WHILE most homes use more power over the festive period with light displays for all the neighbourhood to see, residents in one Winchester Village will be bucking the trend for an evening, and turning the lights off.

Residents in Kings Worthy will be participating in the Big Switch Off between 6 – 7pm on Sunday, November 19, which sees locals signing up to use as little electricity as possible for an hour in a bid to get residents to consider how much power they use on a daily basis.

The Connecting Kings Worthy project has been working to get villagers thinking about how much electricity they use. Over 65% of the electricity on the grid is generated via fossil fuels and in the winter this can be much higher. Residents have been using timers, slow cookers and eco-settings on appliances to reduce the demand on peak electricity from 4-8pm.

The research project is being funded by Ofgem (the energy industry regulator) through the Low Carbon Network Fund and delivered by Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution and delivered locally by Winchester Action on Climate change.

Alison Skillen, Community Coach at WinACC said: "The Big Switch Off is a chance for the whole community to come together to demonstrate our collective power to work together – making Kings Worthy an even stronger and more resilient community."

WinACC works to cut the carbon footprint of Winchester district and run regular meetings throughout the year to get the community engaged in climate change and lowering carbon emissions.