Families in Leicestershire and Rutland have gone head to head in a bid to slash their energy bills.
As a warm-up to a year-long challenge to cut energy consumption, households in the area signed up to a one-week scheme - and significant savings were made, reported the Loughborough News.
The competition was won by the Villarico family from Measham who managed to cut their bill by 23 per cent over the seven days in question.
Indeed, the Big Switch Off week managed to save a total of £50,000 worth of energy in the counties - which would equate to £2.6 million if carried out for a whole year, the newspaper stated.
Now the 16 families which have signed up to year-long event may wish to follow some of the methods employed by the Villaricos as they battle to see who can get
the cheapest energy bills.
Some of the simple tactics used by the winning family included unplugging mobile phone chargers when they were not being used and switching electrical appliances off rather than leaving them on standby.
"We can all do this every day to make a real difference both environmentally and financially", Professor Mike Preston, chairman of Environmental Action for a Better Leicestershire, told the publication.
Anybody in Leicestershire or Rutland who wishes to monitor their energy use can borrow a power reading machine from a library free of charge.
By keeping a regular and detailed check on consumption, it could be easier to drive down the amount of power a home uses - in the process
reducing energy bills.
Professor Preston added: "All the families who have agreed to take part in the year-long challenge have made an admirable commitment and, hopefully, they will notice a real difference in their energy use – and their bills – as the challenge goes on."
Comparison site Which? last week noted that people who do nothing to improve their energy efficiency will end up paying out more than £4,000 in energy bills by 2020.
The only way to pay less is to use less, the website stated.
