I'm fighting a losing battle here and today was almost the last straw.
I've been away for a couple of days, on a work mission, so was fairly confident that my energy usage would be reasonably frugal. I'm working on a budget of 10kWh a day, lower if I can possibly manage it. I've been averaging somewhere around the 8 to 8.5kWh mark, or around £3.40 a day on my electricity costs.
Imagine my shock when I read the meter today and found that while I was away, we've racked up 44kWh of energy, or £16.42. £5.47 a day.
That's without me boiling up for a coffee eight or ten times a day!
So, when I query this with the missus...
She's been living off ready meals for one, out of the freezer, and has done four loads of washing. Each ready meal has had 45 minutes in the electric oven, rather than ten minutes in the microwave, and her idea of doing the laundry is putting separate loads in the wash on a 40°C intense cycle plus an hour and a half in the tumble drier each time.
Not only cooking a ready meal in the oven, but adding various accoutrements, like a pan of fried onions on the hob, or a portion of chips in the deep fat fryer. For one.
I forewent my toast this morning. Lunch was a cheese sandwich and my dinner was four cream crackers with a bit of butter on them.
I have tried to explain until I'm blue in the face that we have an energy budget, and I don't have the 'spare change' to exceed it too often. Well, her profligate use of the drier and oven has effectively wiped me out for a week. No hot food for me...in fact, very little food for me.
How the hell short of banging her head, or my head, against a brick wall can I get through to her?
I've been away for a couple of days, on a work mission, so was fairly confident that my energy usage would be reasonably frugal. I'm working on a budget of 10kWh a day, lower if I can possibly manage it. I've been averaging somewhere around the 8 to 8.5kWh mark, or around £3.40 a day on my electricity costs.
Imagine my shock when I read the meter today and found that while I was away, we've racked up 44kWh of energy, or £16.42. £5.47 a day.
That's without me boiling up for a coffee eight or ten times a day!
So, when I query this with the missus...
She's been living off ready meals for one, out of the freezer, and has done four loads of washing. Each ready meal has had 45 minutes in the electric oven, rather than ten minutes in the microwave, and her idea of doing the laundry is putting separate loads in the wash on a 40°C intense cycle plus an hour and a half in the tumble drier each time.
Not only cooking a ready meal in the oven, but adding various accoutrements, like a pan of fried onions on the hob, or a portion of chips in the deep fat fryer. For one.
I forewent my toast this morning. Lunch was a cheese sandwich and my dinner was four cream crackers with a bit of butter on them.
I have tried to explain until I'm blue in the face that we have an energy budget, and I don't have the 'spare change' to exceed it too often. Well, her profligate use of the drier and oven has effectively wiped me out for a week. No hot food for me...in fact, very little food for me.
How the hell short of banging her head, or my head, against a brick wall can I get through to her?
Last edited by Han_EONNext; 16-02-24 at 13:20.
Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player. I DON'T work for or on behalf of EON.Next, but am willing to try and help if I can. Not on mains gas, mobile network or mains drainage. House heated almost entirely by baby dragons.
