Fairford Environmental Society

How can I measure the energy I've saved?

Gas and electricity are easy; simply compare your bills from last year with this year, making sure that it is the number of kilowatt hours (kWh) you are contrasting rather than the monetary cost, which will change as fuel prices vary. You could even try plotting a graph of month or week against gas or electricity consumption. Hopefully this will give you a reassuringly downwards slope; if not, is there more you could be doing

Other factors are harder to quantify, but you can still get a good idea of how you're doing. Keep track of the number of times you walk or cycle instead of taking the car. See how much less waste is in the bins as you take them out each week. Look at how your shopping bills go down as you reduce the amount of food that doesn't get eaten. You may not be able to come up with an exact percentage, but you will still know that you’re making a difference.

Remember that even if you feel that certain actions only save a small amount, if all your neighbours are doing the same, it will mount up to a significant saving.

Need some motivation?

Even though most of the steps outlined above are easy to do it can be equally easy to forget to do them! As climate change is a global problem that doesn't have a great effect on our individual lives (yet) it can be difficult to remain focused on it. In addition, most people struggle to act unless there is some kind of personal reward involved, be this in terms of monetary gain, fun or even one-upmanship against family members. Here are two ideas to help with any lack of motivation:

• Get together your energy bills from 2009. How much did you spend? It may well be a scarily high amount. In 2010 you'll be hoping to spend less: think of all the other things you could have spent your money on other than gas and electricity! Why not, then, declare that the money saved on energy bills from this year compared with last can be spent on whatever you want. Each person in the house gets an equal share of the savings and so each person has an incentive to reduce the bill.
• Invest in a wireless electricity meter. These devices, costing around £30, show you exactly how much electricity is being used in your home right now, and how much it is costing you. By placing one of these in a prominent position you'll get an idea of how much energy each appliance in your house uses, and it will be easier to see when a light has been left on or if the TV’s still on standby.

Further information

These pages have hopefully laid out a few simple ways in which you can reduce your energy consumption, but there are plenty more ideas out there. Here are a few websites that are well worth a look:

www.1010uk.org The homepage of the 10:10 campaign. Keep up to date with events and read useful ideas, case studies etc.

www.energysavingtrust.org.uk This is a great website containing a wealth of useful information. It also has online questionnaires that can advise if you qualify for any grants for insulation and help you decide if it is possible to produce renewable electricity in your own home. If you don’t have internet access, give them a call on 0800 512 012.

www.ecotricity.co.uk An energy company that produces almost half of its electricity from renewable sources.

www.uk.freecycle.org A great way to get rid of unwanted but still-usable items. There is a Lechlade and Fairford group, but as of yet it is hardly used. Why not try and change that?

www.ipcc.ch The website of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. All its publications can be found here.

en.cop15.dk/ The website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Contains all the information from the Copenhagen conference.