Saving Energy

Johnny Orr speaks to James Orr from Lochwinnoch, Scotland and Neil Crumbacker from Baltimore, Maryland for the ‘100 Voices: Home and Away’ project.

Remember to turn off your light switch. Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Home- James Orr, from Lochwinnoch in the west of Scotland discusses the pros and cons of energy saving.

He said: “I have thought previously about getting an electric car as it runs cheaper, uses less fossil fuels and ultimately is the future. I also have the ability to use one in my work. I turn off unnecessary electrical items, I try to run white goods during the night. I wash dishes by hand to reduce the number of times the dishwasher is used.

“Our heating system is on a timer to only use it, when necessary, and we generally unplug electrical devices as much as we can. We had a smart meter installed more than five years ago, but because we unplugged the display it was too difficult to work out and we binned it. I rarely use public transport, it is not eco-friendly, the buses definitely aren't, and I don’t think the trains are either.”

Away- Neil Crumbacker, from Baltimore, Maryland United States discusses the pros and cons of energy saving.

He said: “I haven't owned an electric car, I have thought about getting one, but I just don’t trust them, everyone will probably have them in the next 20 or so years but I'm not quite ready for that change yet.

“I do try to save energy because it is really expensive, but I don’t go about turning everything off, but if there's a light that’s on for no reason, I’d turn it off. We have got a smart meter but to be honest I don’t really ever look at it, so I don’t know much about them. There are trams that run through the city centre, but we don’t use public transport at all really.”