifying immediate actions that will reduce energy demand - and also energy bills - in our homes.

 

Environmentally friendly Integer home, Milton Keynes.

Sections in this article

• Action at home

• Research into Home appliances

• Where Next?

Action at home

Homes use nearly a third of the United Kingdom's energy, so individuals can play a huge role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There are massive opportunities to save money now, but you and I aren't using them. We've known for years that we should turn off lights in empty rooms and buy energy-efficient appliances. But we now need to go beyond this and think about reducing carbon, not just saving money. We will interview households to determine the choices people are willing to make to save energy, what they are willing to give up, and if they are willing to pay for it. As individuals we need to choose how - and how much we will pay - to save the planet. Our team will use computer models of different house types to investigate ways for homes to obtain energy from new and renewable sources. For example, homes could make better use of solar energy. We could create power stations at home. We can already use the sun shining on our roof to generate electricity or heat water, and by 2050 we could also use modern gas boilers to have direct responsibility for generating electricity at home. This would encourage us to be even more careful with how we use energy.

Research into home appliances

The research team will also conduct laboratory tests on home appliances to investigate ways to avoid the two peaks in energy demand: early evening when millions of people return home and begin cooking and watching television, and early morning as heaters switch on. They will also investigate how heating and cooling demand will be influenced by climate change. We need to identify crucial policies that need to be implemented now, such as setting new standards for energy use by appliances. In addition to behavioural changes that reduce energy demand and technological changes to increase the efficiency of home appliances people may even need to decide when it is better to demolish a house and rebuild it in a more energy-efficient form. At the moment, we are not rebuilding enough. We need a more phased approach to house replacement to avoid an excess of old, energy-inefficient houses.

Achieving a 40% house requires extensive new thinking and planning right now. A 60% reduction is absolutely huge. We may need to do everything we can think of.

Where Next?

On ClimateX.org

Case studies of Oxfordshire people acting to reduce energy use in their homes are available to view on this site- try looking at Oxfordshire Faces for interviews with local people about the action they are taking and what concerns them most. You might like to read about an Oxfordshire couple who have installed solar PV panels on their home in the article ‘Be Your Own Electricity Generator'. To view a map of all the solar installations in Oxford, visit http://oxfordsolar.energyprojects.net/. You can also read two introductory articles in this section: ‘Introducing Photovoltaics' and ‘Solar Water Heating', to give you an in depth background to these technologies.

Another inspirational Oxfordshire story of a home eco-conversion can be found at Sage Ecohouse

External links

The 40% house report, looking in detail at how 60% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved in domestic buildings across the UK, was completed in 2005 and is available to download from http://www.40percent.org.uk/ . A hard copy is also available on request.

Further research building on this report is underway in the Lower Carbon Futures team. In particular a programme called ‘Building market transformations' is looking at ways in which 60% reductions can be made across other sectors of the UK economy, including the commercial built environment.

I-measure is a new initiative at the Environmental Change Institute providing a simple online tool for monitoring your household's electricity and gas usage, by entering weekly readings from your gas and electricity meter. It allows households to gain a more accurate picture of how much energy they use and how this varies under different conditions. The tool can be viewed at http://www.imeasure.org.uk/