Sitting in the dark

I mentioned previously that last year we signed up to an energy saving exercise where you turn off as many electrical appliances as possible at a predetermined peak time in return for a credit towards our bill.  The intention is to reduce demand and therefore the possibility of power cuts or the need to restart coal fired power stations.

We took part several times in December, the first ever hour we earned £2.99 credit, the next few attempts about half that and inexplicably lower still when we switched off for 2 hours, which is a long time sitting in the dark.

The scheme stopped over Christmas and recently started again big style with offers of higher rewards plus mention on the tv news and in the press. I read of one lady taking part and expecting to receive £10 credit per event, good luck with that.  I read that only 5% of participants could expect to save that that amount. Our first 2023 switch off oddly during the hours of daylight earned us 21p for an hour.  Wow, thats really going to save the planet.  

We’ve probably earned less than £10 for maybe 6 attempts though nothing shows on our account as credit.  As I said it was more about making a difference by reducing demand but our power saving is a drop in the ocean as we neither use a lot of electricity at peak times nor at any other time, pointless preaching to the converted. I don’t think we’ll continue though the offer of an extra 12p credit if we keep opting in and don’t break our streak is tempting - not. It’s actually quite insulting given the profits the energy companies are making and paying their top executives. I will continue to be frugal with power but I won’t be sitting in the dark  or switching off the fridge, tv, computers etc. I’ve seen the light.