How going green at home could cut your heating bill

A mini power station in the kitchen, rooftop windfarms, and central heating power sucked out of the soil are about to become essential household utensils.

Environmentally friendly power generated within the home is the focus of a government drive to encourage clean living. Solar electricity and heating are also being promoted as part of a campaign to replace power stations with home-generated power.

The promotion of green technology will be launched this autumn by the Energy Saving Trust, a government-funded body set up to promote energy efficiency.

They hope that technology such as replacing a conventional boiler with a device that generates electricity as well as heating water will cut fuel bills and slash emissions of greenhouse gases.

Green energy pioneers believe houses will increasingly generate their own heat and electricity through solar power and wind and ground energy, and even sell surplus power back to the National Grid.

Eddie Hyams, the chairman of the Energy Saving Trust, said: "It's important that the message to all of us is that we can do something about climate change."

Powergen, the electricity generation company, is already offering combined heat and power boilers, while British Gas hopes to have a similar product on the market in 2007.

Energy firms believe that some 200,000 generators could be installed in the next five years, and could make up nearly 10 per cent of boilers installed by 2010.

Domestic wind generators are also available, while a pioneering south London housing development heated by pumps drawing latent heat from the ground won an award from the Federation of Master Builders.