The Good Energy Shop

Product Review: Ed Gillespie on the OWL energy monitor

By Ed Gillespie, Creative Director of Futerra

We thought we were pretty hot on energy saving around the flat having 'done the bulbs' and always been rather good at 'switching-off' behaviours, preferring low lighting and a candle or two (who said romance is dead?). But, wanting to personally test out some of the kit that I bang on about all the time professionally, even I was surprised at the effect the OWL meter had on our bills. 

The first thing we noticed was the relative energy consumption of different bits of household equipment...never mind the odd lightbulb being on - the grill and iron were swiftly identified as absolute energy gluttons! Then the constant reminder of the OWL's winking LCD display brought a little more discipline to our energy consciousness...we found ourselves glaring at it challengingly thinking 'What on earth is using 'leccy now?' and trying to identify the culprit.

Interrogating inanimate white goods aside, the OWL was for us an unexpected boon. Within weeks we'd seen results, with our electricity bills coming down by a further 16% from what was already a rather eco-geek-style low benchmark. So the meter will pay for itself within a few months - and go on keeping us on our toes and continuing to save energy in the years to come. The wisdom of OWLs is clearly timeless

Ed Gillespie is Creative Director & Co-Founder of specialist environmental communications agency Futerra.

BUY THE OWL HERE

Product Review: the Morphy Richards Ecolectric slow cooker

By Barney Rhys Jones, Good Energy MD

Having watched with horror the effect of the electric oven on my Watson energy monitor I couldn't wait to try out the Ecolectric Slow Cooker. My mum swears by them and she knows great stew so I made a nuisance of myself trying to get hold of the trial product. The result - it's FANTASTIC! Read on...

A couple of neighbours had found a babysitter and invited us to join them for a meal in the local.  But my wife is feeling credit crunched and doesn't fancy paying twenty quid a head for a pub meal.  Why don't they come over here I say.  ‘No-one can be bothered to entertain during the week' she says.

Wrong... the answer, my love, arrived on my desk yesterday - the SLOW COOKER.  On the way home I bought 1kg of cubed skirt (a very flavoursome but cheap cut of beef which needs long slow cooking) for about £7, an onion and a bottle of dry Italian red that was on special. Got home and slung it in the pot with a couple of tins of tomatoes and some herbs (kept back half the wine for chef lubrication). Added some veggies that were knocking about in the bottom drawer of the fridge and a stock cube. Left it overnight in the fridge and after breakfast switched it onto the low setting and went to work.

Came home twelve hours later to the delicious smell of stew throughout the house. Mashed some ‘tatoes and waited on my mates turning up with the peas. With a kilo of beef to eat I had invited a couple of other neighbours who conveniently brought dessert!
The whole meal can't have cost more than £15 quid - fed six people (who stopped just short of licking the plates clean) - used very little energy and took very very little effort.  Cooking skirt that long there is really no need to brown the meat or sweat the onions.
In short - TOTAL SUCCESS. Mid week dinner parties are back on!

BUY the ecolectric slow cooker here - only £34.25

Also, take a look at the ecolectric kettle, and the ecolectric toaster (they are not slow).

Customer review: Our solar panels

In our bid to bring more transparency and understanding to the world of microgeneration (solar panels, small turbines etc) we will be publishing a series of case studies from Good Energy customers. To kick off (and celebrate our new solar pv addition to the Good Energy Shop) here's a review of our SunDog solar panels by Julian Orton:

"It's now one year since we had our solar PV system fitted by Sundog Energy. With an installed capacity of 2.916 kWp on a south-east facing roof, we were given a rather conservative prediction of an annual yield of 1861 kWh.  However, it's surpassed all our expectations with an actual total generation figure of 2672 kWh.  This easily exceeds the average quoted UK yield of 830kWh per kWp of installed capacity.

On the energy efficiency side we reduced our total consumption by 13.4% from 4143 to 3589 units.  This was achieved by switching to energy saving light bulbs, the use of energy saving mains connectors for computer and AV equipment, the replacement of two household appliances with more energy efficient versions and the use of a ‘smart meter' energy saving monitor. Some of these changes are ‘in year' and should produce further falls in consumption next year.

The total reduction in use of grid electricity was from 4143 to 917 kWh or a 78% reduction.  If you include the fact that our electricity supplier is Good Energy who supply 100% of their customers' electricity from renewable sources then it's a 100% reduction.  Using Energy Savings Trust figure of  0.568kg CO2 per kWh, the displaced grid electricity gives a CO2 saving of 1518kg for the year.  I realise this isn't an immediate gain when you include the carbon payback time of 4-5 years in the UK for the energy used to manufacture the solar PV panels.  But when you consider that the manufacturer (Sharp in this case) guarantees the output to 80% of the original at 25 years and some of the first PV panels fitted in Japan 40 years ago (also Sharp) are still functioning, then the overall carbon life-cycle is massively in favour of solar PV electricity."

Julian Orton for the Good Energy Shop team

Review of the Chimney Balloon

By Barney Rhys Jones, Good Energy Managing Director

I was keen to try the Chimney Balloon because I have 2 open fireplaces - one in the main bedroom and one in the sitting room downstairs. They share a chimney.

Aside from the cold draft descending into the bedroom, when I lit a fire downstairs, smoke came out of both fireplaces, making the whole house smoky. Before my wife would let me light another fire I needed to block the bedroom fireplace to prevent the cold downdraft and smoke coming out with it! The chimney balloon seemed like the answer - and I would be able to take it down in summer when the extra ventilation from the chimney is quite welcome.

  

The balloon is excellent.  It was easy to fit, and saved me 2 - 3 hrs of DIY time up in my bedroom chimney with a drill and plywood.  I just part inflated it, put it up the chimney and then topped it up to make a tight seal. It was easy to inflate by mouth, although I did have to position myself at an interesting angle for the topping up part!  It would work equally well with a footpump.  My bedroom is now 2 - 3 degrees warmer during the night, and the chimney now draws beautifully so the smoke problem is sorted too and the sitting room is really cosy. 

  

So, in summary - I love it.  Quick and easy to fit, my heating costs will undoubtedly be lower, and I can now enjoy a cosy open fire in my sitting room without smoking the whole house out.    All in all - top marks!

Buy a chimney balloon here, starting at only £19.99