Are you an eco-angel or a carbon criminal?

Do your efforts to live a green life consist of installing a low-energy light bulb on the landing and putting out the odd empty wine bottle for recycling? Then it's time to take a long, hard look at your home and your lifestyle. The Dobbins family from Durham decided to do just that when they won the eco-audit at this year's Independent charity auction. The family of three has shared the audit's findings to help others benefit from what they learnt.

An essential first step in carrying out an eco-audit is the calculation of the household's energy carbon footprint. There are a number of online tools that help you calculate your carbon-footprint, my favourite being that of the National Energy Foundation (www.nef.org.uk).

The average UK home emits 6 tons of CO2 every year through energy consumption, which means the Dobbins are just above average emissions. However, the fact that it is a new home designed to the latest energy-efficiency standards demonstrates that how one uses a home can be as important as how efficient the building is. The UK car driver emits on average about 3.2 tons every year, while driving 8,000 miles. As the Dobbins are a two-car family, they again come in almost exactly on the national average with 3.5 tons emitted per car. Note that the Dobbins' car CO2 emissions exceed those from their home. The family took one flight for a holiday to France. The average UK number of flights per year per person is about four, so they scored well on flight emissions.

The average daily UK water consumption is 150 litres (rising to 160 in London), so at 157 litres per person, they are again remarkably close to national average. By recycling 50 per cent of their household waste, they are performing better than the national domestic average of 30 per cent waste recycled.

The Dobbins' eco-audit statistics (tons refer to tons of CO2 released)

A Electricity: 2.5 tons

B Gas: 4.1 tons

C Cars: 7.0 tons

D Flights: 0.6 tons

E Home carbon footprint (A+B): 6.6 tons

F Total transport energy carbon footprint (C+D): 7.6 tons

Total family energy carbon footprint (E+F): 14.2 tons

Annual water consumption: 166,000 litres

Annual daily water consumption per person in household: 157 litres

Recycling rate: 50 per cent (percentage of total waste recycled)

ELECTRICITY

Good effort:

1. There are a small number of energy-saving light bulbs already in place.

Could do better:

1. Switch to an electricity supplier who sources energy from renewable sources such as hydro, wind, solar or landfill (www.good-energy.co.uk). This will make electricity use in the house carbon-neutral. The family will still need to avoid wasting electricity.

2. Replacing wasteful incandescent bulbs with energy-saving bulbs throughout the house will cut electricity used for lighting by up to 80 per cent. Try www.ebulbshop.com if the right bulbs cannot be found locally. The firm also stocks energy-saving bulbs for dimmers.

3. Turn televisions off at the socket rather than leaving them on stand-by. This will save 55 watts per hour currently being wasted by the two TVs when not in use.

FOOD

Good effort:

1. Already a good majority of food the family buys is organic.

2. The Dobbins have reduced their meat intake considerably, more often having chicken or fish. This is important as the UN estimated that livestock rearing emits over 18 per cent of total climate crisis-causing emissions, with methane from cows of particular concern.

3. They have started a small vegetable plot.

Could do better:

1. Buy more local, organic, unpackaged food by frequenting local farmers' markets. Supermarket organic food is frequently over-packaged or flown long distances.

2. Find out if there is a local organic box- scheme which does home deliveries. If we replaced supermarket trips in our own cars with home-deliveries, millions of car trips would be annually eliminated. For a list of box schemes, see www.boxscheme.org.

3. Ensure that any fish bought has MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification that it is from a sustainable fishery.

WASTE

Good effort:

1. The Dobbins recycle plastic, cardboard, cans and glass.

Could do better:

1. Stop taking garden waste to the council waste-site and compost it in the garden instead.

2. Get a multi-purpose rodent-proof composter, which will compost all food waste, including cooked food, meat and raw vegetable and fruit peelings (www.smartsoil.co.uk).

3. Seek to reduce waste and consumption in the first place. A small example would be to switch to toothbrushes with replaceable heads (www.naturalcollection.com) and to buy antique instead of new furniture.

4. If the family have to buy new furniture, they should ensure any wood used is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.

TRANSPORT

Good effort:

1. The family only takes one short-haul flight per year

2. They use a small Fiat Quattrocento for the local running around, reserving the larger saloon car for longer journeys.

Could do better:

1. Go to France next year by Eurostar, which will cut emissions by up to 90 per cent compared to flying.

2. When replacing the saloon car consider a hybrid car such as a Prius. This has emissions of 104g/km compared to their current saloon which emits a significantly above average 249g/km.

3. Likewise, when replacing the Fiat Quattrocento, choose a lower-emission option such as the Polo Bluemotion, which emits only 102g/km. The Quattrocento 1.4 emits a surprisingly high 149g/km, despite its small size.

4. As over 40 per cent of journeys nationally are less than two miles, it would be great if the family could start using bicycles, especially for the school run.

WATER

Good effort:

1. The Dobbins have modern dual-flush low-volume toilets installed throughout their home.

Could do better:

1. Install aerating- shower heads in showers. These mix bubbles of air in with the water and reduce water use by up to 30 per cent.

2. Collect rainwater in butts and use it for watering the garden and washing the cars. Check with your local water company to see if they have any special offers on for butts.

3. The radical option would be to go for a comprehensive rain-harvesting system. However, these are expensive to retro-fit (over £3,000) and to integrate with existing mains water supplies (www.envireau.co.uk).

HEATING

Good effort:

1. All walls and roof space already have excellent insulation, including the loft hatch, often a weak spot.

2. All windows and doors are double glazed and all have excellent draught-proofing.

3. There is a new, very efficient gas-boiler for central heating and hot water. Modern condensing boilers can be 30 per cent more efficient than boilers from the early Nineties.

Could do better:

1. The central thermostat is set at 21C, two degrees above the recommended 19C. Every degree it is set above 19C uses another 10 per cent of gas, so 21C makes the gas bill 20 per cent higher than at 19C.

2. As one person works from home, the house has to be heated all day in winter, but the heating is also currently left on all night. Recommend that it comes on about 15 minutes before the first person gets up, and is turned off at least an hour before they expect to go to bed. The short warm-up time in the morning is possible because of the excellent insulation and draught-proofing.

3. It's a large house, so some rooms are unoccupied or used rarely. Turn radiators off in these rooms and close the doors. Occasionally, air the rooms to avoid damp. This will slash the space that needs heating. The most important areas to keep warm are the office in the day and kitchen and living room in the evening.

4. There is an open gas coal-effect fire in the living room, one of the most wasteful forms of heating, with up to 85 per cent of heat lost up the chimney. Even when not in use, a considerable amount of central heating is lost up the chimney. As the Dobbins rarely use it, they could get it disconnected and seal the chimney with a chimney balloon (www.chimneyballon.co.uk).

Renewable energy options

* The easiest and most effective renewable energy option for the Dobbins would be a large wood burning stove in the living room. They cost between about £500 to £1,500, but expect to spend a further £700 to £1,200 if the chimney needs lining. As the Dobbins' chimney is brand new it is unlikely to require new lining. See www.clearviewstoves.com for a good range of wood burners. Placing an eco-fan on top of the stove would enable the burner to heat even more of the house. See www.ecofan.co.uk. For a list of local stove installers, visit www.hetas.co.uk.

* The Dobbins' south-facing roof would be excellent for the installation of either solar electric panels or a solar hot-water system. Grants of £400 for solar hot-water and £2,500 for solar electric systems are available until next year (www.lowcarbonbuildings.org). Solar hot-water systems cost from about £4,000 and solar electric systems cost about £12,000 upwards.

* Domestic building-attached wind-turbines are currently ineffective and I would not recommend one on this site.

* The Dobbins were considering installing a ground-source heat pump with the piping laid under the garden. I would not recommend installation in this site, as it already has a very efficient modern gas- boiler, which can be more efficient in CO2 terms than the electricity required to run the heat pump.

* When the current central-heating boiler comes to the end of its life, I would recommend replacing it with a wood-burning central-heating system. Grants are available until the end of the next financial year (www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk). Boilers cost from £5,000 upwards but installation can be very expensive.

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