coyou

This week I got hold of a Electrisave. It costs £19.99 to rent one for a month. (or £69.99 to buy one) Really simple to use, you just plug it in near your electricity meter and it tells you exactly how much electricity you are using in the home at any time. But more importantly it also shows you how much greenhouse gases you responsible for in kg per hour!

It becomes a bit addictive as you got round the house turns things on and off and watch the meter go up and and down. After just a couple of days of use I’ve started making sure all lights are off when I’m not in the room and things not being used are unplugged (like mobile phone chargers)

A very visual way of seeing your carbon emissions fall and your electricity bill decrease.

Its a really good starting point to think about how you can reduce emissions from your own home. Its the ipod of the climate change debate, everyone should get one.

When doing your bit to reduce your personal environmental impact an easy an important step is to change your electricity supply to one that gives priority to renewable energy supplies. This is a company that will match your electricity use with power from wind turbines, small hydro-electric plants or solar power.

Do not make the rookie mistake I made and fall for Juice (from Npower) Heavily marketed, but ultimately owned by a German parent company called RWE who are the largest CO2 emitter in European power production! with many coal powered stations.

I have done a bit of research and it seems there are three much better options to consider:

1) Ecotricity:
“Ecotricity is an electricity company with a difference - we’re dedicated to changing the way electricity is made. We take the money our customers spend on electricity and invest it in clean forms of power like wind energy. What’s more, we’re the only green electricity company actually building these new renewable energy sources. This year alone we’re investing £25 million in wind energy.”

2) Green Energy UK:
“By making us your electricity supplier, you’ll have a direct impact on the demand for electricity generated from renewable resources. Not only will you encourage the growth of green solutions, you’ll reduce both our reliance on electricity generated by fossil fuels and the amount of greenhouse gases in our environment. As green generators grow and develop, they will become more efficient, less expensive and better. One day, we’ll wonder why we ever did anything else.”

3) Good Energy:
“All the electricity we supply comes from wind, small scale hydro and solar power generators from all over Britain. They are either small or medium sized sites and many of them are the result of diversification from areas such as farming and other family businesses. Our Home Generation scheme supports the smaller generator and home owner.”

I’ve not yet decided which one of these three to go for, so if you have any thoughts, please let me know.

I’ve yet to discover which one offers the best service at the right price. Any Ideas?