One year ago the Transition Bath energy group launched a project to provide electricity monitoring meters to anyone in Bath interested to know more about their power usage and wanting to reduce it. This involved the purchase of four ‘Owl’ meters and making them available for a small sum for 4 weeks at a time. One condition for joining the project was that participants needed to monitor their electricity usage for 4 weeks before getting the meter and for 4 weeks after. In that way it was hoped that they would get an understanding of what works best for them.

The first set of results show that of the 20 participants so far in the scheme, three managed to achieve savings of about 20% which is at the top end of expectations, while the other showed lesser amounts of saving. In all cases the participants did say that use of the meters was helpful in getting a better understanding of what they use electricity on.

Transition Bath project manager, Ian Gilchrist, said, “I am pleased that we have enabled so many Bath people to reach this understanding of their energy use. In my opinion understanding is the first step towards reduction, and in three cases we did help them to some very valuable reduction in energy costs. We are going to continue the project, and if anyone would like to join the best way to do so is via the Transition Bath website – www.transitionbath.org. We now have a new project administrator, Jamie Colston. His contact details are there.”

Project participant, Lesley Stacy-Marks now of Lyncombe Vale, said, “When I started with the meter I have to say that we didn’t really understand what we used electricity on, but within the few weeks that we had it all became clear! The information was very useful and we quickly reduced our power consumption by about 21%. The main area where we made savings was not filling the kettle so full to make tea, but it was also useful to switch the computer off when it was not in use. Apart from the handy reduction in costs that it provided, there is also the added benefit of the saving in CO2 to consider.”