UK NEWS
TURN OUT THE LIGHTS - WE'RE BECOMING A NATION OF SCROOGES
People are hell-bent on keeping fuel bills down
By Sarah O'Grady, Social Affairs Correspondent
BRITAIN is turning into a nation of misers – hell-bent on keeping fuel bills down.
Children are being forbidden to switch more than one television on. Baths have been sacrificed in favour of short showers.
And mum has resorted to doing her smalls in the basin to save on washing machine costs.
The new Scrooges are not necessarily poor to begin with, but are often canny middle-class households angry at the constant increases in gas and electricity prices.
According to a survey by the Electrical Contractors’ Association, a growing number have become “Watt Watchers”.
One in six people keep the lights off for longer than in less energy-conscious days and one in eight use appliances less frequently.
Around one in 12 now handwash their smalls and other clothes and one in six order the children to only have one television turned on at any one time.
Tellingly, a tenth of households now have an electricity monitor – a handheld gadget which shows how much energy is being used at any one time, how much it costs, and the resultant carbon emissions.
Three per cent have even fitted a timer to their shower so that no one spends too long in it.
ECA director David Pollock said the measures were becoming more and more drastic with every new announcement of a gas or electricity price rise, plus other increases in the cost of living.
He said: “It’s no surprise that people are being more thoughtful about what they can do to save money, although some of the measures revealed in our study do seem a little extreme.”
Watt Watchers are easy to spot when not in their own environment because they are likely to turn lights off when
they leave a room even when it’s not their house, said the ECA.
Four in 10 will not hesitate to scold a friend or a workmate for wasting energy.
Mr Pollock added: “As an organisation we strongly advocate energy efficiency.
“It’s certainly an area we encourage our members to be aware of and advise on when working with consumers.
“But home owners shouldn’t panic that they need to go to the same lengths as these super-savers to feel the benefit.”
Instead, he said, it was much easier to introduce small and simple measures such as energy-saving light bulbs and turning appliances off so they do not remain on standby. Householders have paid an extra £1.7billion in heating bills to fund the Government’s green renewables policies, it was claimed in a report published this week.
It reveals how climate change policies add substantially to the average domestic electricity bill for house holders – a figure which is also set to rise sharply. The findings claim that climate change policies make up around 14 per cent of the average domestic electricity bill and three per cent of the average domestic gas bill.
The same policies also make up 21 per cent of the average business electricity bill. The claims, by the Government’s Business and Enterprise Committee, prompted an angry response from taxpayers’ groups and green organisations alike.
Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The climate change measures are making life even more difficult. Not only are they a costly extra burden on household bills but they are an expensive way of pursuing the Government’s emissions targets.”
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ECONOMISE!
30.07.08, 5:41pm
Well then... let's start with economising on immigrants and send them back to their countries of origin as quickly as we can.
After that, economise on the lawyers who leech all our taxpayers money by defending them to the 'Nth' degree.
But before all that, the main economies can be made by kicking out this useless, terrible Labour Government who do absolutely nothing foir the UK, and especially nothing for England, as the main muppets in the Government are Scottish!!!
• Posted by: nigeria1 • Report Comment
ECONOMISING.
30.07.08, 2:49pm
We are having to economise and it is only going to get worse when winter is here. Asylum seekers on the other hand won't have to as all their bills are paid for. The government rules take into account what is paid to permanent residents then give the difference in cash to asylum applicants. So with the cost of everything going sky high , pensioners and the unemployed still have these bills to pay , unlike
asylum seekers therefore they end up with a better deal than if you have worked all your life and unfortuanately survived to be a pensioner.
• Posted by: owldshep • Report Comment
JONO
30.07.08, 2:19pm
Believe me, I am a great evangelist in energy saving bulbs. Now they are dirt cheap and some councils are even giving them away. Unlike when they first came out they were expensive and you had to await the "flicker" and after that, they would not become fully bright until after one minute. Now. the light is instant.
Also, you can have them in any colour temperature that you need from warm white, white to daylight. You can even buy them in UV black-lite if you want to amuse (or scare) the kids.
As for disposal, they last many, many times longer than incandescent bulbs and the mercury content is a fraction of the earlier ones. I am awaiting the emergence of LED lighting for homes. I already have a Maglight of which, I replaced the bulb with a three watt LED and the light is terrific. It is too bright to point it at your eye and it continues to light far longer on the same batteries.
• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment
BUT IF WE START SAVING POWER AND WATER...
30.07.08, 2:06pm
how will the government get its money? It will have to raise taxes, of course. It will have to persecute the poor motorists and us normal people who own houses and wish to live in some form of comfort.
Get energy saving bulbs; you can leave them on longer and have a clear conscience. Yes, I agree with showers; who wants to soak in their own dirty water? Don't wellie your car; you will still get there in time if you leave early enough. An experiment was conducted many years ago where two cars drove from one end of England to the other. One drove like a loony and the other drove like a geriatric. The loony reached his destination only a short time ahead of the granddad but gramps had used considerably less fuel, tyre wear and engine wear. No doubt that if both had been clinically monitored, the stress levels would have been higher with the bloke who thought he was Stirling Moss.
• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment
GOOD REALLY
30.07.08, 2:05pm
I think it is good that people are being aware of how much electricity they are using, and I don't think that references to misers and Scrooge are really helpful.
• Posted by: Peltast • Report Comment
MISER IS THE WRONG WORD
30.07.08, 2:00pm
I'm all for saving energy, in this country we take our water and energy supplies for granted. If something is always available you become complacement about it's use and value. If we become any more heavily populated than we are now, measures to ration power and water may need to be introduced so it's in our interest to preserve these valuable resource despite how cheap or expensive they are at any given time.
One point I would raise, just how big are the advantages of an energy saving light bulb. Is the environmental cost of manufacture and disposal greater than the savings made?
• Posted by: jonocynic9 • Report Comment
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