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For a tiny little box, I have a big job to do! I spend my time sensing the air temperature around me and sending messages to your heating system to change the temperature of your heating system. If you turn me down I can save both carbon emissions and money … have you guessed? ... I’m a room thermostat! Possibly I’m being arrogant – but I think I’m amazing – do you? Can you have a hunt around your home to find me - your heating thermostat? When you’ve found me – maybe ask your parent/carer if they can show you how I work. How many times a day do you think you walk right past me – do you ever stop to wonder who I am and what I’m doing?
The Young Climate Warriors challenge this week is to turn your thermostat down by 1 degree. You might need to wear an extra jumper, pop on a woolly hat or wear socks in bed – but you’ll be helping to combat climate change. Turning your thermostat down will mean that your heating system is not having to work so hard, and so is not using so much fossil fuel energy. Are you up for the challenge?
STOP PRESS… If each Young Climate Warrior’s household turned down their thermostat by 1 degree, for a year, your Young Climate Warriors team would have saved carbon emissions equivalent to taking over 330 flights from London to New York. Go on, give it a go! .
HIT THE RED BUTTON to let us know if you decide to take the step of turning down your thermostat!
How we heat our homes is going to have to change. Lots of things are happening to try and reduce the impact of our home heating on climate change – have you heard of any ideas?
New technologies, like smart meters are helping us to heat our homes only when needed. Completely new ways of heating our homes are being developed – such as ground source and air source heat pumps, hydrogen heating, heat networks and bio-mass and biogas boilers. Insulation is improving – just like wearing another jumper, insulation helps houses keep the heat in. New homes are being designed as ‘zero carbon’ or ‘low carbon’- they are positioned and designed to make the most of the sun’s energy, trapping heat from the sun and then storing it until it is required. If you’d like to learn more about a more unusual new build design have a look at the Tulse Hill Straw Bale project.
Can you imagine not having any heating at all?It’s wasn’t so long ago that most homes in the UK weren’t centrally heated – only 1 in 3 had central heating in 1970. Rachel Carson, a famous environmentalist was one of the first people to warn of the dangers of invisible pollutants, have you heard of her? She was about your age 100 years ago and would have tried to keep warm by wearing jumpers, woolly hats, slippers, hot soup – and maybe an open fire. You can learn more about this amazing lady viaAmazing People Schools.
Please remember to HIT THE RED BUTTON when you have turned down your thermostat by 1 degree.
