Saving energy could be child's play

University of Otago PhD student Ikerne Aguirre-Bielschowsky wants to test the theory children can influence their parents to cut electricity consumption at home. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

University of Otago PhD candidate Ikerne Aguirre-Bielschowsky plans to find out.

Little was known about what energy consumption decisions children made at home and how they learned about electricity consumption choices, she said.

Nor was there much research on whether teaching children about wise electricity consumption choices would impact their families.

Ms Aguirre-Bielschowsky hopes to change that by interviewing 30 Dunedin 10-year-olds and their parents and analysing their responses.

Originally from Mexico, she has studied in Dunedin for almost five years. She said yesterday she wanted to test her theory that children could be the catalyst for social and behavioral change within their families.

Teaching children about healthy eating and environmental issues such as recycling had been found to change parents' eating and recycling habits, too.

Her project would look specifically at three areas of electricity consumption - time spent in the shower, whether children made decisions about turning heaters on or off and whether children thought about saving energy at home by turning off lights and other electrical devices.

"I am only surveying a small sample group and I expect there will be varying results. But it will be interesting to know what children do at home and why. If they are told to get out of the shower, do they know it is because ... it costs money to heat hot water, or are they just responding to a parental order?"

Ms Aguirre-Bielschowsky hoped the results of her study would enable her to design teaching resources which would teach children more about electricity consumption choices, to give them the tools to reduce energy consumption at home.

Ms Aguirre-Bielschowsky said she believed everyone should "learn to live with less" [electricity] because of the impact energy generation had on the environment and because of the approaching energy crisis.