40% House Conference:
A one-day conference at The Royal Society, London
Questionnaire and Results
Delegates at the 40% House conference completed questionnaires about energy use in their homes to find out whether they lived in a 40% House (i.e. one which is responsible for only 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions of the average UK home).
Download a full analysis of the results [PDF: 49KB]Results showed that many delegates have already made efforts to reduce their energy use and carbon emissions.
- Over half of respondents had opted for a green electricity tariff.
- Of the 98 respondents, four had solar water heating and five had a means of generating their own renewable electricity.
- Four-fifths use efficient light bulbs (CFLs) for most of their lighting
Find out more about increasing insulation levels in your home, choosing efficient lights and appliances and household renewable energy.
In total, ten respondents thought that they already lived in a 40% home. Analysis of the energy data provided showed that in fact eleven respondents lived in a 40% home. Five people who thought they lived in a 40% home did not according to their energy data (although some were only just over 40% of average emissions) and six lived in a 40% home without being aware of it.
The final question was “what have you done to reduce carbon emissions from your home that you're most pleased with?” This elicited a wide range of responses – some of which are quoted below:
- "Turn off lights. Fighting over the thermostat - I turn it down, my house mates turn it up to 30C!"
- "Used a plug-in meter to check on the consumption of electrical appliances. Then re-arranged multi-socket adapters and extension leads etc. to enable devices with high standby consumption to be turned off."
- "Low E double glazing installed when it was rare."
- "Bought a condensing boiler and switched to green tariff."