Energy journeys

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell love to travel but insist on keeping their carbon footprint down. Here's how (this post from Nicola)

Just been infuriated by feedback from some riding teaching I did back in July in which a dodgy old Yorkshire lady sounded off about my apparent lack of energy around eight-year-olds and four legged ponies. Funny how much I mind (never mind it not being true!) considering that the rest of my life is spent trying to be far more energy efficient.

And how well we feel we are doing - not just the travelling without planes or living without a car - but the way our end of terrace has been turned into a renewable power house. Since the solar PV was installed in summer 2008, we've generated 1,246kWh of electricity. Given our current summer usage, this is the equivalent of the sun gifting us 311 free leccy days. Nice eh?

It's not a simple calculation of course, as we're not off grid, but I am hoping to get a cheque for a decent amount from Good Energy (like the other 1,000+ renewable energy suppliers spread around the UK) before the end of this month.

At the moment I'm paying around 12p/kWh for using electricity, but expect to get 15p back for every sun-generated unit our panels clocked up. And next year this looks set to soar to 35p. Clearly being a low energy pioneer has a good cash side. Even if it marks you out for pony club disgrace.

Useful contacts for energy savers - to buy an energy metre, http://www.goodenergyshop.co.uk/, or to join the zillions of families trying to slash their energy use by 10 per cent each year see http://www.1010uk.org/.

Our power station

Pete, Nicola, Lola, 10, and Nell, 7, like travelling around Britain on public transport (don’t laugh). We spent three happy months exploring during summer of 2007 but now we’re home, you can still join us for the occasional sightseeing - plus tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint. This post is from Nicola

Today - 19 August - is an historic day for our family: we've turned our home into a power station.

Thanks to a grant (not yet collected) we've just installed solar PV panels generating electricity whenever there's light. That means even a teeny weeny bit is generated when there's bright moonlight. Because we are not off grid we can't see the meter going backwards. But we can watch as the sun generates electricity for us and clocks up the kilo watt (kWh) hours.

Last year we looked at all sorts of power sources including hydro and wind turbines. Interesting as these trips were the sun is the no brainer when it comes to turning your home into a power station. Even in our dodgy British summers - and the effects of climate change - there's enough light to make these solar electric panels charge up theoretically slashing #350 from our bill each year.

Five days later: we've used 14kWh of electricity - and generated (despite overcastness and rain) 13kWh of our own electricity. This may not pay off our investment (ie, we won't make a mint - hence the photo), but it's certainly going to bring daily running costs down. Having sun power is a fantastic feeling.