Fife home owner Jo Hugh-Jones does not mince his words.
“This is an emergency and our leaders are failing us. And are likely to go on failing us. Their promises add up to very little.
“So we have to do it for ourselves.”
And while for some that may mean blocking roads, occupying oil rigs or even some very creative horticulture, action doesn’t have to be so direct.
In our series saving the planet one step at a time we will be speaking to people who have made changes to their daily lives to help the environment.
For Jo it has meant transforming his draughty Fife farm cottage from a place where the rugs lifted from the floor in a strong draft to an “insulated bubble” with improved heating for better sustainable living.
50 mm foam and other ways of cutting the electricity bill
That has meant a considerable journey for Jo and the house he moved into in the very late 90s.
He started with insultation in the loft and ended up with a wide range of energy-saving home improvements.
They now include solar hot water heating, walls lined with even thicker foam insulation, an air source heat pump.
There are also solar photovoltaic cells on his cottage roof powering batteries nestling in the attic.
You’ll feel cosy after just watching the video.
Are sustainable living changes to improve heating worth the bother?
For Jo, a few small changes turned into a series of far bigger ones, creating the kind of warm, comfortable home to which many aspire.
And while comfort was clearly one of his main goals (just check out his happy cats in the video) it clearly means more to him than that.
“Why did we do all this?”
“Firstly, because I am very aware of environmental problems and I have been for a long time.
“It’s making the house comfortable and warm. It’s bringing the cost down. We’ve certainly reduced our overall costs very considerably.”
