Rethinking Home Energy | Online Community Campfire with Luke and Joy Justice and Howard Johns

Rethinking Home Energy with Luke and Joy Justice and Howard Johns

What could our homes look like if we designed them around lower energy use, resilience and what’s possible right now?

In this Campfire, we'll explore two different perspectives on designing better homes and communities for a changing energy landscape.

Luke and Joy Justice will share their experience of living at Hockerton Housing Project, one of the UK's pioneering cohousing communities. Established in the 1990s, Hockerton was designed around sustainable living, with highly efficient homes and an integrated energy system. They'll share what they've learned from living with these systems over the long term, and what the project can teach us about designing homes and communities differently.

We'll then turn to what's possible for people living in more conventional homes. Howard Johns, energy engineer, entrepreneur and author of Energy Revolution, will explore practical ways we can rethink energy use at home, including technologies and approaches such as heat pumps and renewable energy. Howard has worked across the solar and renewable energy sector, including founding a national solar company and a locally owned renewable energy cooperative.

Together, the speakers will explore the gap between what's possible in a purpose-designed community and what we can do with the homes we already have - offering inspiration, practical ideas and lessons that can be applied in different contexts.

About the speakers

Luke and Joy Justice live at Hockerton Housing Project, a pioneering cohousing community designed around sustainable living. Hockerton's homes and infrastructure demonstrate what can be achieved when energy use, buildings and community are considered together.

Howard Johns is an energy engineer, entrepreneur, business leader and activist, and author of Energy Revolution. He founded Southern Solar and the locally owned renewable energy cooperative Ovesco, and has worked extensively on solar, renewable and community energy. He is passionate about practical solutions and getting more people involved in the energy transition.

Part of our Designing with Energy term
This is the first of four Online Community Campfires exploring energy from different perspectives:

Tuesday 22 September - A Permaculture Approach to Energy
with Aranya
Exploring where energy belongs in a permaculture design.

Tuesday 20 October - Rethinking Home Energy
With Luke and Joy Justice and Howard Johns
Exploring what we can do in our homes and buildings.

Thursday 19 November - Building Community Energy
With Rokiah Yaman
Exploring how we can design energy systems around local resources.

Tuesday 15 December - Community Energy
With Duncan Law
Exploring how to put people and communities at the heart of the energy transformation.

Free for Permaculture Association members · £6 for non-members

Planning to join us for more than one Campfire? Individual membership is £3.50/month or £40/year and includes free access to all our Online Community Campfires.