Home Energy Check. Create Survey... Check. Make Results Useful... Err...

I’ve just completed the Energy Saving Trust’s online Home Energy Check and I’m rather underwhelmed.

It claims to create a “personalised report listing all the ways you can reduce your energy consumption. You could save up to £250 a year on your energy bills, as well as around two tonnes of CO2 a year.”

That all sounds quite useful and interesting so I ran through their short questionnaire filling in my details. My personalised report recommends that I fit more loft insulation, and replace my central heating boiler with a more efficient one. If I do that, I’ll save around £86 each year.

Now, I’m sure that I should do both of those things but they aren’t particularly challenging suggestions. Where’s the recommendation that I switch to a green energy supplier? How much would I save if I installed solar water heating? It seems a wasted opportunity to inform me about some of the less common (but surely becoming more mainstream) options.

Similarly, just telling me how much I could save isn’t particularly useful. Given enough investment in solar power and wind turbines, surely I could reduce my energy bill to 0 - but it would cost quite a lot to get there. I’d be more inclined to act upon the survey’s recommendations if the results were presented as “fitting a new boiler would cost £700 and save you £86 a year, paying for itself in 9 years”. Although writing this blog entry has helped me find out that info, as I’ve just looked it up to make sure my figures are realistic…