Joanna was an Upper Albany resident and was engaged with the project since day one. She said that after the first conversation she had with a member of the research team, she searched on the internet about what energy burden was and found out that she was experiencing it. Like many other Upper Albany residents, Joanna has gone through days and sometimes even months with no heating because of poor infrastructure in the building or because she got behind bills and had to wait until November 15th when heating, by law, must be reinstalled.
“This was during the time that our boiler was not actually working. And so, I just get the underneath my blanket, I get, you know, my sweater on and everything like that. And you know, cats, they don’t really care about the weather much. But when they get cold, they’ll all just start gathering. So, this was me with all four of them laying on me and we’re just all keeping each other warm.” Joanna
Joanna, like many other residents of Hartford experiencing energy burden, knew and employed techniques that allowed her to reduce her energy consumption in her home. She like many other residents and experts we talked to said they did not need advice or tips on how to reduce their energy bills, which companies seemed to focus on. Over and over, we heard people know how to save energy and that the key problem is not on the consumer’s side. Paraphrasing what senior electricity sector analyst, Brendan Pierpoint said to us in an interview, those energy-saving tips provided by companies tend to put the energy burden responsibility on consumers while blurring companies and structural policy’s fault into the creation of energy burden.
“When I sleep at night, I always turn the heat all the way down. And so, one of my cats likes to sleep between my feet. So, she comes in and gets on top my legs like from knees down, and she keeps my legs warm. And so, if she’s not there and I’m getting cold allows us color over until I get over here and she’ll comply by me keeping on for the rest of the night. So um, and I would just like taking pictures of my cats anyway”
“I can’t sit in a dark room, even if I am watching TV. But I know a lot of people who will turn off every light because they don’t want to have a high light bill. So, I just personally have made the choice to use the energy saving bulbs and keep the light on when I’m watching TV. But um, I know some people do it. Like if you’re in the even if you’re in the room, you just turn off the light.” Joanna
When Joanna shared this image of her under the blankets, she said that probably people would not understand what the image was about. However, in the debrief session, Sir Gastan, one of the professional photographers, said that when Joanna showed the image, he immediately “got it,” because his photographic essays tackled the issue of energy burden from the same angle. And he added that their images were a sample of the interconnectedness that energy burden brought into their lives.
When Joanna shared this image of her under the blankets, she said that probably people would not understand what the image was about. However, in the debrief session, Sir Gastan, one of the professional photographers, said that when Joanna showed the image, he immediately “got it,” because his photographic essays tackled the issue of energy burden from the same angle. And he added that their images were a sample of the interconnectedness that energy burden brought into their lives.
“And this is just another thing, you know, like you were asking about putting on extra stuff, like sometimes I’ll put on a hat if I’m getting really cold. So, in this picture, I have like, my dress my house dress on, a pair of pants on, my sweater, the hat underneath the covers, is it’s easier to do it that way than to sit there and have to pay, you know a huge bill. So, I’ll be in front of the TV and just keep myself under multiple layers and then even like sometimes I’d love to read, I don’t really read that much when it’s really cold because I don’t want to take my hand out to the cold out from under the blanket to read my book. So, I’m watching a lot more TV than reading books.” Joanna
This research project was conducted during the fall and winter of 2021; thus it has heavy component on how people experience energy burden in the cold months. However, a member of the team asked Joanna about how she experienced energy burden during the hot months and through her response we get a glimpse of it.
“During the summer like I used to use my air conditioner just all the time during the summer, because I was uncomfortable being hot. But then I realized like my minute, I moved to this apartment two years ago. And this apartment, first of all, it’s better insulated, and there’s better. It’s also better ventilation. And then I kind of also discovered that my there certain hours of the day when there’s no sun on the backboard. So it’s like 10 degrees cooler on the porch than anywhere else. So I spend most of my day that I’m not out running errands and stuff I spend on the back porch, because it’s just a lot cooler. And I’m not sitting there using the energy, you know, so and I don’t really watch TV all that March. So I’ll just be on the back porch either reading a book or playing a game or something like that. And just staying cool that way instead of you know, having been in the air conditioning room because I try to use the air conditioning just at night.” Joanna