Aoife Gleeson (32) from Co Tipperary and her daughter Lily (6) have proved that very small adjustments to energy usage around the home can make a significant difference, both to your pocket and to the environment.
Aoife was planning on renovating her house and, while researching renewable energy sources on the internet, she came across the "Power of One Street" energy challenge, organised by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
"When you have children, you do look into the future and say, 'what's going to be there for them?'," she says.
"And I would have read up about the oil crisis and felt that I was reasonably well informed about the environment in general."
And so she decided to apply to take part in the Power of One Street challenge.
Having been selected as one of eight households to participate in the initiative, the Gleesons were faced with the challenge of sticking to a number of energy-saving measures for six months.
Their biggest problem area was heating the house, as they rely on a system of electric storage heaters rather than a central heating system.
"Before the challenge, essentially what happened was that [ the heat] got switched on in September or October and it got switched off in April or May," recalls Aoife. "I didn't do anything effective with it."
In March, the first month of the challenge, Aoife used the storage heaters' control settings to optimise heating levels and to respond to changes in the weather. "It was just a more intelligent way of using my system," she says.
She also turned off the heaters in the hallway and in unused bedrooms and, instead of automatically lighting a fire as soon as she got home, Aoife waited until the family were sitting down for the evening.
After just one month, these small adjustments had such an impact on their energy consumption that the "energy coaches" assisting with the challenge estimated that the Gleesons would save €410 a year and reduce their annual carbon emissions by an impressive 3.2 tonnes if they continued their newly-acquired good habits.
But did the family have to sacrifice their comfort levels to achieve this?
"To be honest, no," says Aoife. "It wasn't a question of me sitting at home shivering.
"If it had been that, I would have switched everything back on again. That was the bizarre thing about it - none of it really impacted on my life."
Furthermore, by minimising any unnecessary heating of hot water and switching off electrical equipment when not in use, Aoife discovered that she could shave a further €122 a year off the family's electricity costs and reduce their carbon footprint by an additional 0.65 tonnes.
