Leaving it.........

As a normal person in a relationship I often see how long it will take my husband to do something when I just leave it - like the hoovering(during the week I hoover downstairs every day) or putting away the clothes. Its my own personal little experiment.
Nine times out of ten I end up getting annoyed and just doing it myself. My husbands answer to this is "if you don't tell me I don't know it needs doing".

So rough translation he needs an incentive to get him to do things.............you do half the housework etc and I am not so tired and won't fall asleep 30 minutes after the kids have gone to bed. That works fine, once he knew this he does now do the hoovering and help out more.

The same can be said of energy saving. There are so many people who want to save energy, who understand why we need to save energy and take the necessary steps - some of them small (walking to work twice a week, doing a car pool for taking the kids to school, low energy lightbulbs) and some of them larger (pv panels, solar panels, new boiler) BUT there are other people who need an incentive.

I feel the Americans are going about this the right way with the "granite counter" approach to home energy efficiency. They are making energy efficiency in homes a desirable and saleable item. Its an incentive that earns you money, will help sell your home and sssh save energy! Without an incentive alot of people will just leave saving energy to others but unless the majority of the world jump on board the saving energy bandwagon its going to be increasingly difficult to save energy.

If

The most favourite toy is the one that all the children want - even if my 3 year old hasn't played with a toy for weeks the minute he sees his little brother playing with it he wants to play with it as well.

The same affect could work on EPCs - if 10% of buyers/renters started to look at EPCs and then negotiated on price due to the EPC or bought/rented a property with a good "grade" then the EPC would become a marketing asset.

If a good result on the EPC was a saleable part of a property then prices would be adjusted with the more energy efficient properties priced higher than those that are not so energy efficient.

If a property was worth more if it was energy efficient then more people would make alterations to their properties so that they were energy efficient - more insulation, better boiler, TRVs on the radiators, solar panels etc.

It could be a very benefical knock on effect.

There are alot of ifs involved with the thoughts above but if it happened it would be a fantastic result for the environment, energy efficiency, saving money and the global community as a whole.

Rose Tinted Glasses

I look at the world sometimes through "rose tinted" glasses. I have spent the lottery winnings on 50+ occassions in my head/daydreams (the most I have ever won is £10). I started a new career as a self employed domestic energy assessor just as the recession started to hit the UK properly.
I am sure you can see the theme that does run through all of my life - I am hopeful at all times, I want to believe the best about people and always try and stay cheery.

But sometimes when I look closely at things like I have done over the past 2-3 weeks and I get to see a large picture I can get very frustrated!

I have seen all the promotion and brilliant websites in New Zealand, Sweden etc, all the grants available in France, Canada, the assessors friend in Australia - Christine Milne and the fact that they set the fees, the USA talking about how energy efficency will be another "granite worktop" and highly valued in a property and then we look at the UK.

We have a brilliant tool - the Energy Performance Certificate and we have accredited, CRB checked, domestic and commercial assessors who love their job. But we have a website that is dreary and little promotion of the EPC, we have training providers guaranteeing work that isn't there, we have undercutting on prices and devaluing of the assessment.

This is what I would like to see happen:
1. Fees set.
2. Training providers fined - and the fine published for all to see
3. A better website.
4. More grants available and they are promoted.
5. Energy efficency in a property is a marketable asset.
6. A champion for energy assessors.
7. Thorough promotion of the EPC and its value (and commercial EPCs)

Thats just the tip of my wish list but when you look at it it wouldn't be that hard to achieve and it would benefit so many. The UK is a country to be proud of but we need to promote ourselves better.