Play the cosy living challenge
You’ll need
- A4 paper
- Pens or pencils
- Craft materials (for example, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, stickers)
- Scissors
- Sticky tape
- Fan to simulate wind (optional)
- Insulation materials such as bubble wrap, foil, fabric, newspaper, cotton balls
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
Planning this activity
- Be sensitive to any of your group’s living situations, as the topic of money or fuel poverty may be difficult for some people. Always let people know about this activity in advance and give people the chance to let you know if they’re not comfortable taking part or any adaptations they may need. Make sure everyone knows they can leave the activity at any point and look out for individuals. You may need to offer reassurance for anyone who’s upset. Always follow the Yellow Card.
- You can scale this activity by using real spaces, such as separate rooms in a building, dividing a large room into smaller zones, or setting up tents outdoors. Add insulation materials like blankets, rugs, tarpaulins, or sleeping bags to enhance this setup.
Fuel poverty happens when a household cannot afford to keep their home at a reasonable temperature, due to low income, high energy costs, and/or poor energy efficiency.
Insulation’s a material that slows down the movement of heat, helping keep hot things hot and cold things cold for a longer time. You can think of it like a barrier for your house or your drink. For example, when you use a flask to keep your soup warm or your drink cold, the thermos is made of insulating material that stops heat from escaping or getting in.
Heat naturally moves from warmer places to cooler places. If you have something hot, such as a cup of tea, the heat will try to spread to the cooler air around it. However, insulating materials stop or slow down that movement, keeping the heat inside the cup. The same goes for cold things, such as ice in a cooler, as insulation stops the warmer outside air from getting in and melting the ice.
Insulation acts like a barrier to keep the temperature where you want it - whether that's hot or cold. It also helps reduce energy costs and keeps homes warm, which is especially important for people dealing with fuel poverty.
| Topic | Housing Example | Camping Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel poverty | Can't afford to heat the whole house, so only one room is warm | Only have a small amount of firewood or gas to cook or keep warm |
| Using old electric heaters that cost a lot to run but give little warmth | Fire setup burns quickly or inefficiently, wasting fuel and needing constant tending | |
| Limited access to hot meals due to high energy bills | Can’t cook proper food because fuel is running low or heat isn't strong enough | |
| Avoiding hot showers to save on heating costs | No hot water for washing because of limited gas or no way to boil it | |
| Poorly maintained heating systems such as a broken boiler | Stove or fire doesn’t work well, making it hard to cook or stay warm | |
| Insulation | House has thin walls, single-glazed windows, and drafts that let heat escape | Thin tent walls or open shelter lets heat escape and wind in |
| No loft or wall insulation, so heat rises and is lost | No ground insulation, so body heat is lost through the cold ground | |
| Using rugs or curtains to help trap heat inside | Using sleeping mats, space blankets, or extra layers to trap heat in the tent | |
| Foam insulation or thermal curtains used to keep warmth in | Windbreaks, tarps, or reflectors used to hold heat near the fire or shelter | |
| Draught-proofing doors and windows | Blocking wind using backpacks, rocks, or foliage around the shelter |
Running this activity
- Bring everyone together and explain that today's challenge is about staying warm in cold places, like tents or homes with poor heating.
- Ask if anyone has ever been cold before, in their house, school, on holiday or sleeping in a tent at camp. What did they do to keep warm?
- Next introduce the terms fuel poverty and insulation, ask if anyone knows what they mean. Give a short explanation and some examples for each.
- The spaces for this activity are going to be within cardboard boxes or shoe boxes but you could create larger ones in rooms depending on your setup.
- Split the group into teams and give each a starting space, a cardboard box and insulation materials. They could add doors and windows to their boxes to make it more realistic.
- Encourage teams to focus on real insulation principles and ask themselves the following:
- Where is heat being lost?
- doors and windows
- floors
- walls
- vents or open spaces
- how might they trap or reflect heat?
- use curtains, blankets, or sleeping bags to block cold areas
- add rugs, mats, or cardboard on cold floors
- place foil or reflective material behind or near heat sources
- what is the heat source of the room?
- body heat
- radiators
- hot water bottles
- sunlight
- How big is the space?
- bigger spaces lose more heat
- smaller rooms are easier to keep warm
- you can “shrink” a big space using hanging blankets or makeshift walls to trap heat in one area
- How many people are there?
- more people means more body heat
- sitting or sleeping close together keeps warmth in
- spacing out too much loses warmth
- What are the low or no-cost insulation ideas?
- How can they create protection from wind/drafts?
- Where is heat being lost?
- Give teams a generous block of time to plan and build their insulated space.
- Encourage them to test their setup as they go and adjust or improve based on what they discover.
- When time is up or when all teams are finished gather the groups to present their creations to the other teams.
- You could create a competition by placing a hot item (like a heat pack or warm water bottle) inside each structure. Ensure items are safe to handle with adult supervision. After a set period, compare which design retained the most heat.
- Finally bring everyone together and discuss how they found the task, is there anything they would do differently and how could they apply this to their home lifestyles?
Reflection
This activity was all about learning how to keep warm and insulate spaces efficiently, whether in a tent or at home. What are some ideas or tips you’re going to remember about staying cosy without wasting energy? Is there anything you might share with your family or friends to help them stay warm?
You all worked together to insulate spaces and think creatively about using materials wisely. How did it feel working as a team? What parts of the challenge did you enjoy most, and what did you find tricky? If something didn’t go as planned, how did you solve it? Did you support someone else or get help when you needed it?
Are you happy with how your insulated space turned out? What might you do differently next time? By practising these skills, you’re learning how to save energy and look after the environment. What other skills would you like to learn that could help you in daily life?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.
- Scissors
Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
- To make the activity easier, provide a template or a model of an insulated box for guidance.
- To make it more challenging, introduce scenarios such as a windy environment, a cold night vs. a warm day, or designing for a family versus a single person.
This activity can be adapted to suit all needs and abilities. You can adjust materials, space size, and tasks to ensure everyone can participate comfortably and safely, whether that means working while seated, using simplified materials, or focusing on planning and problem-solving instead of hands-on building.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
If you enjoyed this activity, check out our other activities in partnership with the Gas Distribution Network including activities based on carbon monoxide.
Young people could create their own challenges or take ownership of their new knowledge by designing fun activities for their peers. They might develop tutorials or run workshops to share what they’ve learned about fuel poverty, insulation..
Alternatively, they could start a community project to help people in their local area save energy, stay warm, or use fuel more efficiently.