WATCHING television in the dark and cooking without the main lights on are the latest ways a Worcester family have tried to save energy and money.

Nicola and Jody Bate, who are taking part in this week’s Switch it Off campaign, spent Sunday evening testing a number of household appliances with a wireless energy monitor.

Mrs Bate said although it was quite hard working out how much energy some items use – because the monitor gives a reading based on it being used for an hour – it was a worthwhile exercise.

“The air conditioning unit uses a lot, and the electric heater uses a lot as well, but we don’t use those very often fortunately,” she said.

“It is things like the kettle and the oven where there is a lot of usage, as well as the washing machine and the dishwasher.

“I’m racking my brains now thinking about how we can start cutting down on the use of those.”

Mrs Bate said one of the first changes the family made was in the kitchen of their home in Albany Terrace, off Upper Tything.

“We have got two types of lighting in the kitchen and the overhead light is a lot more expensive than the under cupboard lighting, so we will probably just use that from now on,” she said.

Mrs Bate, aged 37, said the family have also started watching television in the dark at night and said she could see the benefits of using energy saving lightbulbs having tested one of the monitor.

However, Mrs Bate, who is the mother of Elliott, aged two, and Harrison, aged one, said making savings on appliances like the washing machine is quite hard, especially when reusable nappies need to be cleaned.

“I’m not sure how I can reduce our usage apart from handwashing but I haven’t got time to do that as I work full-time,” she said.

“I could have used the dryer this morning though and I didn’t. I hung the clothes up on the airer instead so I think I’ll be doing that a lot more.”

Mrs Bate also said her electric oven is causing her concern but said switching it to gas would be difficult in both practical and financil terms.

She also said she was interested to see what other items the family can cut down on using, such as the hairdryer, as the week progresses.

“We are taking this experiment very seriously,” she said.

Fact: The average household could save about £200 a year by taking energy efficiency measures – equivalent to a saving of about two tonnes of CO2.