Why wait for other people to save the environment when there are lots of ways to help yourself? Michael Kellymeets three families that have been cutting down on their energy consumption
Aodhan MacPhaidin, an energy expert, was manning the Power of One stand at a trade show recently and noticed that people seemed to be steering clear of him but flocking to a nearby stand selling solar panels. That's a good metaphor for the difficulties the Power of One campaign has in convincing us that we don't need to spend money to reduce the environmental footprint of our homes. The campaign focuses on simple changes that will help the environment and save money: closing curtains, switching televisions and other devices off instead of leaving them on standby, turning off radiators in rooms we're not using, switching off the immersion heater. In other words, all the things our parents were telling us for decades. These little changes might not be as sexy as having a wind turbine whirring away on your back lawn, but they are just as effective.
"People in modern homes use far more energy, so even though the house might be very efficient our behaviour is not," says MacPhaidin. "There is a danger in believing that technology will do everything for us, because it gives us licence not to consider our behaviour at all. Making our homes energy efficient is about technology, fabric and behaviour. But behaviour is step one."
As part of Power of One's Street Challenge, eight houses have been selected for an energy makeover. MacPhaidin and his fellow energy expert Dr Kirk Shanks surveyed each home to see how it could become more energy efficient, then set the residents a different challenge each month: heating space, heating water, lighting, small appliances and cooking. The results are published on the Power of One website.
Central to the campaign is the cumulative impact of small changes. "It seems really trivial, but when you act on these things the impact is enormous," says MacPhaidin. "If a family switches off everything that is on standby in their house they will save around €30 a year, which is not a lot. But if everyone in Ireland did it there would be savings of €40 million and 186,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide emissions."
Where global warming is concerned it's easy to feel overwhelmed. That's why the Power of One message is so important. There are changes we can all make. As Anne Heffernan, one of the Power of One Street residents, says: "It's easy to blame the Yanks for not signing up to Kyoto."
The Heffernan family
"It's Anne's fault!" say sisters Paula and Maria when I ask who got the family involved. Anne, who's a TV producer, went to see Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truthand resolved to reduce her environmental footprint. The sisters share a five-bedroom house in Castleknock, Dublin 15, with their parents, Frank and Maureen, and remember the time before they began with embarrassment. Crimes included an immersion heater left on for three years, computers on all day, mobile phones and hair-straighteners permanently plugged in, and a broken DVD player left on standby.
"Ian and Kirk were horrified," says Paula. "We're such bad people." The family made an impressive 20 per cent saving in the first month's space-heating challenge. "We were shocked at the results," says Paula. "There wasn't a lot of hardship. It was just about monitoring rooms, to see where we needed to have radiators on, and closing curtains and doors."
Over a year those savings translate into nearly 2,000kg of carbon dioxide and €320. "It would take us from three to two refills of oil per year," says Maria.
"We are ultraconscious of it now, and we police each other," says Anne. Paula agrees: "You see Maria click a pen and start writing in the log book if you do something like leave the fridge door open."
They were disappointed to save just 18 per cent of their water-heating costs. "We got complacent," says Maria. "We thought that because the immersion had been on all the time we would do brilliantly if we just switched it off once in a while. But for fear of the water being cold, and ending up with a head full of shampoo, we were still leaving it on for an hour, which is too long, or else forgetting about it."
Attention to detail has changed their attitude. "After the first meeting Dad wanted to buy a wind turbine and solar panels," says Maria, "but Ian was making us focus on our behaviour." It's about empowerment, says Anne. "I think my attitude was, God, someone should do something about this climate-change thing, rather than doing something myself." The family says it will make the changes permanent. "It's not just a six-month thing," says Paula. The guilt would kill them, she says.
Andrea Carroll & Aaron Cassidy
Flying the flag for first-time buyers are Andrea Carroll (26) and Aaron Cassidy (24) who live in a four-bedroom, semi in Navan, Co Meath, which they bought last year. Andrea works as an environmental engineer.
"I am not this puritanical environmentalist or anything but I studied ecology and conservation, so I have an interest in the issues. When it comes to your own home, there is so much information and it's very hard to know where to start. We were wondering should we look at solar or get a wood-burning stove. There is also a money-saving element to it; if we can save on our bills that would be great."
Their house was built in 1999 and the heating system has been acting up. "We were pretty shocked at the bills when we moved in. Some of the radiators don't work properly and the plumbing isn't great, which is a waste of resources. That will have to be fixed eventually. They showed us how to bleed radiators and it has helped. They encouraged us to play around with the heating system, turning radiators on and off to see what worked." The couple made savings of 24 per cent on space heating, which would save €210 in a year.
In month two, when it came to water heating, they were faced with a substantial behavioural change . "We left the immersion on all the time, especially in the summer," Andrea admits, "but we now know that the immersion is like a big kettle, so when it is switched on all the time it is boiling and cooling constantly. We've had a few cold showers, mind you, but Ian was saying that we can get a timer on the immersion which will help." Andrea says she was sceptical at the start.
"I think because of what I work at, it's harder to convince someone like me and to be honest, I thought it might be a bit wishy-washy. The more I've been involved, the more I can see the logic.
"Before this, I thought that I couldn't improve without spending money, whereas I can see now that it is crucial to sort out your attitude first before you think about the bigger things. "
The Heery family
You could argue that the last thing new parents need is a challenge to reduce energy usage. Niall and Karen's first child, Laoise, was born less than a year ago - which means they are trying to reduce energy consumption when there is more laundry than ever, and their three-storey terraced home needs to be warmer than it used to be. Karen put her photography career on hold to look after Laoise, and now spends prolonged periods in the home, which means even more energy required.
Niall and Karen's Dublin home was built in the 1800s and some of its quirkier touches don't lend themselves to energy efficiency. There are charming vintage radiators, which they love, but which have more water inside them than modern ones. There's a chandelier in the hallway ("The lighting challenge will be fun," muses Karen) and high ceilings everywhere which pose heating challenges.
Given all that, it's admirable that they managed a 21 per cent heat saving in the first challenge. "It's never been about the money for us," says Karen. "We just wanted to try and reduce our carbon footprint and when Laoise was born we were thinking more about her future. We thought we were pretty eco-friendly as it was, but the way we used heat in the house was very inefficient.
"We achieved the savings by closing curtains and doors at night and isolating rooms that we don't use. It's really about planning ahead - if you are going to use a room, get the heat on in there. You get into the habit really quickly. We weren't sitting here in our coats. In fact I think we were more comfortable in the house if anything."
Karen also had to keep Niall's competitive instinct in check. "At the start, he was all about winning - he was saying to me 'right, what do we have to do to win?' I think he understands now that this is not about winning.
"We wanted to do things right and this challenge is a great way to make sure we are doing that. It's had a knock-on effect on our family and friends and people are really interested in how we are doing. My parents have even started turning off their immersion now, which is something!"
Tips for the space-heating challenge
•Remember to turn off your heating at night, and when you're not there or if you're going to be away for a few days.
•Keep your curtains closed at night and make sure you don't just heat the space between the curtains and the window. A radiator shelf deflects convection currents past the curtains into the room.
•Heat bedrooms and hallways to below 18 degrees.
•Close doors to separate heated and unheated areas - this minimises the area you are heating.
•Get your heating system serviced - proper control and regular maintenance can reduce fuel consumption by 10-20 per cent.
•Use a portable heater instead of the central heating, if only one room needs to be heated.
•Adopt the 30-minute rule. Set the heating to switch off 30 minutes before bedtime and to turn on 30 minutes before you get up.
•Power of One will send you a free energy-saving pack. See www.powerofone.ie