Maurice puts up double glazing film at the A Rocha centre(Photo: © A Rocha)It really is possible to reduce your energy consumption by 90 per cent, says CMS mission partner Maurice Connor
As CMS mission partners, home from Pakistan to have a baby, we found ourselves working for A Rocha, an international Christian environmental charity.
Despite A Rocha’s fine environmental credentials, it was a gas bill for £400 that triggered us to address the carbon footprint of the A Rocha UK centre in Southall. I had been researching the CO2 situation to find out how much per person the earth can naturally reabsorb.
On returning from Pakistan I wanted to see if it was possible to live in London without adding to the CO2 problem that probably causes devastating crop failures over there. Maybe we could apply lessons learnt from their simpler lifestyles? I jumped at this opportunity to find a better way to use technology here and share the findings broadly to help others to do the same.
In today’s culture the manufacturing and building sectors have a powerful influence on the choices we make and are responsible for a huge portion of the UK’s CO2 emissions. We have found that by small lifestyle changes and low tech modifications we can cut CO2 produced in homes by the necessary 9/10 without much CO2 produced making and distributing new materials.
Rather than get new double glazed windows we fitted one or two layers of secondary double glazing film from Wickes and sealed up the windows that we never need to open.
And our gas bill? Well since we started it immediately dropped to £0 because now we only use electricity in the house. This we buy from a 100 per cent renewable supplier so it is not made from fossil fuels. The house gets a bit colder in the winter now we have switched off the gas central heating but the residents don’t suffer too much because we encourage them to make use of electric heaters when they feel the need. This way the green energy is directed to exactly where it is needed via heaters placed close to people – such as an electric heated blanket on the sofa.
Cutting our heating works because we take deliberate measures to keep in passive heat – the free heat from people, equipment and sunlight. We sealed up draughty cracks with putty or filler and fitted draft exclusion tape to external and internal doors to keep warmth in the rooms it’s most needed. The kitchen provides heat for the toilet and downstairs corridor and keeps the edge off the temperature in the lounge. Computers and people provide a large part of the heat in the office which is topped up by an electric radiator heater beside the coldest person.
We don’t have hot water in the taps any more but have got used to washing with electric power showers that heat the water and we use electric kettles to boil water for washing up. We try to keep the place full of people so that our CO2 production per head is reduced.
To find out how you can make your energy consumption sustainable without costing the earth download our 90 per cent home energy reduction leaflet and see other great tips on the A Rocha website livinglightly24-1.org.uk