John Curwen, Coaching Director at FREEDOM Business Coaching, recently acquired one of our Smart Meters. This is his feedback.
"For the last few years we as a family have determined to reduce our energy consumption; not only to reduce the bills but also in the increasing awareness of the direct relationship between consumption and carbon emissions. So, in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint we have introduced energy saving bulbs in most of the lights around the house and have replaced old domestic appliances with the most efficient we could.
However, we were unaware of the direct impact on consumption of the products that we had introduced and, like many, because we had “energy saving” bulbs in lights, we tended to leave them on. The kitchen under-cupboard lighting for example would be switched on at dusk and left on until we went to bed – simply a matter of convenience.
I purchased a smart meter from Eco Environments as I was advised it would change my energy habits and was duly skeptical. However, having installed and configured it within a matter of minutes (it’s really easy to do) I was astounded to see the actual consumption of the house with nothing switched on!!!
The “convenience” of leaving the kitchen lights on proved to be nothing more than ignorance, and so on for other “mood lighting” generally left switched on.
The result of having the meter and being able to identify the higher usage appliances and lighting has changed our habits very quickly. We no longer leave a TV on for the dog when we go out – he has to make do with the radio, it costs half as much to run! We have never left appliances in standby, but so much “office equipment” was using power just by being switched on at the wall – transformers use minimal power yes, but they all add up. Now, the transformers are all switched off unless the equipment is actually required and the “Energy Saving” PC monitors are disconnected from the mains supply unless in use.
In all, the smart meter has reduced our power consumption by far more than the cost of the meter and, more importantly, it has changed our energy habits forever."