Let’s face it energy conservation isn’t the sexiest subject in the world. Start a conversation with “how many inches of insulation have you got in your loft?” and the eyes glaze over! However. “How much money are you generating from your solar panels?” is a lot more exciting. Plus, instead of having a Greenpeace sticker on your 4 x 4, the panels show everyone how green you are! Whilst renewable energy has got to be a major part of meeting our future energy needs, we shouldn’t overlook the energy that can be saved through energy conservation and energy efficiency. That’s why it made me laugh to read, this weekend, of the Guardian and Ecotricity’s offer of the chance to win free electricity for a year. It completely misses the opportunity to mention how customers could save energy and money. They want you to use the £635* they are offering over 12 months:  No prizes for using less. Just business a usual whether the energy comes from windmills or fossils fuels. How about a competition providing free energy monitors to new Ecotricity customers and a prize of a years free subscription to the Guardian, for those who can save the most?

Sust-it has been showing consumers how they can save money and energy by choosing the most energy efficient appliances for over five years; Energy conservation and energy efficiency makes sense but not enough money. That’s why, as a report from the Association for the Conservation of Energy has noted of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that: “The vast majority of senior staff are assigned to energy generation rather than energy saving”? And there is no clear target or ambition for energy efficiency savings. It’s frustrating that so much more could be done at EU level to address energy demand reduction through a more radical approach to new buildings and refurbishment, as Bruce Tofield and Martin Ingham, of the UEA Low Carbon Innovation Centre and Build with CaRe, have called for in their recent report. The low carbon Passivhaus approach they advocate reduces energy demand and energy efficient appliances have to be part of that, together with changing behaviour to energy consumption – which is why giving electricity away for free, as with the Guardian / Ecotricity offer, doesn’t help people to value it or conserve it.

*The prize has a value of up to £635 and is based upon an average price (as of 29 February 2012) for an Ecotricity New Energy customer consuming 4,152kWh of electricity a year (DECC 2011).

It’s good news that a committee of MPs is looking into why consumers are shying away from from the energy market, as Ofgem pushes for simpler tariffs from the energy companies. Ofgem is looking for energy suppliers to have one standard tariff for each of the three payment methods – pre-payment meter, cheque, and direct debit – and per fuel.

One issue identified is that consumers don’t understand the language of energy, Kilowatt hours (kWh) and how that relates to bills. Or is there another issue here? Do consumers know what there home appliances, electric heaters and electricals cost to run? From our experience they don’t!

My first taste of becoming ‘energy literate’, the term being used, I prefer the phrase ‘energy aware‘, was in the seventies (showing may age here) when, as a child, I fed the electric meter under the stairs with coins. If the emersion heater or electric fire was on it was a endless task of finding the next 10p coin (Two Shillings), or a trip to the shops to get some change, as the house was plunged into darkness! You soon got grips with what was using power, as the spinning disk on meter picked up speed!

Sust-it’s website came about because of our frustration at the lack of meaningful information for consumers about how much electricals actually cost to run. We’re all bombarded with energy information, from energy labels, car CO2 emissions, home energy performance certificates, and even the solar panel gold rush has educated many people on financial benefits of the Kilowatt. But do they mean anything to the consumers about to buy a new TV or turning the fan heater on? Probably not!

Energy labels, are one example of how it could be far simpler to get over the value of energy; these labels are already starting to display Kilowatt hours (kWh) which most consumers don’t understand. So why not convert that into running cost, as our site does? The average cost of a unit of electricity in the UK is around 0.14p per Kilowatt hour, so the maths for most products is fairly straightforward.

The other major obstacle to people switching energy supplier is the hassle involved, see previous post. Finally, how can Ofgem propose one standard tariff for each energy suppliers tariff according to payment methods, when you pay different amounts for your electricity, dependent on your postcode! I’m afraid to say your energy prices are a postcode lottery too!

Is this a prime example of a so-called eco and energy saving product that is misleading? How can a fan connected to the top of your radiator save you £140 per year? Doubtful! There’s a clue in the name ‘radiators’ they work by radiating heat – hot air rises, no moving parts needed, simple! According to the PR video made for this product it expels trapped air, now I’m confused, where is this air trapped? Hot air rises, that’s how radiators work, why do you need 1.5 watt fan to do this! Saying you could reduce your room temperature by 3°C by adding one of these Radiator Boosters is optimistic! How many Radiators boosters would you need?

See the most energy efficient...

← SWIPE →

We’re all for energy saving innovations, but will a radiator booster really do much more than make a noise, and create for more CO2 emissions in it’s manufacture and distribution than it will ever save! My advice would to make a draught excluder out of an old pair of tights and save yourself £25!  This is exactly why we don’t promote eco and so-called ‘energy saving’ products, just to make money!

Heating Electricity Cost Calculator