Hub will uncover family’s energy spend

Sep 25 2008 The Journal

ONE of the big challenges facing any household as they attempt to be more efficient when it comes to their energy use is actually knowing how much they are using at any one time.

Most homeowners have no idea about how much they have spent in a particular month or quarter until the bill arrives through the post – or the balance is deducted from their bank account.

As part of the Save It project, we are helping the Rhodes family to gain a unique insight into how much they are spending on their energy.

We have teamed up with innovative company Green Energy Options (GEO) which has designed a series of hi-tech products that aim to make energy use visible.

A team from GEO visited the Rhodes family home in Monkseaton to install one of their energy hub systems which provide a huge amount of information about the energy usage of different appliances, electric circuits and heating in the home.

They became the first members of the public in the country to have the new system – the first models of which have just rolled off the production line.

Over the coming months, the GEO system will provide an incredible wealth of information which will allow the family to attempt to become more efficient in their energy use. We will be monitoring their progress with the help of this information in our regular updates in The Journal.

Simon Anderson, chief executive officer of GEO, said: "GEO has set out to try and make energy fun and understandable – which is no small task!

"We believe that people first have to understand energy and be given meaningful information about their how and where they use it before they can really start to see how they can save money.

"We have therefore set out to present energy information in a simple, fun and engaging way so that anyone from seven to 70 – and beyond – can understand what it is telling them."

GEO systems monitor not only the overall electricity usage in the home, but also what is being spent on lights, the freezer and any other electrical appliance the homeowners may want to check out. The system installed in the Rhodes family home will also have the ability to look at heating and hot water.

"At this stage GEO are conducting extensive reliability trials," said Mr Anderson. "Our products are only available to organisations wanting to conduct significant trials and I am afraid are unlikely to be available to the public before next year."

For more information about the company, visit www.greenenergyoptions.co.uk