Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 6:02 am  

I wonder how easy it would be to not use ANY gas or electricity at home ?

Heard a story on local radio today of some young bloke in an apartment who said that he was not paying water rates because his water was cut off and he was living quite well without it and not spending any extra money by purchasing bottled water and bathing with wet wipes.

Yes he did sound a bit barmy but how easy would it be to just not use and gas or electricity in your house ?

It would be easier if you had fireplaces with chimneys that could be re-opened and an old cooking range in the kitchen that you could base family life around, and candles or paraffin lamps for light ?

Throw away your TV and Skybox etc and cancel the TV licence then watch internet TV (don't tell anyone) and then You'd only really need electricity to charge up your laptop and mobile devices - sounds like it could be fun.

Letter to your electricity provider - "You've made me use some of your electricity to switch on the printer to send you this letter to tell you to stick your electricity bill and its standing charge where the sun don't shine, from now on I want to be on pay-as-you-go electricity..."

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:44 am  

Is the question "Jumpin' Jack Flash"?

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:37 am  

peggy wrote:

Is the question "Jumpin' Jack Flash"?

You deserve to be Stoned for that.

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:57 am  

JerryChicken wrote:

I wonder how easy it would be to not use ANY gas or electricity at home ?

Heard a story on local radio today of some young bloke in an apartment who said that he was not paying water rates because his water was cut off and he was living quite well without it and not spending any extra money by purchasing bottled water and bathing with wet wipes.

..

Not sure at all about this. How much would his share of water rates in a flat or apartment be?

If you assume he needs 2 litres per day to survive in terms of drinking water, then @ 17p (Asda cheapest) x 365 = £61.88 pa

But that doesn't leave any water for laundry, and so if he instead goes to the launderette regularly there's a cost he wouldn't have if he had mains water.

Then what about washing up? You can't take that to the launderette, and if you dispense with washing up, by eating takeaways, your budget will go through the roof.

Then what about cooking? You can't boil a cabbage, or pasta, or even an egg, without a pan of water.

As for wet wipes - I don't see that. How on earth, in the long run, can you keep yourself properly clean using nothing but wet wipes? How the feck many does he use? Asda sell packs of 20 for £1.50 and I can't see how you could, in a day, need any less than that. £1.50 x 365 = £547.50 pa

Hard to wash your hair with wet wipes. i suppose you could just shave it all off, or else do that thing where you never wash it and claim hair is "self cleaning"!

I suppose each time he wanted a pee or a crap he could trail to a nearby pub, supermarket or garage if they would put up with that but I don't see that as a practical solution to avoid the water for flushinga bog.

So it sounds fishy to me.

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 11:54 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

So it sounds fishy to me.

Well I did say he sounded a bit barmy.

A couple of other things he mentioned was that he only ever used paper cups and plates so that he didn't need to wash anything, all of his food was microwaved and that he cheated once a week by going to his mates house for a shower.

In theory you can flush a toilet using bottled water and it probably uses less than a normal flush would - save your poo-time for during office hours and flush your house-pees once a day and you have a solution of sorts although what you'd do on a weekend is not worth thinking of.

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:15 pm  

Which all goes to show how much we rely on energy and how they have us by the spheroids.

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:28 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Which all goes to show how much we rely on energy and how they have us by the spheroids.

in reality, the average energy bill isnt that expensive when you consider what you actually get for it, and what you would have to give up if you didnt have gas/electric.

At about £1,500 a year for the average bill, (say between 2 people in a house) that works out at about £2 per person per day for power, warmth and entertainment.

Affordable 'pay as you go' energy, time of use tariffs, demand reduction technology (i.e. that automatically turn your freezer off for an hour at peak times), are the way forward, all of which should be a reality once every home has a smart meter installed in the next few years. Then you will actually pay for what you use, and get rewarded for not consuming energy at times of peak demand.

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:50 pm  

EHW wrote:

in reality, the average energy bill isnt that expensive when you consider what you actually get for it, and what you would have to give up if you didnt have gas/electric.

At about £1,500 a year for the average bill, (say between 2 people in a house) that works out at about £2 per person per day for power, warmth and entertainment.

Affordable 'pay as you go' energy, time of use tariffs, demand reduction technology (i.e. that automatically turn your freezer off for an hour at peak times), are the way forward, all of which should be a reality once every home has a smart meter installed in the next few years. Then you will actually pay for what you use, and get rewarded for not consuming energy at times of peak demand.

Thank you for putting it into perspective, but a steep and remorseless increase is still just that.
Call me cynical, but I suspect the more we try to cut down the more the price will rise to maintain profits.

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:00 pm  

EHW wrote:

in reality, the average energy bill isnt that expensive when you consider what you actually get for it, and what you would have to give up if you didnt have gas/electric.

At about £1,500 a year for the average bill, (say between 2 people in a house) that works out at about £2 per person per day for power, warmth and entertainment.

Affordable 'pay as you go' energy, time of use tariffs, demand reduction technology (i.e. that automatically turn your freezer off for an hour at peak times), are the way forward, all of which should be a reality once every home has a smart meter installed in the next few years. Then you will actually pay for what you use, and get rewarded for not consuming energy at times of peak demand.

Because the use of metering for poor people hasn't resulted in them paying more, has it?

Re: Gas Gas Gas : Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:00 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Call me cynical, but I suspect the more we try to cut down the more the price will rise to maintain profits.

, Likewise the money spent by the energy companies to insulate homes, and therefore use less energy.
"Let me see , Spend more money in order to receive lover volume sales, so how do we reward our shareholders.......? I know...... "