Warwickshire News Mine

Pam Reason, from Bishops Itchington, kept a diary for two weeks about her experiences while using an Electrisave device, which highlights the exact pence per hour being used in the home.

Pam was among dozens of people who last year took part in an initiative as part of Warwickshire County Council’s Switch it Off campaign to spend time with the Electrisave and keep a diary of their experiences.

And she was selected at random from all those who took part in the county council’s DIY Kyoto sponsored Family Challenge to win a state-of-the-art Wattson.

The Wattson provides different coloured lighting effects, depending on how much electricity you are using in the home, and has just been voted in the Top 10 Cool Gadgets List by Stuff Magazine and the Top 10 Green Gadgets by the Guardian.

The Switch it Off campaign aims 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 Pam Reason said: “Taking part in the Family Challenge was fantastic. It was amazing to have an instant record of what I was using around the home. If I put the kettle on it jumped right up. The lowest I could ever get it down to was 0.5p per hour, and I guess that’s because of my alarm clock, Sky box and other things I just don’t turn off.

“The most it went up to was 94p per hour, which was when the electric shower was on, and even though the shower and kettle were expensive they were never on for long. But the oven sent it up to 30p per hour, and sometimes that would be on for an hour or more when cooking meals.

“It’s wonderful to have won the Wattson, a complete surprise, I’m looking forward to setting it all up now.”

Since taking part in the challenge Pam has also lowered her thermostat to 18 degrees, has put an article in her local parish magazine about saving energy, and given a talk to a WI group on the subject.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “Congratulations to Mrs Reason. Wasting electricity has a direct impact on climate change and we should all be looking at ways to reduce our consumption.

“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. For further information on the Wattson, visit DIY Kyoto’s website at http://www.diykyoto.com

Link to WCC