The pursuit of heating the home is explored by Aimee Ambrose and Kathy Davies in “Keeping Warm”. The ways in which we heat our homes and our heating preferences have changed over time, from burning coal in the hearth to gas fired central heating. But it’s more than just keeping warm at home. Heating transitions are a complex picture of societal change and economic shifts as well as environmental impacts.
“Keeping Warm”, the first chapter of “Was the Past More Sustainable?”, unpicks this picture of change and its effects over the last 150 years in the UK.
The chapter examines the historical climate impact of heating. It is related to other key sectors such as industry and transportation as well as major global events such as the Great Depression and the Second World War. Fuelled by a rising population and an increase of consumption expectations the domestic emissions trajectory grows steeper by the year.
The shifts in methods of household heating are considered in depth. From the one and only coal fire from the mid-19th century to the 1950s through the proliferation of gas central heating and now the movement towards electrification. These transitions have had societal benefits such as the ability to heat every room in the house as well as positive environmental impacts such as improvements in air quality and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. There is, however, always a resistance to change and “Keeping Warm” illustrates the complexity and unease of heating change among different communities.
“Keeping Warm” discusses the often top down approaches to domestic energy transitions and their impacts on society.
Often there has been a cause for change which has acted as a catalyst - the Great Smog of London in 1952 killed over 4,000 people in five days. The Clean Air Act, introduced in 1956, brought smoke free zones by mandating the burning of smokeless fuels. It has been a permanent fixture of environmental policy ever since and paved the way to the mass roll out of ‘high speed gas’.
Was the Past More Sustainable?
Across a series of instalments, Was the Past More Sustainable? explores whether key aspects of our daily lives have become more or less damaging to the environment over time. The project presents analysis of how home heating, air quality, disposing of waste and moving around have evolved over time, delving back hundreds of years in some cases. Through this research the team combines analysis of historic datasets and archival findings with original empirical insights to build a rich, multifaceted debate, centred around the question: was the past more sustainable?
