The average UK household produces enough carbon dioxide every year to fill more than 30 double-decker buses. The government has set a target to reduce household energy use by 60% by 2050 – enough to power the country’s streetlights for six years.
As part of Dott 07 designers wanted to tackle domestic energy consumption. So a design team set themselves the aim of reducing the energy consumption of one house in Castle Terrace, Ashington, by 60%.
Alex Webb Allen, from service design agency live|work, which led the Low Carb Lane project, sums up the challenge: ‘If you have £500 to spare, the chances are you are not going to spend it on insulation. There are no incentives for people. You have got to be really committed to the environment to invest the hundreds and possibly thousands of pounds it takes to “green” your home and your lifestyle.’
Energy refurbishment
The live|work team felt it was vital to get hands-on experience of renovating a home to high energy-efficiency standards. They wanted to show people living nearby what could be achieved in a house like their own but also discover what obstacles stood in the way.
While at the house in Castle Terrace, they talked to neighbours, interviewed community groups and found out that there are more pressing problems for residents than reducing the household carbon footprint. People told the team they wanted to live in a community with spirit rather than drug problems, strained landlord/tenant relations and vandalism. And many residents said that, even if they wanted to, they would struggle to afford energy-saving measures. Bill Wilkinson lives in a flat on Castle Terrace. ‘We can’t afford all this energy efficient stuff so our bills are high, and there’s a lot of old people dying every year in this country because they can’t afford to keep themselves warm,’ he said.
But he was keen to see how low-carb living could work: ‘People know very little about carbon emissions except what’s on the news. Not many people here fly or have cars, so we don’t think there’s anything we can do.’
Fellow resident Les Ritson agreed: ‘People around here aren’t so bothered by carbon emissions. It’s the local arsonist they’re worried about.’
Mrs Smith told researchers she lives opposite a burnt out garage and that no matter what improvements she made to her house, she’d never be able to sell it while the street seemed such a mess.
Pauline Thompson, a local councillor, says the split between private landlords, tenants and owner-occupiers means no one can agree on how to improve the street: ‘The street’s in decline. The private landlords are to blame. No one wants to live here any more.’
Bill Wilkinson felt the age of the houses meant there was too much work to do. ‘The government should have a rolling programme for old houses like these to bring them all up to scratch and cut down on emissions. It would be more use than trying to stop people using cars.’
The scale of the problem
After speaking to local people, the Low Carb Lane team identified some common problems stopping the community from becoming more energy efficient:
- The technical skills and time needed to re-fit a house with energy-saving devices were beyond them.
- Insulation or energy-saving appliances were beyond their budget.
- Tenants didn’t want to make long-term investments only for the landlord to benefit through higher rents when they move out.
- Landlords didn’t always want to invest if they couldn’t guarantee the investment would be looked after and if they couldn’t charge more rent to cover the cost.
- Health problems such as infant mortality and ear and chest infections occur more than average in the area because of poor housing and damp, cold and draughty conditions.
- Energy bills were often difficult to understand.
- The residents’ shared desire to reduce energy bills and benefit from the savings helped the design team start to focus on more than refurbishment in their quest to make Castle Terrace a Low Carb Lane.
Dott07
Designs of the time '07 (Dott07) was a year-long series of design projects run by the Design Council and the regional development agency One NorthEast to involve local people in exploring how design can improve everyday life. www.dott07.com
Local challenges for designers on Low Carb Lane
Castle Terrace resident Les Ritson was already a fan of low-carb living, but thought it would be difficult to persuade other residents about the importance of cutting emissions. ‘One of the tenants had a water meter put in. It cost nothing and it cut her bills by half. We brought it up in a meeting but no one was interested, even though it would save them cash. So it’s definitely going to be a challenge. Lots of people don’t even recycle when the green bin’s right in front of them.’