Award for energy device inventor

Tanya Ewing has spent almost two years working on her product

A Perth mother has become an "Inventor of the Year" for developing a device that monitors energy use.

Tanya Ewing has spent almost two years working on her product, which can gauge how much gas, electricity or water a building is going through.

It uses a traffic light system - green for low energy usage, then amber and red when consumption is high.

Ms Ewing is about to send the first devices to businesses and social housing groups.

Her product is called Ewgeco, which stands for electricity, water, gas and then ecological.

She believes it will encourage people to use less energy, reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 20%.

Ms Ewing told BBC Scotland that she first came up with the idea when she got a large gas bill that she found hard to understand.

She said: "I went outside to look at my meter, straight away I though 'Why is it outside?' You can't gauge with something that's outside.

"I remember I was in my pyjamas, it was freezing cold and it was in February and I was determined, I'm going to find out how much it does cost me for my heating to run every hour if the radiators were three, or the radiators where two-and-a-half.

I'm just a woman who's good at multi-tasking Tanya Ewing

"I just found it was impossible."

Ms Ewing then asked more than 1,000 people about the size, shape and feel they would like her product to be and where they would put it.

Her hard work was rewarded when she won the title of 'Inventor of the Year' at the British Female Inventor and Innovator of the Year Awards.

While Ms Ewing has been developing her product she has also moved house and had a baby but she rejects the "superwoman" label.

"Some people call me that," she said.

"But I'm just a woman who's good at multi-tasking."