Читать книгу How Can I Stop Climate Change: What is it and how to help - Литагент HarperCollins USD, F. M. L. Thompson - Страница 113

There are 21 million homes in the UK, from modern apartments to 200-year-old houses. Most rely on electricity from the National Grid and use gas to provide hot water and heat, with some households using solid fuel or oil as heating fuel.

On average, each UK household uses energy that produces 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Typically, 30 per cent of our overall carbon footprint from homes comes from heating, a further 11 per cent from heating water, 13 per cent from electricity for lighting and appliances and 3 per cent comes from energy used for cooking.

Although we need to use energy to keep warm, cook and run the fridge, leaky buildings and inefficient appliances aren’t making the best use of a lot of the energy we burn. In many UK houses almost half of all the energy used for heating simply escapes through the roof, windows and walls. Draughty buildings mean our central heating systems are working almost as hard to heat the outside as they are the inside of our homes.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Designers have come up with plans that could slash the amount of energy we use in our homes: common-sense measures such as insulating walls and loft, double-glazing and lagging hot water pipes can quickly lead to less wasted energy.

Some local authorities have been trail-blazing in the race to improve energy efficiency in the home. In 2003 when the London borough of Merton stated that new developments in the borough must get 10 per cent of their energy supply from renewable sources, builders responded by looking for ways to make houses more energy-efficient. They wanted to keep their costs low by shrinking the absolute size of that 10 per cent of renewables. More than 160 other local authorities have since followed Merton’s lead.

The government has been criticised for failing to support the roll-out of the Merton Rule nationwide. To reach zero-carbon status, a building must have no overall carbon emissions as a result of energy use – achieved through high standards of insulation and heating design, combined with renewable sources of energy.

There are encouraging signs that the move to better building design and efficiency is taking hold – especially in continental Europe; but even around the UK there are a growing number of low-carbon buildings. Some individuals are achieving remarkable savings by adapting or building their own homes; and some commercial developers are beginning to see that energy-efficient buildings will make good business sense.

To encourage buyers to go for low-energy housing, zero-carbon homes are exempt from Stamp Duty (about £2,100 for the average house). An estimated 9 million new homes are needed in the UK by 2050: with that in mind, tougher building standards would do a lot to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint.