If we are to change the amount of energy we consume it is important to understand our current consumption. In that spirit members of BUST and visitors to this website can use http://readyourmeter.org/ to monitor the energy use of their houses and flats. The website accepts electricity and gas meter readings and provides a chart of usage over time. Over weeks and months of regular meter readings a picture of the energy use of a building is created.

There is an account set up in BUST's name on the website, which BUST members are welcome to use. It will be useful to have the energy use data stored under one account name so that future members of BUST will be able to access it. This will allow BUST to make accurate claims about the energy use of students/young people in Bristol and hopefully make us more conscious of how we use energy.

The login name is BUST's email address: bust@bristolhub.org.

The password will be available at BUST meetings.

Once logged in click 'Browse' from centre-top then 'add house' from top-right. Use the first line of the address to say the academic year, number of people in the house, and the number of BUST members in the house. The latter piece of information is to see whether there is a correlation between BUST members and lower energy use! On the next screen select the number and type of meters you need for your house.

Once your house has appeared, click 'show meters' on the right to bring up the meters and input your readings. The website will assume you've taken the readings at the time they're inputed, but you can change this if you take a reading but forget to input it. Feel free to browse the meters of other houses. If BUST members read thier meters every Monday when they get home from the meeting the data would quickly get interesting!

Taking correct meter readings can be quite confusing. Ignore digits after a decimal point or displayed in a different colour when you take your readings. Be aware of the units the meter displays. For gas this is either cubic feet or cubic metres. Look for an 'f' or an 'm' on your meter. Electricity is measured in kilowatt-hours. If you are on the economy 7 tariff your meter will display three values: day usage, night usage and total usage. Use the total usage for the reading.