To think it's about time everyone was more frugal with energy.

[malificent7]

I am very concerned about the effect the energy crisis will have on the poorest and on the most vulnerable. I am hoping that schools and hospitals can stay warm.
However, i think it's good that everyone is turning stuff off and not putting the heating on because it's a bit chilly.

I know this will change if it gets really cold. If we are experiencing global warming we might not need so much heating. Clutching at straws here and trying to stay positive people!

It’s time to look at other ways of saving resources. Grey water should be stored and used to flush toilets, flushing toilets with drinking water is ridiculous.

I've had my air con on since April. All day every day. We have central air in half of the house, and 2 window units in the other half. When I turn it off, the heating will go on for large chunks of the day. DH and baby DS both home most of the day on most days.

As soon as the air con goes off the heating will go on? Is there never a period where the weather is not so warm as to require air con, but not so cold as to require heating?

The people who are proudly proclaiming about not putting heating on as much - do you drive fewer miles as well? Have you cut down on your flights?

or are you just telling us loudly about the bit you can easily control, rather than looking at a holistic picture of your climate impact?

this article from the Guardian earlier this month perfectly sums up this lunacy

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/17/prices-cost-of-living-crisis-unequal-british-society

I believe the current global population is c8 billion. If the population in 1900 was 1.6 billion, then on the basis of that measure alone, we must be using 5 times the resources we were 120 years ago. When we didn’t have cars, aircraft, fridges, air cons etc. I would respectively suggest unless we address the size of the global population, then everything else is fruitless. And I don’t believe that is something people feel they have the capacity to begin a conversation about.

I mean, the number of people probably with diesel SUVs on this thread because “it suits our lifestyle / my back hurts when I put DCs into any other car / it’s safer / when I make my 3 trips a year to see DM it saved me money”..

or the serial flight takers because “our holidays are cornerstones of our year, we work hard and deserve a break” etc

im not saying at all that reducing one aspect of things with energy use isn’t important, but why is this the sole area of self awareness just because prices are a bit higher?

@tractorboy64 and @SavoirFlair - you’ve both nailed it for me.

My finances have fluctuated over the years, so perhaps am aware more than many on mn.

For this family water bottles are snuggly, slippers soled and we live our lives to the tune of SHUT THAT DOOR!

I am flying next year and feel zero guilt about it as it’ll be our first flight since 2013.

It won’t help combat climate change - but cancelling it sure as shit won’t make a difference.

fwiw - I used that tool someone posted on mn yonks ago which worked out what size of climate monster you were. Minute. Barely enough to nip your ankles this end.

Why are you only worried about "the poorest?"
Working families don't have money to burn and still feel the cold despite not being poor enough for you to worry about.

So honestly I was totally oblivious to the fact that the world is slowly running out of energy and how much our useage had increased over the decade

Until someone on here posted a very good YouTube video by some energy expert. It was quite hard hitting

Since then I am very conscious of it. I'm turning off everything, never using tumble etc and not just because of prices. It will be a new life long habit, my husband is the same now too.

I honestly had zero clue about energy and the future generations.

This is the video

I think everyone should watch it

It's hard hitting and opened my eyes

How about we start with the entertainment industry? How much energy does BBC news 24 hours and things like Strictly use up?

Emm. Maybe because they're 'the poorest'. They're poorer than anyone else. The costs of things going up will affect the poorest more than anyone else. There is less money for them to weather price rises. God knows the middle class spend plenty of time worrying about themselves. For so many people cutting back on driving or foreign holidays isn't really a factor.

We shouldn't be wasteful and should do what we can to reduce individual impact.

However - only systemic change will go anywhere close to tackling climate change. Population scale change to how we get energy, house people, transport things, consume products.

Corporations and governments are only too happy to make it sound like climate change just needs you to buy an eco version of a product for 20% more rather than grapple with the tough stuff.

I regard using less energy as giving Putin the finger.

It costs so much now that I think everyone is trying to be frugal. But if you are happy to pay then fill your boots I say. Even if I ceased to exist tomorrow it would have zero impact on the environment so I’m not going to wring my hands over using less unless it’s for my own benefit

I heat the house not the people. DD really feels the cold, DS is ‘average’ I get hot flushes and rarely feel cold. So we’re all different. Added to that, this house retains cold. If it gets freezing in here it can take a good couple of days to really warm up properly.

So when I can feel the chill in the air and all the floors are cold, the heating goes on for an hour or two. Works for us.

Last winter, schools were told to leave doors and windows ajar to reduce the transmission of covid. I wonder if that advice will change this year?
Warm, expensive and and infectious or cold and reduced levels of transmission?
A lot of schools are very poor at closing external doors, or regulating their heating.