SIX months ago, Chris McGuire would have thought nothing of having a bath instead of a shower and filling the kettle up to the top.
But now a few simple lifestyle changes, such as measuring out small quantities of water for a cup of tea and swapping baths for showers, have led her family to cut their use of gas and electricity by 47 per cent.
The McGuires live in Colinton Main
s Green, Edinburgh – a street that is leading the way across Scotland in slashing use of energy and cutting damaging carbon dioxide emissions.
Since launching a competition across the UK six months ago to cut energy use against seven other streets, the Edinburgh entrant has reduced its use of electricity and gas by almost 20 per cent.
British Gas, which is behind the Green Streets contest, says if every household in the UK followed suit, then it could save £4.6 billion.
In January, British Gas handed £30,000 to the residents of the street, which was spent on energy saving measures in homes, from cavity wall insulation, to push lawnmowers.
They also received a dedicated energy efficiency expert, Fiona Legge, to give advice on the most effective steps to change their lifestyles.
Ms Legge said the households taking part had been surprised by the difference small changes in habit can make.
“When they see the difference even just simple things like turning off lights can make, they are amazed,” she said.
“We gave them monitors so they can see how much energy they save if they don’t fill up the kettle and it has a real impact when they see it in kilowatts or monetary value.
“It’s about not wasting. It’s about using energy properly rather than wasting it.”
Matthew Lockwood, a senior research fellow in the climate team at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which carried out a study into the progress of the contest, said that it was a change in behaviour, as well as measures such as insulation, that has made a big difference.
“In quite a lot of cases where they haven’t had major measures put in, we still see large energy savings,” he said. “Many of them are clearly highly motivated to change their behaviour. You have to really want to do it and to sustain it, but once you have made the adjustments, it is quite easy to carry on.”
Steps taken involve turning off lights, not leaving appliances on standby, taking fewer baths, not filling the kettle to the top, switching off the oven early and using the remaining heat to complete cooking, and washing hair early in the evening so it can dry naturally without a dryer.
Mr Lockwood said turning it into a competition gave the households the push they needed to change their habits.
“I didn’t expect the competition element to be so important for people, but the feedback we have had suggests that it makes it fun. It keeps it in their mind and helps the motivation.”
Domestic energy use is responsible for about a quarter of all the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr Lockwood said this means it is crucial to reduce home energy use in order to meet Scottish Government targets to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
He said even though governments are making pledges for all new homes to be zero-carbon, the vast majority of existing houses will still be producing large amounts of .
The IPPR is recommending the government take up three measures learned from the contest. Firstly, bring in neighbourhood energy advisers. One for every 20 streets would cost £500 million a year, compared with potential savings of £4.6 billion a year if all households cut energy use by 20 per cent.
Secondly, start incentives and finance packages to help pay for energy saving measures, such as reducing council tax for households that fit energy efficiency devices.
Finally, raise cash for prizes to inspire change – such as a £50,000 national prize. The households from streets in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton, Leeds, Plymouth, Cardiff and Edinburgh are competing for a £50,000 top prize, to be spent on making a community building more energy efficient. Leeds is currently in the lead.
How we can all make a differenceTHE Scotsman has its own campaign to encourage the nation to go green.
Let’s Go Green Together, launched with the Scottish Government six months ago, encourages people to sign up to a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.
It centres around pledges people can make to help reduce their carbon emissions.
Anyone wanting to take part can sign up online at
www.scotsman.com/gogreen or
www.infoscotland.com/ourfuture.
The pledges cover simple measures such as recycling household waste, turning the tap off when brushing your teeth, switching to energy-saving light bulbs, leaving the car at home at least once a week, using rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones, reusing carrier bags, paying back the environmental impact of any flights you take and not flying when there’s a suitable alternative.
Annie FairANNIE Fair is so keen to save energy she has cut back on using her oven and now even bakes cakes in the microwave.
The retired 60-year-old has discovered she can steam vegetables, fish and bake potatoes in the microwave – and save the energy it takes to heat her fan-assisted oven.
“I have a meal ready in about five minutes,” she said.
“I even use it for baking cakes. I would never have thought of using a microwave for that, but it takes about six minutes in total.”
When her grandchildren visit, she times them in the shower, saves up her laundry until she has a full load to put in the washing machine, and takes care to switch off the lights when not in a room.
She said: “It’s so easy to get into the habit of just switching them off.”
At the start of the contest, Mrs Fair was given a new boiler by British Gas, as well as cavity wall insulation.
She said: “The difference in terms of the cavity wall insulation is amazing. The house is never cold.”
Before taking part in the competition, the grandmother of three said she had no idea how to save energy at home, but taking part in the competition has been an eye-opener.
“It’s so easy to get into the habit. When I put the kettle on I put a small drop into it now.
“I’m conscious about leaving my TV on. Before, if I was going for a walk I would leave it on. Now I would never think of doing that.”
The McGuiresCHRIS McGuire and her husband Derek have cut their use of electricity and gas almost in half since the start of the competition, making them one of the most successful families taking part.
Simple steps like turning off lights, and using the microwave instead of the oven, have seen their
total energy consumption cut by 47 per cent since January. This is one of the highest savings of any of the 64 households taking part.
Baths have been swapped for showers, and when they realised how much energy an oven uses they almost completely stopped using it.
Instead they use the microwave, or eat cold dishes.
They even stopped having toast for breakfast eating muesli instead, and drank water instead of boiling the kettle for tea and coffee.
Mrs McGuire, a teacher, said: “We just got used to it and it saved time in the morning, and was healthier as well.”
The 44-year-old admits that to begin with they became obsessed, using a meter to measure their energy use and hunting the house for appliances left on.
“We went to extremes and now we have stabilised,” she said. “We went through phases when we first started taking meter readings every day and writing them on the calendar.”
They use the washing machine at 30 degrees, but have found they have to put some of their young child’s messy clothes through the cycle twice.
Julie Lamb and Mike SmithJULIE Lamb and her husband have been so enthusiastic about cutting their energy use that even their two young children have got involved.
As well as switching off lights, the family has made sure computers and other gadgets are not left on standby and draft excluders have been put along doors.
Ms Lamb, 39, said: “We have just been a bit more careful. Even the kids are getting in with that by making sure their bedroom lights are off.”
She said small steps have actually been the most challenging. “These are the biggest changes and probably the hardest because you realise how much you have been leaving the lights on.”
She said cutting down on baths was a difficult step for her. “I had to make a big sacrifice and have more showers,” she said.
Ms Lamb has been impressed by the response of her children, aged nine and six.
“My son, who likes computer games, remembers to switch the screen off,” she said.
“Hopefully this sort of thing will instil good practice in them, so when they grow up they will be more aware.”
She said they had always been keen to help the environment.
“It’s not as if we hadn’t ever thought about it, but we didn’t always know how to go about it, or how much it was going to cost. This has given us the push that we needed.”
