Simon RossMarches Energy Agency

Community Knowledge Networks: an interactive approach to energy learning

Planning for Low Carbon Living –

Energy Efficiency and Community Green Deal

Friday 5 July 2013

Context• Energy Tri-lemma:

• UK policy response:– Market forces and competitive funding will fix it– Sees individuals as isolated, empty vessels that just need more

information to respond – the deficit model

• Our concerns about this:– Ignores individuals as part of wider social networks– Ignores the fact that individuals already have some knowledge

• Potential for Community Knowledge Networks?

Cost Security Carbon

• Participants from two towns, Shrewsbury and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

• Findings based on:– 55 householder interviews– eight focus groups – four co-designed interventions – No community groups

Project background

• Monetary terms universally understood• Ideas of:

– good, bad, high, low – Comparison to others– Electricity Display Monitors very useful here

• CO2 and kWh – mostly confusing and rarely used

• But energy is measured in kWh!

Energy information useful for a householder

Sometimes I look at the bill and see how many kilowatts but I don’t find it easy to understand …….. I can’t even think what the unit is to measure gas with, that’s terrible ... (female, 20s).

Energy information useful for a householder

• Best tailored to circumstances e.g. their home or their existing practices.

• Householders critical of generalised, ‘mass information’ usually considered irrelevant and patronising

• Ideally would also include what people already know

• But as an energy agency this can be difficult to do

Ease of understanding

• Can I understand the information?

• Unsurprisingly, more comprehensible info perceived as useful

• Links to trust – what are they trying to hide?

S4: I just don’t trust the energy companies because they make it so complex to understand the tariffs (male, 40s).

Trustworthiness

• Linked to the perceived motives of the information source– Businesses often untrusted – cold callers, etc.– Make householders more resistant – But businesses will install measures, and are good at

providing detailed information for a householder. They do need to be trusted at some stage

– Charities, family/friends/peers, sometimes LA and national government – more trusted as perceived as not hard-selling

• Trust levels can change with experience

Expertise• About the competence and level of knowledge of the source. • A range of sources used • Websites – initial sift/build a broader picture• Blue collar workers important • Qualified ‘Experts’ considered useful as they ‘know what

they are talking about’• But so too were ‘peers’, particularly those with personal

experience

N17 said she found the experience of friends the most useful source of energy information, justifying this by saying “because they are the ones who are actually using it [a product] day to day”. (female, 50s)

The interactive alternative

• Interactive = a two-way flow of influence. Exchange, rather than transfer.

• Other benefits of interaction: – people can select what information they get, how much

they get.– Can help build trust – gives the chance for scrutiny of

information and its source.– Confidence grows– Enjoyable social interaction– Helps make energy knowledge visible

• Takes time

1. Identify those who have made changes already

2. Share their learning with others in the project

3. What language do I use?

4. Keep it social

5. Make different sources of information available

6. Flexible interventions

7. Trust, confidence, visibility

How might this be put into practice?