Simon Ross Marches Energy Agency

1. Community Knowledge Networks: an interactive approach to energy learning Planning for Low Carbon Living – Energy Efficiency and Community Green Deal Friday 5 July 2013 Simon Ross Marches Energy Agency Team members: Prof Andy Dobson (principal investigator), Dr Phil Catney, Dr SherilynMacGregor, Prof Mark Ormerod, Dr Zoe Robinson (all from Keele University), Simon Ross (Marches Energy Agency), Dr Simon Pardoe (PublicSpace)

2. 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? Carbon Cost Security

3. Project background • 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

4. Energy information useful for a householder • 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! 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).

5. 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

6. 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).

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. How might this be put into practice? 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