A church in Cheltenham is bulk buying energy monitors in a drive to shrink the carbon footprint of its congregation.
Bethesda Methodist Church, which recently received it’s second ‘Eco-Congregation Award’, is buying in the Owl energy monitors for churchgoers, which help reduce electricity consumption by enabling users to see exactly how much they are spending at any given moment.
Owl wireless energy monitors were launched to the UK market in September 2007, and enable users to see their usage through an easy to read portable monitor unit which can be placed anywhere in the home.
Simple and easy to install, by seeing the immediate impact in pence per hour of replacing standard light bulbs with low-energy ones, and switching off unnecessary devices throughout the home, users are motivated to save energy.
The distribution of the energy monitors is part of a wider plan by the church, which has already sold over 1000 low energy lamps, and devised ‘Ten Green Commandments’ which touch on all aspects of church activities as well as individual lifestyles.
The church also plans to generate its own energy by putting an 8.4kW Photovoltaic (PV) installation on the church roof and setting up its own climate offset scheme, using the funds to put up solar water heating on an orphanage for children with AIDS, in South Africa.
“The more you do, the more difficult it gets to decide what else you can do” Mark Boulton, Eco-Coordinator at Bethesda Methodist Church, told Ekklesia.
“All these initiatives are part of a total programme to encourage the congregation to become better stewards of God’s world and we would encourage other church congregations to seriously consider signing up to the National Eco-Congregation programme.”
You can get your own Owl Energy Monitor at the Ethical Superstore by clicking here