6 December - Watt are you going to do to survive this Winter?
Pages 10 and 11 of the latest Bexley Magazine aim to help residents combat the
cost of living crisis which has befallen us after twelve years of Tory
government, more than two years of poor Covid decisions and 22 years of a tyrannical maniac in the Kremlin.
Bexley’s advice is OK as far as it goes but it doesn’t go very far.
That will be because economy decisions can get difficult.
Wash your clothes at 30°C instead of 40 will certainly save money and generally that
is my chosen temperatures but it doesn’t remove stubborn stains.
Take showers instead of baths although my two inches of bath water probably costs
less. Personal preference obviously.
Turning down the thermostat from 20 to 19 will as claimed cut the heating bill
by 10% but only if the temperature outside is 10°C. Only 5% if it is zero
outside. The subject of energy saving needs to be approached intelligently, some
economies can be false ones.
I turned off the pond waterfall pump in the dark and inadvertently switched on
the filter bilge pump at the same time. I think I have burned it out which will
take a lot of energy saving to compensate. I got rid of my ancient Pioneer
plasma TV which burned through 500 watts but claimed to use only 0·25
watts when on standby; well it was dumb and only had to look out for the infra
red from the remote control in order to start. The consumption was too low to measure on my meter.
The
new TV uses no more than 80 watts while operating but it was several months before I thought to
test its standby consumption. 32 watts! I suppose all those smart facilities
have to be kept ticking over. 32 watts may not sound much but at my peak
rate tariff adds up to nearly £11 a month. It’s a pain to flick the TV on at
the socket every day and I may invest in another remotely controlled socket. My AV
pre-amp only takes a couple of watts in standby and the disc player consumption is too low to measure.
I can put up with that.
The Bexley Magazine article refers to the £40 million
Warmer Homes Scheme and the grants it may be able to provide in some
circumstances, basically if you live in a house with an EPC (Energy Performance
Certificate) rating low enough to make it unsalable and you have no money the
Khan man may give you some of your ULEZ money back.
As the first image above may indicate, I have become something of an obsessive when it
comes to electricity saving. The bills are under £60 a month but it may have
cost me more money overall than it is worth.
However that lovely Hunt fellow is going to push up the price of electricity by
another 50% next Spring so maybe not.
Why are we ruled by people we wouldn’t dream of voting for?