Milene Domingues, a Brazilian footballer, did the longest ever keepy-uppy with 55,198 touches of the ball.
Now try "keepy downies": the task is to turn your thermostat down by 1 degree. Then warm up by seeing how many keepy uppies you can do in 1 minute.
What difference does it make?
Heating uses 60% of our home energy. Most British household thermostats are set above 21°C. By turning down by 1°C your carbon footprint will come down and so will your heating bills.
This activity lowers your carbon footprint by:
7.6 KG CO₂
What do you need?
- A football
- An extra jumper for everyone
- And find your boiler thermostat
Step by step
Check the highest temperature your thermostat is set to throughout the day. If it's over 20 °C, you should be able to save a lot of energy when you turn it down.
Turn your thermostat down by 1°C throughout the day. Try not to turn it back up again. It may take a day or two to get used to.
Now get one of your team to grab a football and time them for a minute doing keepy-uppies. Count how many they can do.
Need Help?
If you don't have a thermostat, it's hard to control the heat in your home. Most homes will have one somewhere - have you got a friend who is a plumber or electrician who could help sort out one for you?
Turning down your daytime temperature by one degree is enough to score a goal. You will have a greater impact and save more if you do it at night as well!
Everyone is different, but a healthy room temperature is around 20 degrees. You can quickly get used to different temperatures. Sometimes it's as easy as wearing a jumper inside.