climate change

Robin Roy, Professor of Design and Environment, Design Innovation Group, Faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology, on tackling climate change at home...

Homes are responsible for more than a quarter (27 per cent) of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the UK; mainly carbon dioxide released when burning gas for household heating and hot water and generating electricity for lights and appliances. Here are some of the most important things you can do to reduce your own and your household’s climate changing impacts:

Home heating and hot water

Apart from transport, this represents the largest share of most people’s energy emissions. To reduce the amount of fuel you use for heating, insulate your loft (with 1ft-thick insulation) and walls (cavity filling is easiest, but solid walls can be insulated too). Try to take showers rather than baths to save hot water. Consider upgrading your heating and hot water system, preferably to central heating with a condensing gas boiler that is maybe supplemented by a wood stove. Only then install double glazing and/or insulate floors if your home hasn’t already got these improvements. Finally you might consider installing a solar water heating system, especially as by 2012 there will be a ‘renewable heat incentive’ to pay you for any solar hot water you produce.

Electricity for lights and appliances

On average this represents 12 per cent of household emissions. Reduce your electricity consumption by getting energy-efficient appliances (especially fridges and freezers which consume most electricity) and turn off lights and electronic equipment when not in use. Replace ordinary light bulbs with energy-saving ones – there are now lots of types including efficient lamps to replace halogen spotlights and new LED lamps bright enough for proper lighting.

It’s now becoming worthwhile to consider installing a solar photovoltaic system for generating electricity, as there is a generous ‘feed-in tariff’ to pay you for any electricity you generate at home. A solar electric system (best installed before April 2012 when the tariff may be reduced) can now pay back in about 10 years and earn the equivalent of an eight per cent return on your money. However, a much cheaper and easier option is to switch your electricity supply to a ‘green’ tariff; preferably one that relies on 100 per cent renewable sources such as wind power.


Take it further
Discover your own main sources of greenhouse emissions by using a carbon calculator, developed for module Environment: journeys through a changing world (U116), on OpenLearn.

Watch the video tour of the home of Dr Richard Blundel, a Senior Lecturer in Enterprise Development with The Open University Business School, who has spent years transforming his Edwardian home into an energy efficient one.

For more resources related to the environment and climate change, go to www.openuniversity.co.uk/climateweek
 

Senior Research Fellow of Mathematics, Computing & Technology at the OU, Christine Thomas,  talks about how reducing food waste could make a massive difference to the environment and to your pocket, with wasted food costing the average family with children £680 a year…

“We all know that recycling is good for the environment, or at least we should do, it saves energy, cuts carbon emissions and reduces the amount of waste needed to be processed or sent to landfill. It has been estimated that increasing home recycling by 10% and buying more products with recycled materials content could save the average household 9kg CO2 over the course of a year.

“An increasing number of people recycle but we can do more, in fact we need to do more. Recycling can also be good for us in that it can make us feel better about not taking action elsewhere and also the environmentally damaging things that we may consider a necessity, such as driving instead of using public transport, or just the sheer amount of waste we create.

“Take food, for example: 8.3 million tonnes of food, much of it edible, is thrown away by households in the UK every year. Food waste is also harmful to the environment: when food waste goes to landfill it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Not to mention the waste of energy from producing, storing and transporting the food and dealing with the subsequent waste.

“The startling fact is that if we all stop wasting food, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road – the equivalent of 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.”

How you can make a difference
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign was set up by the Government to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste. The campaign website features a range of tips and tools to reduce food waste, from a portion planner to recipes for leftovers and information on what best before dates really mean.

The OU on iTunes U has created three collections of educational content specifically on subjects related to climate change: www.openuniversity.co.uk/climateweek