A TEAM of energy saving campaigners have pushed Herefordshire into second place in a national race to save the most power.

The h.Energy Hat Throwers representing Herefordshire are taking part in a new national campaign, The Big Energy Race.

The campaign aims to cut money on home energy bills and offers a chance of winning £20,000 towards community energy projects.

By taking action to help people in their communities save energy - such as handing out helpful energy saving information packs - teams gain points.

And so far they are second place in the national leaderboard.

Team member Dave Prescott said he has already saved more than £300 by switching to a different energy supplier.

He said: "The website is really useful, brings together a lot of impartial information into one place and offers a simple way for people to save energy."

Currently the outstanding member of the Herefordshire team is Hereford resident Tricia Griffiths, who has completed all of the energy challenges several weeks ahead of the deadline.

She said: "I've downloaded energy saving hints, record tables, online tools, read through reams of interesting stuff, completed surveys making loads of comments, even tried my hand at blogging.

"It was easy, it just took a little time - so hopefully everybody else will get there too with a little encouragement."

The Here Comes the Sun campaign seeks to put Herefordshire ahead of the rest of the UK for community-owned solar power.

If the team wins the Big Energy Race, the £20,000 grant would help existing projects as well as getting more projects up and running.

Mr Prescott added: "We want at least 100 people in the team. Or 1,000. Why not?

"Lots of people in Herefordshire are already doing a lot of this stuff already, this is a chance to show the rest of the UK what we are capable of."

The Big Energy Race runs until March. Entry is free and further information is available from www.bigenergyrace.org or www.herefordshirenewleaf.org.uk