In the news was Ovo Energy electricity company who had linked to a website with ideas for saving electric and keeping warm. People were HORRIFIED and DISGUSTED! How dare Ovo mock people who were struggling to pay the ever rising fuel bills?
I only heard about this on Radio 4 Today programme and they LOVE a rant about anything and then Elaine on Random Jottings listed the ideas on her blog and had a rant about them too but to me most just seemed like the ideas that have always been around to save electric for people who prefer to spend their money on things more interesting than electric bills. It was just the two last ideas that I thought daft.............
Cuddle your pet - Obviously not if it's a goldfish but I know someone who often sat with a cat on her lap and said it kept her nice and warm
Cuddle your children -won't work with teenagers but cuddle a baby if you have one handy and you soon warm up
Leave your oven door open after cooking. Not if it's at ground level and a child might crawl in - obviously. But I do this with my small oven at eye level as it makes the fan stop running more quickly - saving electric and adding a bit of warmth to my otherwise unheated kitchen.
Wear an extra jumper
- An obvious idea for anyone over 50 but 30 year olds have never lived with price rises like there were in the 70's, so maybe they need telling.
Do star jumps to warm yourself up NOT one of their best ideas if you are my age or have bad knees,hips, etc!
Go to the gym.Well that's more expensive than using electric at home! so a weird idea but when I worked in a library in the 70's there were lots of people who would come in for a few hours for a bit of free warmth and a free read of the paper.
So I'm not horrified or disgusted by this list, which Ovo were forced to delete apparently.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
Large shopping centres/malls are (well, pre covid they were) the place to go when it was hot or cold.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who’d pack up a flask plus a few sandwiches and a book and spend most of her day in one - “free heating or cooling she’d say. I’d be eating and drinking at home and I can do it here comfortably (when they had nice armchairs dotted around about). Saves on toilet paper as well”
Our libraries would also get busier on very hot and cold days
I don't think some of the ideas are terribly helpful but they don't disgust or horrify. What's wrong with trying to be economical, after all?
ReplyDeleteMine are moving more (not necessarily star jumps but movement doesn't have to be high impact), wrapping a fleece or throw around myself and, definitely, adding an extra layer. After all, my most recent projects have both been snuggly cardigans to put on when it's colder.
Using YouTube for exercise classes is a darn sight cheaper than going to the gym and there's loads of ideas for the less fit or more elderly. There's increasing few people who really cannot access YouTube nowadays. Not wanting to is a different matter altogether.
xx
I heartily agree about exercise. There are many over 70's in the HIT and circuit classes that I go to and many that also use the gym. Moving the body regularly can often help to avoid some of the hip and knee problems that flare up in later life. And it doesn't have to be all star jumps and high intensity. Gyms and leisure centres employ staff to ensure the exercise is right for you. And to cap it all many offer very discounted rates to oaps.
DeleteSome people take umbrage for umbrage sake m’thinks Sue, the list may have even been published with good intentions though the sceptic within me always holds a little doubt.
ReplyDeletePersonally I prefer cold to heat (think I may have been an Eskimo in a former life), there is always another layer to put on when the brass monkey is looking for a welder but in t’ heat there are only so many clothes you can shed with decency whilst mowing someone’s lawn. Then again could be my new USP.....t’ scantily clad gardener!
In the early days of our marriage I put up a large sign over the gas fire which said "if you are cold, put on another jumper". It is awful that families are having to choose whether to heat or to eat. All those frugal tips are useful... but mostly applicable to those without small children. And gyms and star jumps definitely out of the question here, although keeping moving is definitely warmer than standing still.
ReplyDeleteMy other half likes to keep the house cool as he doesn't like it too hot so I have learned to wear plenty of layers. I have been known to sit on the sofa cuddling a hot water bottle on particularly chilly evenings, after changing into my PJ'S and fluffy dressing gown.
ReplyDeleteI read of a mother complaining that her son had put a coat on top of his bedding to keep warm at night. So the bedding was inadequate, and she obviously hadn't lived through having ice on the inside of bedroom windows!
ReplyDeleteI have often have a hot water bottle on my back in the cold days. I cannot walk to far some days so it's nice to be warm indoors while I am crocheting. I am also grateful for the cold weather grant that the government give us and that helps keeping the doors closed helps to. There is lots of little things to help. Well it's a cold frosting morning but the sky us blue here so we are lucky.
ReplyDeleteHazel 🌈🌈
What a strange thing to get upset about. Prices are going crazy and Ovo can't help that wholesale prices have gone silly. I think it's really helpful to link to that. (sitting here in two jumpers and considering a blanket on my lap before putting the fire on)
ReplyDeleteGrowing up when we did was good for us, everything was tight, no heating upstairs, open fires down, we learnt how to get up washed and dresses quickly with layers on. Less food in the house we learnt how to make meals from what we had, my mum like loads of other mums was a fantastic cook. Youngsters (my own children included) have no concept of how to make do and mend. As as for the late 70's well that was an eye opener for everyone, the mortgage rates were eye watering, and yes we managed as our mum's had shown us.
ReplyDeleteRadio 4 love to stir up shit. Don't listen to it. In the house I wear as many jumpers as keep me warm and it changes according to whether there's a frost no not plus as many socks ditto and always a hat. I have done this for years and years and years. All my life in fact; we were not expected to complain, just get on with it.
ReplyDeleteDo you not have heating then Rachel? My husband is 81 now and not as mobile as he was, so on a frosty day we have the heating on when the temps dip (otherwise it's just an hour in the morning and a couple more again in the evening.) Blankets and hot water bottles also employed.
DeleteI stopped having the heating coming on in the morning because I found it spoiled me for the day in that I couldn't bear it when it went off and the house cooled, so now I get up in the cool and remain the same temperature all day. I am happy in layers and a hat. I light the woodburner at 4pm and sit by the fire in the evening to watch tv and shed my hat. I have an electric blanket on the bed. I have central heating which I use in snow and severe frosts to stop the house from freezing up.
DeleteYou're tougher than me Rachel! We used to light our woodburner first thing and retire to that room when the heating was off in the day. We are SO glad to be living in a house half the size of our last one. At least the new owner has the money to heat it all day long.
DeleteI live in a clay lump house which holds the heat. It is not draughty, which is often a problem in older houses, because the previous owners had it double glazed. It holds the heat overnight.
DeleteI find it amusing that the younger generation are busy telling us that we have ruined the planet with our wasteful ways when we are of the generation that had milk delivered in glass bottles ... which were then returned, read our books from libraries, shopped using our old reusable bags, ate leftovers for future meals, wore jumpers in Winter before turning the fire on and always wore slippers in the house to keep our feet warm.
ReplyDeleteThe people sat around their centrally heated houses with curtains open or flimsy blinds, wearing t-shirts and shorts and padding around with bare feet and then complaining about the price of having a cosy home make me bloody annoyed.
Grumpy from Garstang xx
Small children in the '40s and '50s were not exempt Angela, there was no choice.
ReplyDeleteAgree with everything Grumpy from Garstang says!! Sue has it spot on. Although I do think the star jump idea was silly - if I tried a star jump I'd be in A & E inside of the hour!! :-) Fiona x
ReplyDeleteWell at least it'd be warm in A & E Fiona!
DeleteGet some of those lined walking trousers. Wear a hat and scarf. If all else fails, go to bed and pile up the coats on top.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have anything to add to your post until I read Sue's (A Smaller Life) comment which made me think of the past. Then clothing was made of suitable materials for the seasons ie woollen or thicker material for the cold months and lighter cotton fabric for the warmer months. Now there isn't any difference and most of the material is lightweight. My husband and I are in disagreement over the choices we have on many things as he says the manufacturers only make what people want, but I say we can only buy what's available, so perhaps it is up to the manufacturers to give us a choice again.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in my early twenties I shared a house with a girl. The bills were shared between us. I would come home and find her sitting on the sofa in front of the gas fire which was turned up high, wearing very flimsy clothes, and the windows open because she said she was hot. When I was alone in the house I wrapped up warm, windows closed, and no gas fire on, trying to keep the gas bill low.
ReplyDeleteRemembering how cold the house was when I was growing up (damp too), I have no great wish to return to that. Hot drinks, blankets and hotty botties again this winter I reckon.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny the reaction to those suggestions. While not the best ones I have ever heard but I would not take it as being a bad thing. I do think the library is a better idea for warmth.
ReplyDeleteCathy
I am still using air conditioner…Florida is hot even in January…noticed food prices up because of snowbirds maybe…love love your blog…what are you reading?..
ReplyDeleteDressing in layers is essential during the Winter. Hot homemade soup and stew as well as coffee and tea are always on hand at my home. I have been known to offer friends a bowl of soup or an extra fleece while visiting my home. Heating oil is definitely on the rise. Yesterday, I topped up my oil tanks and spent $854. This oil delivery should take me well into Spring.
ReplyDeleteMy Nan and Grandad used to live in a small Midlands town back in the 70's
ReplyDeleteHis way of staying warm and not running the heating all day, was to sit at the back of a Midland Red bus from where they lived to Birmingham Airport (they were pensioners so used their free bus pass) the bus engine was at the back of the bus so it was the warmest place to sit, away from the draught of the bus doors.
Two hours to get to the airport, they used to get off have a quick loo break, then get back on the same bus, grab the same, probably still warm seats and enjoy the ride back.
Back in the 30's he used to dive in the canal to retrieve any coal that had dropped off the barges and use it to keep the family warm so a bus ride to keep warm was a doddle lol xx
The house I lived in for the first six years of my life had no heating other than a fire in the 'front room'. No hot water or bathroom, just a cold tap in the kitchen. Amazingly we survived, were fed, kept clean and did not catch pneumonia. I wouldn't wish to go back to that but I think many people need to take some lessons from our and our parents' generation. I am in my 50s so my childhood was the late 60s, 70s and early 80s. I do think people have become far too mollycoddled and many lack the resilience to cope with tough times. Of course some of the suggestions made by OVO were insensitive and some downright silly but people have become accustomed to living in houses heated to tropical temperatures and as Sue says dressing in shorts, t shirts and flip flops and complaining about the cold.
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ReplyDeleteSorry my comment appeared twice for some reason!
DeleteGrowing up in post war days, we were used to waking up to find 'Jack Frost' patterns on the windows. Heating was a big log fire and a coal boiler in the living room/kitchen. We wore lots of clothing to walk to school (yes, walk) and just got on with Winter.
ReplyDeleteReally, I see nothing at all wrong with their list depending on your circumstances (like you mentioned).
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I remember cold mornings at school in NZ when the teacher would have us rub our hands together to get them warmed up before we started writing. A lot of children had chilblains on their hands. People in the USA, where central heating is expected, have no idea what chilblains are if I talk about them.
ReplyDeleteThat list seems reasonable to me .. well .. maybe not the gym. Doing star jumps is not a possibility for me but getting active in other ways is. For many years, the farm I grew up on had the kitchen woodstove for heat .. no electricity .. no indoor plumbing. We learned that sweaters were very useful in the Northern Alberta winter. Now in retirement .. we are working to lower all energy costs and warm clothing makes it possible.
ReplyDeleteIt is an offensive list. Everyone knows the rules of saving electricity--don't use it.
ReplyDeleteI think some of them were a little common sense like but not really offended by them. My favourite way of conserving heat is having a nice thick blanket to wrap up in when it's cold. It gets really cold here in Michigan and it's a matter of being comfortable or not. I actually miss my blanket in the summer lol
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