That’s a 20-watt saving averaged out over the year,’ he said. The last measure had to do with reducing the use of the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble-dryer. By only using these appliances with full loads – according to Dave’s calculations – I could save a whooping 60 watts over the course of a year. And that was it. An hour was up, and Dave managed to get our 125 watts base load savings (half a tonne of CO 2 ) and show me how to cut my electricity bill by £100. On the way home, as I passed hundreds of brightly lit homes, I imagined all of us – all 26 million households in the UK – each saving half a tonne of CO 2 a year. Wow, no wonder Dave was so obsessed. Maybe I will get a Plug-In power meter, just to keep an eye on my electricity leakage. In the meantime, I’ve taken the batteries out of our remote controls, to be sure that I don’t slip back into standby mode. My husband isn’t pleased.

■ Sign up to Dave Hampton’s newsletter at

www.carboncoach.com

HOW DAVE SAVED £100

AND HALF A TONNE OF CO2 OVER A YEAR

Standby:

TV (three at 3W each) 9W

DVD 1W

VCR 2W

Game consoles 8W

Computers 2W

Burglar alarm 5W

Power transformer equipment 8W

Dusting refrigerator coils 10W

Kettle savings 20W

Minimising tumble-dryer use 40W

Minimising dishwasher

and washing machine use 20W

NOTE: Calculations are based on an average 9 pence

a unit (kWh) paid for electricity and the UK average

of 0.45 kilos of CO2 upstream at the power station for

each kWh. So, 125 W x 8760 hr (24 hr per day x 365

days) = 1095 kWh = £99 and 0.5 tonnes of CO2.

ERRATUM: In the last issue, we attributed 100 g of CO2 to Dave

Hampton’s 1 metre diameter purple balloon. The correct fi gure is 1 kg.

This means that a traditional 100W lightbulb produces one of the 1-kg

balloon’s worth of CO2 every 22 hours, and 160 balloons every year. By

contrast, a 20W energy-effi cient lightbulb would produce only 30 balloons

worth of CO2 a year.

Home energy GREEN PAGES

ECO POWER CAMPAIGN STEP 1: SWITCH TO ECOTRICITY No matter where you live you can switch your electricity

supply to Ecotricity.

WHY ECOTRICITY?

■ Since it was founded in 1995, Ecotricity

has built 17.5MW of new wind energy, and

currently supplies enough electricity to power

12,000 homes.

■ Ecotricity retains ownership of every wind

turbine it erects, ensuring:

● Total community support for each turbine

● Optimal siting – minimal environmental/

community impact

● Best turbine technology on the market – to

minimise its operating costs and noise impact

● Long-term commitment to wind energy and

the community the wind turbine supplies

■ It refuses to invest in non-renewable energy

sources, eg coal, gas or nuclear

WHY SWITCH NOW?

This year Ecotricity has 26 wind turbines,

totalling 28.8MW of clean energy, approved

and ready to build – enough to power 15,000

more homes. All it needs is as many of us

to buy our electricity through the company

– thereby giving it the fi nancial leverage to

put this additional renewable capacity in place.

Together we can fi ll the gap threatened by

nuclear and coal decommissioning while the

grey suits in Westminster fi ddle.

To make the switch now call 01795 414 963

Mon to Fri 9:30am-5:30pm, quoting ref

ECOPOWER2. Or visit www.theecologist.

org/ecopower. And if you’ve already made the

switch to Ecotricity, please convince a friend to

sign up today.

37,000 TARGET

30,000

Customers

20,000 Customers

15,115 Customers Current level

14,200 Customers last month

12,000

Customers Campaign Start point

THE ECOLOGIST 075