Participle

Over a third of the UK’s CO2 emissions come from the home, yet they are rarely the focus of our ‘green’ activities. FutureCurrents is a RED project that took a radical look at home energy use, exploring sources of home energy use and developing new systems of home energy management. This project developed into exciting new energy saving concierge service, the Green Home Concierge, currently being delivered by TEN UK.

We’ve got to a point in the UK where we know about ‘climate change’, and whilst some would like to change their behaviour, there are many who do not know where or how to start, or who already feel they are doing enough.  Recycling rates have rocketed with the provision and expansion of collections, but for many this is where efforts to ‘go green’ have ended.

Here are some facts; 27% of the UK CO2 emissions come from our homes, as opposed to just 16% from transport. In our homes, on average, 80% of energy use goes on heating and hot water, whilst just 20% goes on light, appliances and everything else.

The figures represent the reality of the ‘climate change’, our behaviour change represents our perception: 80% of people in the UK make no connection between their home energy use and climate change, 60% do nothing to save energy, and of those that have done so, 81% said they did it to save money.  We need new services that help us make a real change.

Government policy understands the significance of household energy use on climate change. In 2003, The Energy White Paper looked to residential households for a reduction of 4-6 million tones of carbon by 2020, from a mixture of energy efficiency and small-scale renewable energy.

However, household energy use continues to rise because of a government focus on fuel poverty, rather than tackling energy consumption and emissions. The great majority of domestic energy is consumed by households that are not fuel-poor.  Therefore tackling climate change through household energy is best achieved by addressing the wasteful use amongst the ‘fuel rich,’ mostly owner-occupiers who now make up 70% of households in the UK.

So, how best to address this section of the population? To date, emphasis has been placed on government-funded communication, such as expensive mail-outs. But still energy consumption has been rising by 20% per annum since the 1990s.  This project started with the assumption that what is needed is not more spending, regulation and market offerings. The revolution in domestic energy has to be aspirational and put the householder at the very centre. The householder must become an active manager of his or her own systems.

For domestic energy consumers to genuinely become active in climate change solutions, they have to engage differently with their own home energy systems. They cannot remain as consumers on the receiving end of a gas or electricity market, but instead, must actively manage their energy use and production.

For 10 weeks in 2005, we spent time with a small number of users, and the RED project team moved into a draughty Victorian terrace in Lewisham, South London, to look at energy saving from a homeowner’s point of view. We worked with 12 householders across London to gain insight and generate ideas, backed up by input from leading energy experts.

Working with these householders, we identified 4 key insights: First, the importance of making energy tangible or visible – a need for information about energy use. Second, the need of the homeowner to feel in control and able to influence the use of energy. Third, any new systems need to appeal to a number of motivations, not just financial paybacks, but also objects and systems of desire. Finally, collaboration is a powerful force for change, and numbers, not just individuals motivate.

We then developed three main new service areas:

1. Homeowners as Active Energy Managers – Most people interact with their energy situation solely via their monthly bill, which many don’t even look at. We developed new types of monthly reporting mechanisms, new types of ‘energy dashboards’ displaying different uses of energy, bench marking systems displaying individual use against other users, and a Power Pension as a system of storing credits for saving energy;

2. Homeowners as Energy Producers – Many homes have the capability of generating their own energy. The potential is huge, but is being held back by planning restrictions, and most importantly by cost. We developed a scenario called One Million Roofs, an articulation of a million homes contributing to, not taking from the national grid.

3. Support Services for New Energy Systems – Homeowners have a long list of priorities. They don’t have time to gain knowledge from complex systems of energy use. We used the elements of existing support services in other sectors, such as concierge services, to develop a support economy for energy.

The development of Support Services proved the most exciting idea on which to develop a new public service. It addressed the hassle of understanding the issues and finances of becoming more energy efficient. The team designed and articulated a series of service components; a comprehensive audit process, information on appliances, products and installers, management of installations and finance options, to name a few.

The result was that, in conjunction with the London Mayor’s Office, we produced a blueprint for a new type of concierge service, which was picked up by the London Development Agency and TEN, who developed it into a full operational service.

Green Home Concierge, “offers expert, practical support for homeowners who want to make their homes more energy efficient and cheaper to run - while also reducing their C02 emissions and their impact on the environment.”

For more information on this project, please download the full report here

Main Photo Design Council licensed under Creative Commons