February 2024 “Save energy. Save money. Save the planet” Eco-Challenge
Our challenge for this month is to improve our home’s energy efficiency.
If you don’t know much about home energy or where to start, take our
“First Step” Challenge:
Learn how to retrofit your home for better energy efficiency
Tailor-make your challenge: There is plenty of information online but the local resources from Home Energy MK are a great place to start. We recommend their Housewarming MK programme – the guides and the series of face-to-face evening workshops that are running from 17 Jan – 10 Apr 2024.
If you feel ready to begin your home retrofit project, try our
“Step Up” Challenge:
Take two practical actions to reduce your energy at home
Tailor-make your challenge: If you have already been doing things to reduce your energy at home, check your energy use on your bill and set yourself a target to see how you can reduce that number further.
What to do next
1. Start planning for your challenge now.
It’s worth planning ahead for how you’re going to tackle your “Save energy. Save money. Save the planet.” eco-challenge for February. It’s useful to do some research first to see what areas are best for you to target for your home. Get started by signing-up to attend the Housewarming MK event programme running fortnightly at Bletchley Library from 17 Jan – 10 Apr 2024 (at 7pm – 9pm).
2. Attend our Social Evening to discover more about this topic and to discuss this month’s eco-challenge with other challengers.
Our guest speaker will have plenty of practical tips to help you with you eco-challenge to improve your home energy use in January. The event will take place at Aiimi in central Milton Keynes on Wednesday 7 February from 6.30pm – 8pm. Click here to register via EventBrite.
Join the group as we share tips, experiences and insights with each other.
3. Gain more understanding of the subject
Why this eco-challenge is important
According to the Energy Savings Trust, energy efficiency has a key role in addressing climate change. Their study with the University of Salford found that if every household took energy efficiency measures now, we could achieve 11 per cent of the UK’s 2050 carbon target.
There are a range of actions that will reduce energy usage in the home, and thus reduce the amount of fossil fuel burned to generate your energy. Simple actions such as improving switching to LED or CFL bulbs, using in-room thermostats which allow you to control the heating in each room, improving draft proofing or insulation in the loft. (Did you know that many lofts are not insulated to the recommended 270mm?) Then there are more involved actions such improving the efficiency of your home’s heating system or installing double or triple glazing.
Saving energy at home isn’t going to save the whole world, but it will contribute to it – and save you money at the same time.
Some more useful websites:
Saving energy at home: | Friends of the Earth
Tips on how to save energy at home and help the planet – BBC News