Mark Group

The Hawksworth Family

April 2008

The Customer

The Hawksworths live in a four bedroom detached house, in Castle Donington, Derbyshire. They have five children, two cars and understandably, an enormous electricity bill.

The Challenge

In December 2006, BBC Breakfast launched an appeal for volunteers to help with an experiment, to see how easy it is to ‘go green’. The BBC was looking for a typical family who was prepared to make some tough choices in order to reduce their carbon footprint. And, after sifting through letters from hundreds of volunteers, the Hawksworth family was finally chosen.

The Solution

For 12 months, BBC cameras followed the Hawksworth’s attempts to reduce their carbon footprint. Each month a different ‘green’ aspect was featured which might help to lessen the family’s carbon footprint.

Mark Group became involved in the project when the local Energy Efficiency Advice Centre contacted them to help the Hawksworths with their challenge. In the first of the programmes back in April 2008, Bill Rumble, Mark Group Commercial Director, explained live on air that loft and cavity wall insulation would be the best first steps to reducing the Hawksworth’s carbon footprint, and subsequently talked viewers and presenter Declan Curry through the process of installation.

Later in the year, the Hawksworths moved closer to a full ‘whole house’ energy efficiency solution with the installation of a Solar Hot Water (Solar Thermal) system by Mark Group. All of these measures combined to make a significant reduction in the Hawksworth’s energy usage and their energy bills.

The Hawksworth’s next green leap forward is to install an energy efficient condenser boiler as they set their sights on going from being the ‘Low Carbon Family’ to ultimately the ‘Zero Carbon Family’.

The Benefits

A total saving of £48 per month and a reduction of almost 40%.

The Customer’s View

“Having these energy efficiency measures installed in the house has made a significant contribution to reducing our energy usage and the cost of our gas and electricity bills. The insulation seems to have made the biggest difference and we noticed almost immediately how much warmer the house was following the installation of the cavity wall and loft insulation.

“I would recommend to anyone to take these measures up, as it’s a complete win-win situation. You can massively reduce your energy bills, whilst doing your bit for the planet.”

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