Life with energy boards

Life with Energy: Brief Overview Brief

Background Information

Concept

Audience

Produce an information pack for first time buyers about how to save energy and money within the household.

Energy provides us with a means of using fun and convenient appliances. But what exactly is energy and where does it come from?

Scientists define energy as “the ability to do work.” For example, we harness energy to run factories, provide heat and light in our homes and schools, power our cars and school busses, and many other things.

The concept of the information pack is firstly to inform the audience about various ways of saving energy within the home. This will be done through informative information and the use of simple but bold infographic illustrations.

These illustrations will run throughout all the products of the information pack and make it more engaging to read and to understand.

The audience is first time home owners, that need to learn the knowledge about saving energy and energy suppliers in general. The age bracket is open as anyone can be a new home owner.

Energy is very useful to us, but energy costs us money to use in our cars, homes, work, and schools. In addition, most of the energy people use comes from fossil fuels – and this causes a lot of pollution as well as other problems.

The information pack aims to get the audience hands on within the home and do simple things around the house to save energy and save themselves money in the long run.

Design a range of products to for the information pack. This should be aimed at life within the home and should identify ways in which homeowners can be more environmentally friendly and cut back on home bills.

The products can take any format and include as much content as you like, but it must inform the reader about energy, energy within the home and ways in which they can reduce their energy and essentially cost of running their home.

The products should be designed to engage the audience and use the correct tone of voice in order to capture their attention and to get them to interact with the products and the information given.

Nathan Bolton

In today’s climate everyone is trying to cut back on costs and save money, one thing everything knows that costs a lot of money is running your house. Heating, electricity, gas and water are all costs, which are generally increasing, so how can we save on this and decrease the amount we pay?

Tone of Voice The overall tone of voice is informative but in a conversational style to appeal more.

Deliverables 1. Information Pack 2. Supporting products to the information pack.

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Efficient Energy within the home Being energy efficient within the home can be fairly easy, there are small things that you can do around the household to save energy and save yourself money. This is the main content of the information pack; giving small simple steps that anyone can do around the house to improve there energy efficiency and save money on bills.

Cut Down Lights Could you get into the habit of turning lights off when you leave a room? A family could save between £50 and £90 a year just by remembering to turn things off, if they don’t already do this.

Turn Down Water temperature Check the thermostat on your boiler, see what the temperature settings are for hot water and think about turning it down just a couple of degrees. That will make a difference to the amount of energy you’re using.

Showers Having a shower instead of a bath uses only a third of the energy, so limit your long soaks in the tub and save them for days when you really need to relax and unwind. Beware of power showers, though, which are less energy efficient than standard showers. If you don’t like the thought of standing under a dribble of water, get yourself a BodySpa Showerhead – an innovative way to save energy, water and money without losing water pressure.

Heating Turn down your general thermostat settings too: 21°c should be plenty. You may be used to having your house much warmer than this, so if your thermostat’s set at 24 or 25°c, turn it down one degree at a time over a couple of weeks.

And just remember: every degree that you turn it down could save you around £65 a year on your heating bill.

Washing machines Check out your washing machine’s settings, see if there’s a ‘half load’ option for small amounts of clothes. With modern washing powders, you can usually choose a lower temperature on your washing machine too.

Don’t overfill the kettle Only boil as much water as you need. Heating water uses a lot of energy, and it’s easy to overfill the kettle for one cup of tea. Why not buy an eco kettle so you don’t have to guess how much you need? We tend to boil twice as much water as we use - perhaps we’re just too lazy to revisit the tap every time we fancy a cuppa?

The eco-kettle has an internal reservoir which holds up to 8 cups of water, and a separate chamber for boiling. So you fill the kettle, press the measuring button and, hey presto, the eco kettle boils just enough water for your needs.

Nathan Bolton

Radiators Switch off radiators in the rooms you’re not using regularly and keep internal doors shut. Otherwise, draughts and poorly insulated windows will mean you’re burning energy un-necessarily.

Washing Machine Wash at 30. Washing clothes at 30 degrees rather than at higher temperatures uses around 40% less energy. Modern washing powders and detergents work just as effectively at lower temperatures so unless you have very dirty washing, bear this in mind.

Shut Down Electrical goods When you leave mobile phones, laptops and iPod chargers on standby, they could still be using energy. Switching them off and unplugging them once they’re fully charged is a great way to be more energy efficient. And remember – if your charger has an LED to show it’s in use, it’s still using energy until you switch it off at the wall.

Appliances Do you use a dishwasher? Wait until it’s fully loaded before starting it, and remember that – if you run it overnight – it’ll be using energy until you switch it off in the morning. Why not invest in a timer plug and run it automatically for a shorter period of time instead?

Taps A running tap wastes more than six litres of water a minute, so turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face - and use cold water if you don’t need hot. A dripping tap can waste more than 5,500 litres of water a year, so make sure your taps are properly turned off and change washers promptly when taps start to drip.

Use seperate plugs Plug your appliances into sperate plugs so you can turn everything off at the mains that doesn’t need to be left on, but you can still leave the appliances that have to running turned on. Even though one is still always on and running, its better than everything being left running.

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The Brand The information pack isn’t a a branded product. It isn’t created for a specific energy company, it is a generic information pack that has general information about saving energy within the home. This information isn’t specific to any energy supplier, but provides clear and precise steps to saving energy within the home.

Even though the information pack is for general information, I have branded the pack to make it a real product and one that the users will see as a reliable product.

The logo reflects the idea of recycling, sustainability and energy efficiency. The logo and colours used communicate this idea and create a brand for the information pack.

Nathan Bolton

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The Products The information pack is made up of three main products, an information booklet, postcard designs and a notepad.

The focus of these products is the physicality and the interaction they create when the user uses them. The idea of the physical form will make the user actually go around their home and see how they can save energy.

Notepad - A way for the users to calculate how much energy they use within the house and what they can save on.

Postcards - These include simple energy facts and illustrations.

Information booklet - containing easy steps to save energy within the home.

Nathan Bolton

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The Information Pack The information pack is created from the products above, this is all combined into a box, which carries the same aesthetic as the products and creates an overall feel of sustainability and energy efficiency.

Nathan Bolton

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