This past weekend we readied for winter. We’ve gotten away with it for some time, but the forecast this week is clear that the frost is coming and the ramifications of it not far behind. The sails came down, the flowers were either cut back and stored (hoping this works this time, and we don’t lost the entire lot of them) or thrown out, the toys tided under tarps, the table treated and covered and the lawn mowed for the final time this year.
We’re battening down the hatches.
Predictions are it’s going to be a hard winter this year, and we’re readying for it inside and out.
Why inside, you may ask (or you may not, perhaps you’re either not that bothered or genuinely not inquisitive on this point)? They say a hard winter is coming and if it’s any indications of the past few years – people getting stuck in their cars on the motorways, people having to sleep overnight in the office, power cuts – then it’s best to be ready.
There’s also something else to the heart of this.
Let me start off by saying that I like my job and I am genuinely lucky to have it. I know this, Alastair knows it as well. We are employed and in this current climate that in itself is a boon. We are both happy with where we work and we work hard, but no matter how good the work you do is or how well the company treats you, in this day and age it’s just impossible to keep up with inflation. When you have to fill up the car and it costs £100 or when a grocery run for the basics is going to hit the £50 mark, it’s going to be belt-tightening time.
Recently the energy companies have reported record profits. From making £15 profit per customer to £125 per customer, they are sitting pretty. Beyond pretty, they are now sitting in the lap of a beauty parade. You might at this point (again, curiosity depending) be wondering if they’ve passed this on to their customers.
Have they hell.
Our energy bill has now gone up 30%. That’s 30, 3-0. All of our bills have gone up apart from water (which they have a strange way of calculating here and, let’s be honest, England’s not short of water), but the energy bill rise has shocked us. Alastair took the baton and tried to battle it down with the company and got nowhere, so we’re sat facing waves rising costs, with the lighting and heating bill being not so much a wave as a tsunami.
And it’s really pissed me off.
Who the hell do these people think they are, to sit in their glass offices and enjoy the view of the little people they’ve perched their desks on? This is a time of shocking economic downturn, and they drape their arms protectively over their fat piles of cash. That they have to make a profit is understood, that’s the nature of capitalism. I get capitalism and I get that frankly it makes the world turn round. This, however, is a joke.
People all over Britain – all over the Western world, actually – are cutting back. Money is tight and the job market even tighter. There are people going hungry tonight, people in 2 ups/2 downs, kids who tie their ties to go to school, people who you may sit next to on the train or walk past in the village. People will now be making a choice – electricity or food. Heating or dinner.
That shouldn’t have to be a choice.
And the energy companies have the power to at least not be part of that equation.
So this year we’re fighting back. The energies can charge us a 30% hike…but they won’t be getting it. We’re switching off.
The thermostat has been turned so far down that it will come on only in terms of potential pipe freeze. We don’t even have a tumble dryer so that wouldn’t be used. All light are to go off apart from one light in the room that you are in, and this one is hard in a house full of lighting nuts. The only exception to the lighting rule is the twins – they have two small (energy efficient) nightlights in their room, and they will have holiday decorations up and about because this energy fight is their parents’ doing, not theirs.
Yes, we should be doing this anyway. We should stop squandering electricity because we are saddling future generations with a shocking lack of natural resources. It’s the right thing to do from an environmental point of view.
But I will be brutally honest and say that although we try to be as environmentally friendly as possible, my motivation is to hit the wallets of the utilities companies. If we all agree to bundle on more sweaters and slippers and socks, if we all turn off all lights bar one in the room you’re in, if we agree to hang up our laundry to dry instead of throwing it in a tumble dryer, maybe we’ll get somewhere. If we all turn it down and switch it off, they’ll have to take notice.
This is our Winter of Discontent*.
And it feels really, really good.
Who’s in?
-S.
* Well, it fits really, doesn’t it?
Where we come from, the energy company (there was only one, government run – and corrupt) and they were putting up the energy costs 45% a year for three years in a row (they’ve just had their second hike). Now sure, it was in a subtropical climate, but the big difference there is that the houses are not insulated, so while it may only get down to 3-4 degrees on the coldest nights in winter – your house is likely to only be a couple of degrees higher inside. When the temps go down outside, they go down inside too (cue the kids getting sick all the time). Since there is no piped gas, people rely on oil, canister gas or electrical heaters. There was no such thing as a radiator. As a result, we became pretty adept at tightening our belts as far as electricity goes – and all the things you mention above (lighting in the room you’re in etc) are already well practiced in our household. So now, I’m just grateful for a well insulated house, that retains it’s heat really well. Our heating goes on for an hour in the morning, and for two hours at night and the added sunshine (we’re lucky in Wiltshire) that streams through my kitchen glass doors (3 of them) really helps to keep the house warm 24/7. When the cold really hits, I’ll fire up the coal fire in the sitting room. You’re so right about the energy companies holding us to ransom though, and I reckon switching off is a good way of hitting back. As long as it doesn’t drive prices even higher as they cling to their bonuses with cold fingered corporate greed.
I have one suggestion: long underwear, preferably heavy duty silk. A most wonderful invention for cool houses.
That’s how we live. My husband is in work but has not been paid in months. Last winter we were in freezing conditions, this winter I honestly don’t know what will happen. Barely hanging on.
Another thing that will help is weatherizing, especially if one has an older house. Caulk and insulation are cost-effective. My heating bill dropped over 30% when I got serious about sealing the house.
My husband and I have been cutting out as much ‘corporate’ interference in our food intake as possible, and have also been discussing other ways to cut back. I can’t affect much change in the UK seeing that I live in North Carolina (and am currently in India) but I will definitely be doing similar things in our home when I return at the end of the month. Someone needs to stand up and speak for the 99% of us!
The costof fuel is crazy – any reductions in oil price just don’t seem to be being passed on. We can’t not drive given where we live so effectively it’s a forced cost increase
We also use oil for our heating and again the prices go up quickly and down slowly – this year we are mostly wearing jumpers, having extra blankets on bed and continuing to use more solid fuel – at least they say if it’s cold you are healthier
I feel the same as you, we have only had the heating on for one hour so far this autumn. We have draft excluders, curtains over the doors, intellipannel switches and switch off all the lights too. We also have thermals that we wear under our PJ’s as it starts to get cold. Blankets are great to snuggle under and the boys love their hot water bottles
I wonder if Germany’s utility costs are on par with yours. I am always shocked at how much we pay for electricity and natural gas. Our electric runs in the neighbourhood of €300 per month and we are as frugal as I know how to be. We don’t have air conditioning, we use energy efficient light bulbs, oue hot water is heated by gas, we turn off lights when we aren’t in the room…it is simply insane. We don’t have a central thermostat but I only run 2 radiators in my house during the winter months (one in the living room and one in the bathroom) and I keep them set low. Our house is probably 60-ish degrees in the winter time but I don’t care. I can not justify spending the extra money on utilities.
Well, should we go back to the fiftees, when only one room in the house was heated at all (stove or fireplace), all doors in the house had always to be closed and all lights off? And you slept under huge continental down quilts with a hot-water bottle in freezing cold bedrooms. No, thanks.
I prefer cancellation of travelling or reducing it to every second year, changing from car riding to scooter, reduction of buying presents and new clothes. Reduction of going to restaurants. Staying at home with lights out in cool rooms causes depression.
In the summer our electricity is high, in the winter the gas is high. I hang out all clothes that can be hung, esp towels and sheets, I love the way they smell, but do have to dry clothes that will wrinkle if not dried. I’ve got a parakeet in my bedroom that I have to keep warm, other than that I’d have it down to 65 all the time. With the hot flashes, I love the winter with all my heart. And I hate the power companies as well, hopefully we can make them take notice!
John can tell whenever I have turned the thermostat up, even a fraction – and promptly turns it back down into the MonkeyBalls zone. And is rabid about lights. We are, slightly foot-draggily in my case, with you. We also have installed an imperial fuckload of solar panels on one of the barns, and are chewing over the possibility of a lot more. John wants a wind turbine – we have enough wind up here, even discounting the sort that spouses (apparently) shouldn’t hear. But they make helluva noise (and the giant ones give me the screaming heebies) so I am vetoing that one.
I’m in. In fact I’ve practiced these methods for a few years now. I’m happy to say our energy costs have dropped this year albeit slightly. I’ll take slightly and challenge the energy companies to do even more.
That plan is all well and good until you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, then kill me! We never worry about heating bills here, it’s all AC bills all the time in Florida.
I’ve already turned the thermostat down. I have taken to barging round the flat switching lights off and haranguing my husband (who laughs at me, because I’ve of course gone and left the bedside light on in the bedroom, damn it to HELL). I am knitting socks and blankets and mittens. I am so ANGRY with the utility companies I can’t speak for fear of rupturing an artery bellowing. If this is capitalism, consumer choice, and competition keeping prices down, then I want nationalisation and I want it NOW.
Don’t forget to turn off the computers! and the power bars they’re plugged into. And unplug the tv, as it’s silently sucking away power while you’re not watching it. Unplug all but the one phone that needs to be plugged into the wall. Unplug the microwave oven. All of our gadgets are costing us a mint.
I am shocked at what you’re paying for electricity, it’s ridiculous.
Outrageous – how are they getting away with that?! Ever since I was in a very inefficient apartment 15 years ago (where my utilities were twice that of everyone else in the complex), I started turning the temperature down in the winter and up in the summer. My husband is of the same mind (because he’s cheap). We have some sort of oversight political action committee that keeps a close eye on the utility companies. But we pay about half as much in utilities as people we know who keep it warm or cold in their houses. I get too cold in air conditioning, and I hate hot air blowing on me, so it all works for me. Also, the weight of blankets on me while I sleep is very pleasant. So I’ll be huddling under a blanket with the one light fixture on in the whole house every evening this winter.
(Side note: In the continued effort not to waste electricity, my husband gets mad at me when I turn on the bathroom lights during daylight hours. He opens the blind in our big picture window over the bathtub to let the light in. I think that, although we’re surrounded by a cemetary, some woods, and a horse pasture, no one who happens by would want to see me walking around naked when I’m walking to or from the shower. So I close the blind and turn on the lights. This is the only time when he’s not worried about people looking in our windows on that side of the house.)
I live in a very warm climate, so I loathe turning on the heat when it’s cold because our homes were built to keep the cool in and so it costs so much to heat our homes. One year I decided that I’d not turn on the heat and everyone could just deal. It got into the 30s outside and our home dropped to 50 degrees. My husband was PISSED. The joke at work was that my kids were going to shank me in my sleep. But it irritates me to no end to give my money to an electric company when we can just wear more clothes.
That one particular night, my 2nd son had a science project sitting on the window sill, mealworms. If the house was 50, the window was 30. I’m telling you… COLD. He awoke and his science project was dead… everything had gone into some sort of hibernation, but he thought they were dead. Imagine my horror when he told me, “If they died, we got a zero, so I just told my teacher that my Mom REFUSED to turn on the heat and they froze to death in our house.” She didn’t give him a zero. She got them warmed up and they came back to life.
I felt kind of humiliated… but not enough to turn on the heat.
One of the best things I have found is an electric under the sheets matters warmer. It comes in all sizes and has two controllers for queen and larger beds. It is wonderful for those of with joint and muscle issues. There is no heat up by the head so you do not get overheated. When we started using them it made a huge difference in our heating bill and in how I felt first thing in the morning.
Of course that should read ” mattress warmer”! It tried to auto correct three times, silly phone.
Don’t know if you have a wood burning fireplace or not but…. I save my junk mail in a bin and burn it in my fireplace during the winter. It heats the holy living wazoo out of my condo. Though I generally use a Duraflame log, which doesn’t throw off much heat at all, the junk mail really does the trick. (As does throwing real wood atop the Duraflame, I suppose.)
Also, sleep with your robe/dressing gown/whatever you throw on in the morning in bed with you so that it has some of your body heat on it when you wake up.
It’s no different over here, and I am definitely in. We are conserving wherever possible.
I generally try to be as energy efficient as possible, both because I’m a tree-hugging (metaphorically, as I do not like touching nature) hippie (but not really, I’m too cynical and don’t like Crocs) and because I have to save money. I don’t do the turning-off-of-the-thermostat, though. Temperature and I do not get along very well. Temperature and my extremities, even worse. I blame the crazy pills (which do some wacky thing to a person that makes it difficult to cool off quickly, thus why I sweat my makeup off most days en route to work) and the fact that my teen years were spent not eating and thus having the body temperature of a cadaver, prompting me to hop around in a sleeping bag a lot (true story).
That said, I applaud you. Have you thought about solar panels? I don’t know how much those run, but you seem the sort of folks who would enjoy installing them in all their solarific shiny glory (I saw one up close once – very, very shiny. I liked it. Also very sharp when broken).
I’m two years ahead of you. We borrowed one of those electricity monitors and found that our background useage (supposedly everything is off) was 600w, three times my mother’s reading. The culprit was the room of IT equipment and gadget boy was sent in to make some changes. As well as turning the tv/amp/this/that/the other off at night it occurred to me that we could kill it for another eight hours while my son was at school. We took £20/month off the electricity bill.
Then we put a 3kw solar array on the roof and watched the meter run backwards.
I’m in…but the super model Mrs. Solomon is out, so…we’re out. : ) I’m as tight as tight wads can be, but the super model Mrs. Solomon likes her comfort. I’m with “Paula / Hamburg” on this one; we’ll cut out other things but not heat. But I commend you and would join your crusade if I was single or callous to my wife’s feelings, but I’m neither.
Electricity in the US (at least in my state) is semi-regulated. They can’t just raise rates to get more money; it has to be gov’t approved. I believe electricity & oil/gas should be regulated. 2 years ago Exxon Mobile made the largest profit of any company in US history while the rest of the country tried to figure out what to cut to afford gas and the rising cost of food. I agree with you, let them make a profit, but gouging during a severe recession for the sake of increased profits is simply abusive.
That’s how revolutions get started.
Not to worry. See http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/18/goldman-execs-stay-fat-and-happy.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_afternoon&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_afternoon&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
for an upbeat story of how the Wall Street Bankers are doiong very wel leven as Goldman Sachs lost money last quarter.
Wonder why we the 99% allow our politca leaders t ocontinue to protect them. In the USA read Republican party and tea baggers.
Significnat downside for people with Reynauld’s disease. Their extremities do not tolerate cold at all. Blood flow shuts off to fingers, toes, ears, etc.
Keep them tootsies and other parts warm.
We’re very very pleased with our double glazing, though boy was it expensive, but we know that at least it is now possible to heat our rattly Victorian house.
I hesitate to stick my toe into this pool, but from what I understand from reading Hannan’s blog at the Telegraph, some of the huge increases you are seeing in energy costs are attributable not to rapacious energy companies abusing their customers but from GB govt policies regarding carbon offsets and emissions. The govt may be pricing you out of your house on this more than the energy companies. I understand that industry is being hit particularly hard on this and there is a significant outflow of jobs as a result.
Anyway, hope you are well, Helen! Been way too long since we’ve been in touch.
It is refreshing in this age when the solution to any problem seems to be a call for the government to do something to see so many people putting the principles of free market capitalism to work. We work at limiting our energy costs all the time. Though we have never, even when I was out of work for two years, gone “all in.” We chip away and try reduce our bill a little at a time with the goal of cutting a little more than the last increase. But it will reach point where the loss of comfort/lifestyle is a higher cost to us than a reduction in the utility bills. Then any further reduction in our expenses will have to come from elsewhere.