Ten families in Leicestershire have been involved in a challenge to reduce their energy consumption over the period of a year between October 2008 until September 2009.

The families will be lent an energy monitor for the period of a month in October, February, May and August and have been asked to keep an energy diary over the period of a week recording how much energy particular devices, household appliances, lighting and heating uses and anything they have done to help reduce their energy use since using the monitor.

One of the families, The Birds from Tilton on the Hill and members of the Tilton Green Climate Friendly Community have used a monitor and found they could save as much as 17% of their overall energy consumption a year by changing their habits.

Since using the monitor, Julian Bird has

The biggest discovery Julian made was that he could save as much as 5% electricity per year just by turning the laptop off standby at night. He has also kept monthly meter readings for a while and estimates he can save the following as much as 33% on electricity bills and 11% on gas just by doing the above.