It’s the destination the UK arrives at when it stops releasing harmful emissions into the atmosphere. The deadline to achieve net zero is 2050. The year may seem like a million miles away but it’s slowly creeping up and before we know it, it will have arrived, and the powers at be will be scrambling to understand just what went wrong if we don’t act now
The UK is currently suffering in its transitional period from fossil fuels to clean energy. With several setbacks coming thick and fast. Most recently, the watering down of climate policy has left many to wonder if Net Zero is going to be a realistic possibility, putting the confidence level for actually reaching the 2050 target potentially at an all-time low.
There have been some highs in recent months.
- A record number of heat pumps have been installed so far in 2023
- Support for climate policy remains high despite cost of living challenges
A stutter in the overarching grand scheme of things shouldn’t stop the individual from pursuing their own personal version of net zero. While large corporations are the biggest emitters.
Households also need to be held accountable as emitters of greenhouse gases, accounting for 26% of total emissions in the UK.
There are many ways to evaluate and reduce individual emissions, with some having a more significant impact than others. Here is a compiled list of some of the best tips and practices to get started on a personal net zero journey.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint: Tips for Individuals
A carbon footprint is the amount of impact an individual or organisation has on the environment. It’s calculated by how many tons of greenhouse gases are produced by their activities during a year.
Globally, on average a person’s carbon footprint produces 4.5 tons of greenhouse gases per year. Whist in the UK, the average carbon footprint per person, per year, is 12.7 tonnes CO2e.
A person’s carbon footprint takes into account all individual actions – such as diet, travel, shopping habits, and energy usage. Everything!
There are many websites available to check your carbon footprint and work out the best way to reduce your emissions.
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint at Home
The quickest way to begin to tackle the size of a carbon footprint and lower emissions is to look at the practices at home. Small changes from the obvious like turning off the lights when a room isn’t in use, to larger longer-term ambitions like solar panels. One of the best ways to drastically put a dent in your carbon footprint is to change the way your home is heated.
13/14% of carbon emissions can be related to heating in domestic homes.
Reduce Your Heating Emissions to Zero with Renewable Heating Solutions
Moving on from traditional gas and oil heating to a renewable, clean source, such as electricity, will lower your heating emissions to zero.
Fischer’s HeatCore radiators allow the comfort of ultimate control and warmth, without damaging the environment. Generously heating the home and retaining heat in the unique 40mm HeatCore, allowing the radiator to stop drawing power but continue to maintain heat, saving on energy usage.
Air Source Heat Pumps are another great way of excluding emissions from households. Heat Pumps work by taking the ambient air from outside, compressing it, warming it, and then distributing it throughout the home. There isn’t a need to replace any existing wet radiators and the heat pump remains efficient in temperatures of up to -25 degrees.
When replacing an old boiler set up with a heat pump, Fischer is currently offering £6000 off the cost, to aid in the change over to low-carbon sources of heating.
To make sure you get the right product for the home, be sure to book a free heating survey.
Reduce Your Water Carbon Footprint with the Aquafficient
Fischer’s Aquafficient modernises water storage by removing the need for tanks and high carbon power to heat up water. It’s self-charging and will continue to be so for 40,000 cycles – that’s around 50 years of usage.
It can store four times more heat than a domestic water cylinder and provides up to 280 liters of hot water, depending on the size of the unit installed. Even better, the Aquafficient is half the height of an average water cylinder – No servicing or maintenance required, no additional valves, no water discharge pipe
The Aquafficient is also compatible with Solar PV and other renewable electricity sources, adding a perfect new dimension to reducing your carbon footprint.
Reduce Your Driving Emissions with an Electric Vehicle
One of the more obvious ways to cut down on emissions is to look into personal driving habits.
Transport produced 27% of total UK’s total emissions in 2019. Of this, the majority (91%) came from road transport vehicles. EVs have already cut planet-warming emissions by two-thirds on a life cycle basis relative to combustion engine cars in the UK!
The sales of petrol and diesel were due to be phased out by 2030 but this has since been pushed back to 2035 and doesn’t extend to the second-hand market. It doesn’t mean you can’t start to look at alternative, hybrid, or totally electric solutions to eliminate those emissions.
One of the biggest draws for EVs is that it’s possible to install a charging point at home. With Fischer EV, you can input your electricity tariff details into the mobile app in order for the EV system to charge your vehicle at the cheapest time, helping to keep your energy bills down. Fischer EV could also reduce your carbon emissions by up to 20%.
Fischer EV also includes unique Dynamic Load Balancing technology as standard, meaning that the EV will automatically change the maximum power to the charger in order to balance the electricity usage in your home.
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