Your 5 Week
Become an Energy Champion
Energy Challenge!
Become an Energy Champion by completing your 5 activities
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Week 1. Where does energy come from – where does it go?
Week 2. Energy Vampires
 Week 4. Heating your home
Week 3. Family fun challenge
 Week 5. Review and set goals!
Week 1.
Where does energy come from – where does it go?
In the UK 94.5%) of the electricity we use in our homes is made by burning coal, oil
and gas. They are called 'fossil fuels'.
But there are some problems with using these fuels;
1) Burning coal, oil and gas to make energy gives off Carbon Dioxide, a gas that
is affecting our climate and making our planet warmer.
2) Fossil fuels won't last forever. Because of this, we call fossil fuels 'nonrenewable'.
What do we use electricity for?
Take a walk around your home and list everything you can find that uses electricity.
Make a list below:1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Question: Which item on your list do you think uses the most energy?
Do you think there would have been so many electrical appliances in our
homes 30 years ago?
Renewable energy is energy that will not run out and also does not produce
Carbon Dioxide. Can you think of some examples of renewable energy
sources?
Week 2.
Energy Vampires
Energy vampires live in some of the electrical appliances that we use in our home
and they drain energy when the appliances are left on standby.
Did you know that in the average UK home 8% of all the electricity used is by
appliances left on standby!
This week we want you to hunt down the energy vampires that are responsible for
this wasted electricity and banish them back to Transylvania!
Activity: Hunt the energy vampires!
1) Ask your parents or guardians to find you a torch and wait until it gets dark
outside.
2) Pretend you are going to bed and turn things off around the house as you
usually would.
3) Hold on to your torch and turn off all the lights.
4) Hunt for the eerie glow of red lights that signal the appliance is on standby.
5) Look for other signs of vampires, like digital displays on cookers and alarm
clocks.
6) Touch appliances to see if they are warm, this is another sign energy
vampires are at work.
7) Turn on the lights and record all the items you found in the boxes below.
List all the energy vampires you found.
1
2
3
4
5
6
How can you stop leaving appliances on standby unnecessarily? Talk to you
friends or family and try and come up with a few suggestions.
Do some of these vampires need to stay on? Write these down i.e. alarm
clocks.
Week 3.
Family fun challenge
The challenge for this week is to find out about what people did in their spare time
30 or more years ago. You may want to talk to friends and family to help you.
Activity
Make a list of the things your parents or guardians did below but separate them
into two lists, ones that need electricity, and ones that do not.
Use electricity
Do not use electricity
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
Think of some of the things you do in your spare time. List them below in the
same way as before.
Use electricity
Do not use electricity
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
Challenge
Turn your computer off for one evening this week and do something with your
family that doesn't require electricity.
Maybe you could do one of the things from your first list?
Week 4.
Heating your home
Non-renewable fossil fuels are also used to heat our homes. However on average
60% of the heat we produce is lost because it is allowed to escape through the
walls and roof. There are lots of things you can do to reduce the amount of heat
energy a home loses, this week's activity is to hunt down draughts and find out
how good your home is at keeping warmth in.
Activity: Hunt the draughts!
To make a 'Draught-o-meter' attach a piece of tissue paper or very thin paper
(approximately 20cm long by 10cm wide) to a pencil with some sticky tape.
To use your 'Draught-o-meter' close the windows and doors in your house and
hold your 'Draught-o-meter' to the edges of windows and to the bottom of doors to
see if it moves.
Did you find any draughts? If so, where?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Can you think of ways to stop your draughts?
Activity: Perform a home insulation check!
Loft
Insulation
Wall
insulation
Radiators
Boiler
Floor
Question
Do you have any loft insulation?
If yes, how thick is it? Tip: use a ruler and slide it
down through the insulation until it hits the board.
The recommended depth of loft insulation is
27cm, can you work out how much more
insulation you need to reach that depth?
Do you have cavity or solid walls?
Are your walls insulated?
Do your radiators have individual thermostats?
Do you have heat reflectors behind your
radiators?
How old is your boiler?
Do you have a solid or suspended timber floor? If
yes check the ceiling in your basement for
insulation.
Answer
Week 5
Review and set your goals
Setting goals!
Think about what you have learnt from this energy challenge.
Is there anything you have discovered about how you use energy that has
surprised you?
Do you think there is something you can do on your own to help your home use
less energy?
Do you think there is anything you could do with a little help to reduce your
home's energy use?
Continuing the challenge….
On the Eco Homes web page you will find an energy action plan. This is
designed to help you to see where you can reduce your energy use.
Eco-Homes web link:
http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/ecoschools/applyforanaward/Eco-Homes