Energy Saving: It’s a Social Thing
Mon, 4 November 2013
With energy bills rising again and the winter approaching, researchers from Keele University have found a positive way of helping householders to keep their energy costs down and houses warm. The Reducing Energy Consumption through Community Knowledge Networks (RECCKN) project team, which worked with households for two years on low-cost and low-tech approaches to saving energy, found that consumers are sceptical of the commercial motives of the Big Six energy companies, and are much more likely to trust advice that comes from friends, family, local companies and organisations, and the third sector.
Face-to-face discussion helps to cut through the often confusing range of offers and information with which consumers are bombarded, and the chance to ask questions provides the detailed advice and reassurance often absent from leaflets and other forms of written advice. As one householder commented, ‘It’s a minefield out there, so you end up doing nothing because there is so much choice’.
Project participants, including those from local communities, have contributed to a short video about their findings: www.recckn.org.uk/videos.htm.