How are you? I can't decide if I'm being naive in how I'm reacting to everything that is going on the in the news, or maintaining a sensible attitude. My house isn't full of toilet rolls, dried pasta or tinned tomatoes. Our freezer is comfortably full without being overfilled. I went out to dinner last night with three friends and we did hug each other goodbye. Acting normally or being reckless?
I did wash my hands after returning home from the supermarket, but I would have done that anyway. And I am trying to remember not to touch my face - remember the rhyme 'elbows into your waist and you cannot touch your face'.
One way in which we are being 'smart' is that we have had a Smart meter fitted which shows us how much gas and electricity we are using and as it automatically uploads to our energy supplier, we will no longer have to do meter readings. I said specifically that I did not want it to be positioned in the kitchen where I would regularly see it, I didn't want it to affect the way we live our life. We aren't wasteful in our energy use, and are mindful of not leaving lights on etc. The guy who fitted it told us that the most common over users of electricity are people who use an immersion heater for hot water and forget to turn it off, and underfloor heating in conservatories.
So this is a photo of it earlier this morning, stationed in the study
Showing that at that moment we were using 3p worth of electricity per hour. But I have gone from a person not wanting to look at how the usage changes, to one who is wondering 'How much will it go up when I switch on the washing machine/dishwasher/tumble drier/phone charger ....' (It went up to 39p when I put the washing machine on for a hot wash in case you were wondering!). Will it affect my day to day routines? Probably not much. Will it make me more aware of what are the energy guzzlers in our home? Yes!
Do you have a Smart meter? Have you noticed a difference in how you use energy in your home?
5 comments:
I am also fighting some low level anxiety about COVID-19. Our Prime Minister is in self isolation after his wife, Sophie, tested positive for the virus yesterday. There's many of us that say we won't notice him present or not, he's that ineffective ... I'll say no more.
We have had electricity smart meters for many years & there's a chart to show us peak time (costs more) to off peak (cost less) so that's why we are a nation that does laundry after 7pm or on the weekends - it's the cheapest time to use electricity. We got the water smart meter about 2 years ago (no choice) there's no off time - it's expensive ALL the time, so we may sure in the summer months we use water wisely; water from the dehumidifier waters the pots.
We've got a Smart meter - I've unplugged the reader because I found I spent too much time looking at it and chuckling that in order to see how much power we were using, I needed to plug it in.
But seriously, I am considering donating/getting rid of my tumble dryer in an effort to be more energy conscious and 'green'.
We are, at present, carrying on relatively normally. Seeing friends for lunch and thinking about a cinema trip with The Boy Child. He'll be the infection vector in our house, so I have my fingers crossed that school stays open until early April, as planned, and he remains symptom free.
I'm not sure smart meters are even available here. We do our best to be energy conscious - I do have a nest thermostat (which I kind of hate because you can't preset it to be a specific temperature at a specific time - it "learns" based on you bumping the temp up or down.)
Coronavirus is affecting our area significantly now. All the colleges have gone to online classes for the remainder of the semester (2 months) and Montgomery County (next county over where I used to work and where my husband currently works) is on lock-down for all schools, gyms, theaters, places of entertainment, etc. for two weeks starting today. I won't be surprised if our county is next.
Well, that's a very laid back photo of you :). Made me smile ... and goodness knows, we need that these days! We don't have smart meter but are about to change energy suppliers and may well be given one (which we don't actually want). I suspect I'd be checking it all the time - which might be a good thing! We have done no huge shopping; just going out once a week to get what we need.
I love that little rhyme. I hadn't heard that before, but I'm going to adopt it. You might see it on my blog too! Thanks for sharing. Our city is on lockdown---only go out if you absolutely have two---and practice social distancing. It's going to be a couple weeks---at least before we know if it's working for us. We'll see! Glad you are safe and healthy!
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