The green streets of Britain

The Sunday Times
March 1, 2009
How much can you really do to stop your home wasting energy – and cash? One year on, our correspondent returns to the families who took up the British Gas eco-challenge to find out

We all want to live greener, better lives, but few of us plan on forsaking the comfort and aesthetics of our period homes, built decades before anyone worried about their effect on the planet, for a new zero-carbon property. So, what can you do to your semi, terrace or cottage to go green and save money?
That was the challenge British Gas put to 64 households last year, with the launch on these pages. Over the past 12 months, eight families on eight roads – all of them with “Green” in their address – have been trying every which way to reduce their energy consumption in a bid to be named the greenest street in the country.
There’s nothing like a bit of competition to bring out the eco-warrior in us. Valiant efforts have included forgoing baths, turning sheds into low-energy home offices and banning the use of the tumble dryer. The McGuire family, from Edinburgh, even slept in a tent in the garden last summer.
Few of us would go as far as the McGuires, but with domestic energy use responsible for about a quarter of the UK’s CO2 emissions, there’s pressure on all of us to up our game, and the lessons learnt from this project could be of help to everyone. The winning street will be announced on Wednesday, but who are the main contenders, and how have they fared in the past year?

Derek Pentreath, 43, a contracts manager for a steel company, lives with his wife, Sally, daughter, Katie, 6, and son, Alex, 3, on Green Lane, in Great Barr, on the outskirts of Birmingham. All four of them have been inspired to do their bit and have learnt a lot.
“We have 51 spotlights, which all had 40-watt bulbs. Switching to energy-saving ones, which are three-watt, has made a dramatic difference to our bills,” says Sally, 30, a school administration officer. “The hardest thing was getting my husband to have showers. He loves lying in a piping-hot bath filled to the brim – not very energy-efficient.”
Sally’s personal challenge was not to use the energy-guzzling tumble dryer. “I tried to use the washing line more, but there’s not much point in the middle of winter,” she says. Instead, she used dryer balls in the machine; these fluff up the fibres, so your laundry takes half the time to dry. Another tip is to turn off the dishwasher at the drying phase – the last 30 minutes or so – and open the door, leaving the dishes to dry on their own.
Despite Derek’s baths, the family, who live in a four-bedroom 1930s semi, have cut their energy consumption by a little more than 40%. Indeed, the Pentreaths took the competition so seriously that they resisted turning the radiators up in the February snow: “We put on extra layers and all snuggled up together on the sofa to watch television under a duvet,” says Sally.
Down in Green Lane, Southampton, Neil Sinclair, 39, an insurance operations manager, admits that his three-bedroom semidetached cottage used to be so warm, he would wear a T-shirt in winter – “That’s how much energy we were wasting.” Since then, Neil, his wife, Debbie, 39, who works in corporate banking, and daughters, Lucy, 10, and Polianna, 8, have cut their energy consumption – and therefore their bills – by more than 24%.
“We used to have our thermostat at 21C. Now we have it between 17C and 19C, and I wear a fleece,” says Neil, who took up British Gas’s offer of cavity-wall insulation, part of £30,000 worth of energy-efficient equipment given to each street to help them on their way.
“It’s amazing how much energy you can save by doing small things. Did you know that the kettle is the 4WD of the kitchen? We’ve got an energy monitor that shows how much electricity you’re using in real time. Now we’ve put a mark on the kettle, so we know how much water we need for a cup of tea.”
Even if his street doesn’t win, Neil should get a prize for initiative. Working mainly from home, he realised he was heating the whole property just for himself. “I decided I’d turn off everything in the house and work in the shed. I put polystyrene insulation on the inside of the walls, and plasterboard over that, then added a double-glazed window. I have a tiny, oil-filled heater on for an hour, which uses a quarter of the energy a kettle does. It’s cosy; I even worked there in the snow.”
Last Christmas, he says, it was obvious which eight houses were part of the challenge in their road – they were the ones in relative darkness, while the rest were decked in fairy lights. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to let their street down, and all wanted to win the challenge.
Mel Broughton, 41, lives with her architect husband, Hugh, 43, and their three sons, aged 6 to 11, on Greenend Road, in Chiswick, west London. “We’ve become minor celebrities in our area,” Mel says. “People stop us in the street to ask how it’s going. Hugh was sceptical at first, but now he’s seen the reduction in our bills, he’s impressed.
“The boys have been great. They now turn their lights off, and open and shut the front door quickly so as not to let the heat out. Alf, our six-year-old, gets stroppy with his father if he leaves a light on.”
The Broughtons’ four-bedroom house is in a 100-year-old terrace: a typical London home, and not easy to make energy-efficient. Mel, however, says that one of the most effective things they had done was draught-proofing. “We’ve got sash windows, and it’s amazing the difference draught-excluding material has made,” she says. “Now the heat stays in the house.
“The other thing is getting the loft properly insulated and the pipes lagged. The hardest bit, for me, was stopping using the coal-effect gas fire in the sitting room. It made the room cosy, but we were told it was a killer in terms of energy use.” It paid off: altogether, the Broughtons have reduced their energy consumption by 46%.
Gearoid Lane, managing director of British Gas New Energy, has been impressed by the dedication of the Green Street families. “When I visited the streets, I saw how surprised people were that substantial energy saving didn’t cost them a lot in terms of comfort, effort or money,” he says. “The real surprise, to me, is the virtuous circle of cooperation in the communities, with everyone sharing energy-saving ideas.”
The big question, though, is whether they will all stick to their green resolutions once the spur of competition has gone. Well, probably, as the winners receive £50,000, not to jet off to sunny climes for a celebratory holiday, but to spend on an eco-friendly project for the community.
Anything they can do ...
- In an uninsulated home, £1 in every £3 spent on heating is wasted. Installing loft insulation could save £110 a year on bills; cavity-wall insulation could save £90.
- As a rule, the older your boiler, the more inefficient it will be. A new high-efficiency condensing boiler with heating controls (prices start at about £2,000) could save £200 a year on bills.
- Turning down your heating thermostat by 1C can cut bills by 10%. Fit thermostats to radiators to control room temperatures.
- Turn off lights in rooms you’re not using – lighting accounts for up to 15% of domestic electricity bills.
- Double glazing cuts heat loss and reduces noise and condensation problems. Expect savings of £90 a year on bills.