Selfsufficientish.com

Got sent this fromthe telegraph.

A study of electricity consumption by Dr Elizabeth Garnsey at Cambridge University found that it would save half a million tonnes of carbon emissions in the winter alone.

I think it is left field ideas like these that are going to help in the long run!

It's a great idea! Would buy us a little bit more time with our lovely oil anyway...

It's an absolute no-brainer as far as I'm concerned - should have been done years ago.

But wait for the anti-Europe lobby's reaction. Who wants to bet that it'll be only about a week before we hear the "Why should good old England fall in line with bloody Europe" screams? The government will be accused of trying to sneak in the Euro, even though they're absolutely anti-Euro. The straight banana phenomenon will be re-invented. France will be accused of trying to do what Napoleon couldn't.

Oh, I can't wait

Mike

Would it ????

I am probably the annomally of the set up but I've just done a quick calc on my electric figures.
Taking into account only the time of using an electric hob/oven (as opposed to using a gas cooking system) the average is 271.19 Kwh per month. Over the Oct-March period is 280.52 KWh and the average of my useage over the april to september months is 255.83 Kwh so if the winter months were as light as the summer months then I would save less than 25Kwh per month. I don't think changing the clocks to continental time would not make much difference to my budget.


BA

P.S. Why should good old England fall in line with bloody Europe ??

Big Al why would your use of the oven change according to it getting light/dark an hour earlier/later?

I think it's a load of old cobblers anyway as you either switch the lights on in the morning, or in the evening, just at a different time - but there will always still be the SAME amount of daylight and night. How that can save anything I do not know.

And anyway, we Europeans don't want you lot copying us.

Exactly MMM - I also struggle to get my head around that one. The only thing I can think of is that we may use fewer lights in the morning if people have a long lie! Also kids going to school in the pitch black is a major downside.

In the past campaigners in Scotland have voiced fears shifting an hour of daylight to the evenings would make it dangerous for children to walk to school in the winter.

I think this is what would stymie any such proposals, even if they trialled it they'd scrap it the first child that got killed - even though I'm sure that happens already. The stupid thing is that in very rural areas there's a school bus (or they live close enough to walk safely with supervision) and in larger conurbations they don't seem to walk anyway, if the horrendous traffic at "school run" time is anything to go by.

It would be quite interesting to see how it would work up here - in winter it doesn't get light til after nine and is dark again by four, so if this were to happen it'd still be dark by five and we'd be in darkness until after ten! Mmmm, not sure how that would save anything and as you can read without artificial lighting all night at the moment it wouldn't make any difference in the summer

Yes, but that's a good argument for Scotland to have a different system. Let's face it, they'd probably insist on one .

Big Al, if you're saving 25 kWh per month, then multiply that by the number of households in the UK. Suddenly, it's worth doing. Besides which, you have to take into account the non-ish population we have. The evening peak is appreciably larger than the morning peak - attack the bigger targets first.

Then, of course, legislation to force people to stay in bed later would have to be brought in. I know - I know - we'd all fight against that.

But really, all that's happening is maximisation of daylight usage, which is how the world used to run before on-tap power was developed.

Mike

Surely what we need to change is not our clocks but our lifestyles? The problem is that there is less daylight. It would be far better if everyone worked close enough to home that they didn't waste precious natural light in travelling time. Or, an easy change, if more people got into habits like not leaving unnecessary lights on or boiling a full kettle when they only want one cup full.

Wulf

a combination of changing the clocks, adjusting our lifestyles to suit nature ( not the other way round) and everyone getting into more eco-friendly efficient habits would be almost perfect!

finally my neighbours have seen sense and are installing a water meter and already they are using washing up water to water the plants instead of letting it disappear down the drain :-) adjusting water usage too will ultimately cut down our use of oil.

suits me just fine - the older I get the worse it is for me to get used to the change to/from summer time

If it helps saving energy, all the better!

Millymollymandy wrote:Big Al why would your use of the oven change according to it getting light/dark an hour earlier/later?

I think it's a load of old cobblers anyway as you either switch the lights on in the morning, or in the evening, just at a different time - but there will always still be the SAME amount of daylight and night. How that can save anything I do not know.

And anyway, we Europeans don't want you lot copying us.

I was thinking of the use of electric overall hence the reduction of carbon in the bigger picture.... well at least it made sense to me... I think

MKG wrote:Yes, but that's a good argument for Scotland to have a different system. Let's face it, they'd probably insist on one .

Big Al, if you're saving 25 kWh per month, then multiply that by the number of households in the UK. Suddenly, it's worth doing. Besides which, you have to take into account the non-ish population we have. The evening peak is appreciably larger than the morning peak - attack the bigger targets first.

Then, of course, legislation to force people to stay in bed later would have to be brought in. I know - I know - we'd all fight against that.

But really, all that's happening is maximisation of daylight usage, which is how the world used to run before on-tap power was developed.

Mike

By all means bring it in, I just don't think it will make much difference to me financially but then the bigger picture of non ishers hits home. When I was on Eon I called on a posh estate and one woman virtually dragged me into the house to swap her over. She said my electric has just gone up to £450 so if you can beat that I'm yours.....

I worked out her quote from her bills etc and thought my computer terminal was "terminal as my quote was £243 which was not heard of for a years supply until she told me the £450 was for a MONTHLY DIRECT DEBIT !!!!!!

She was quite offended when I told her to reduce her consumption and switch all the lights off that were not being used.... 8 bed, 5 onsuite, 4recp swiming pool 4 car house .......

and I'm querying less than £200 a month ,LOL.

£450 a month!! thats about a years usage here!!

ive often wondered how people can spend that much on electric! ive know people who spend £40 + a week on key metres, even taking in to account approx 25% extra on top its still more than me.

maybe im just tight when it come to electric

crowsashes wrote:£450 a month!! thats about a years usage here!!

ive often wondered how people can spend that much on electric! ive know people who spend £40 + a week on key metres, even taking in to account approx 25% extra on top its still more than me.

maybe im just tight when it come to electric

The "cheap" houses on this estate are about £1.65 million so if they could afford the house they can afford the electric ......

It's breaking my heart to use more than 3000Kwh a year but to reduce my consumption below that would mean buying a new fridge freezer which is out of my reach just now. Other than that it would entale hardship in that I'd need to cook on an open fire in the garden...... anyone for a barbie every day ??

Having said that I've just found this link http://www.thenews.coop/news/Credit%20unions/1804