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.


