Warwickshire News Mine

The Beard family of Mike, Tracey and two-year-old Ethan, are the winners of the Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, Family Challenge.

Families were challenged to keep a diary of their experiences while living with an Electrisave device, which highlights in pence per hour exactly what a household is using in electricity.

This was run as part of the county council’s Switch it Off campaign, which aimed to highlight how much energy is being wasted in households by appliances being left on stand by.

Experts believe that by a few simple measures people can cut their electricity bills by a quarter, while at the same time dramatically reducing the amount of climate change causing carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere.

Competition winner Mike Beard said: “We really enjoyed having the Electrisave and started working out all kinds of things. We even found ourselves telling friends `do you know your microwave costs you £5 a year just to run the clock!’.

“We also found some other surprising things, like how we arranged the things in the freezer made a dramatic difference to its efficiency. We’ve now got energy efficient light bulbs and try and make savings wherever we can.

“It was such a surprise to hear about the competition, I’d completely forgotten about it. I thought it would be interesting to have the Electrisave, and never thought we’d win the competition. We’ve never been to the Eden project so we’re all looking forward to it.”

Warwickshire County Council’s Strategic Energy Manager, Dr Jacky Lawrence, said: “Electricity prices have increased by about 60 per cent in the last two years, yet despite this most bill payers remain totally unaware of the amount of electricity they are using and where they are wasting it.

“Ask someone what they pay for a litre of petrol and almost everyone could tell you, in fact people drive out of their way for the best deal – ask them what they pay for a kilowatt hour of electricity and you’ll get a blank look (it’s about 12p).

“It’s great that the Beard family got so involved in our Family Challenge and I hope they thoroughly enjoy their Eden project holiday.”

The £500 holiday was donated by WEEAC as part of their commitment to the Switch it Off campaign run in Warwickshire.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “Congratulations to the Beard family. Wasting electricity has a direct impact on climate change, and in Warwickshire we will soon be celebrating the first birthday of the Climate Change Strategy we committed to last July.

“If everyone in Warwickshire, Coventry and Worcestershire stopped leaving appliances on stand by it would prevent 86,322 tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere through wasted electricity and save more than £20m (enough to pay the annual electricity bill for 71,953 homes).”

For more information on taking steps to `Switch it off’ visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/switchitoff or call the energy advice hotline on 0800 512012.

Link to WCC