"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

Watty1

I've always wondered about why people in rural areas light up as though in the midst of a town, seems odd. Although i do have a lot of lights because it is dark here. I switch them on to walk from the house to the yard at night and back off and have outside the front door lights I use so i can see if going out (although if next door has theirs on I leave mine off).   The stable area has lights and there are solar motion detected ones for finding bins and much heap in the dark.

A lot of lights - in a rural area - but they come on as needed and go off again.    I guess some people in rural areas miss street lights

edinburgher

I'm probably being melodramatic but I find too many outside lights exhausting, I miss the dark. Living in a relatively built-up area (lots of terraced side streets etc) we have the whole naff "LED light string round the fence" thing from April-December from at least 3-4 neighbours 🙄

Watty1

Ah now Christmas lights are the one I do forgive.  After 11th November my Christmas lights go on, the are outside the house at the front on a timer, and around one of the barns.   Lots of them. They come down after new year.  Then I am back to darkness and only 'as needed'  

On a soul level the outdoor lights for Christmas carry me through the darkest hours and remind me the light will return in the spring.

redofromstart

Watty1 said:

On a soul level the outdoor lights for Christmas carry me through the darkest hours and remind me the light will return in the spring.

I like that idea. I like the whole celebrating the triumph of light over darkness thing - a concept I picked up from the original husband celebrating Diwali.

badmemory

I & most of my neighbours have had motion triggered lights & they are all now turned off & only turned on for trips outdoors.  They became really irritating, coming on all the time.  We seem to have a lot of cats that spend the late evening & nighttime outdoors & the lights were going back on as soon as they went off.

edinburgher

I can accept mid-November onwards

greenbee

redofromstart said:

Watty1 said:

On a soul level the outdoor lights for Christmas carry me through the darkest hours and remind me the light will return in the spring.

I like that idea. I like the whole celebrating the triumph of light over darkness thing - a concept I picked up from the original husband celebrating Diwali.

I like the term 'original husband' It sounds as if he was returned as faulty, or upgraded to a new model... 

I do like 'winter' lights. I don't think they should be saved for Christmas, but I do think the impact on others needs to be considered, so colours/flashing need not to be intrusive/trigger seizures, and they don't need to be on after bedtime (although bedtime may vary...)

I think you're right Watty - it's not so bad here, but in other villages people have complained about the lack of street lights. The same lack of street lights that was there when they moved to the village (also lack of pavements, church bells on Sunday, cockerels... although I sympathise with that, none of ours lasted much beyond the first time they woke my dad up at 4am, the smell of sheep/cows/pigs, tractors on the roads, mud on the roads, combines/tractors working at night with lights on... etc). 

greenbee

Free electricity has been put to good use - battery and solar heated the house this morning, and then I emptied the battery at about 11.58. Hot wash on for towels, with last night's batch cottons in the TD; DW is on; cookies were prepped ready for midday so PNB cookies and chocolate almond cookies done; discovered I had no tinned black beans, so made two batches of breakfast bars - one with banana and seeds, one with stewed apple/walnuts/chocolate; veg chopped and one veg tray bake with tofu/black beans/black barley/peppers/sweet potato/tomatoes/onion/broccoli and one batch of cauli and broccoli with garlic and chilli are in; ancient bag of frozen peas cooked with spring onion, garlic and ancient frozen spinach and some stock-cube stock for soup; black beans in IP; chicken wings in baby SC. I'd quite like to get another batch of soup on, but I should probably have a bit of a rest (I've just had pea soup for lunch).

Stinky and I had a nice walk earlier... he would obviously much rather be outside with the cats than in here with me, but it's bitterly cold in the wind. However, as I think i'm now out of things to do that use up electricity (must just go and check the TD and the contents of the oven), I'm alternating lying on the sofa being yelled at by Fatty with pottering in the garden being yelled at by Fatty.

badmemory

I didn't do as well as I should have done.  I put a fair bit in the battery last night (9pm freebie) but was left with 59% at midnight.  That 59% was still there at 5am & it had been using from the grid for 5 hours.  No idea what happened there.  So the sun shone & part filled the battery again & is now powering the house with a full battery.  I do hope the same thing doesn't happen again, so only about 12kWh free rather than about 15/16.

greenbee

I deliberately ran down the battery before 9pm last night, then gain before I went to bed (leaving enough to get to 3am when the negative pricing started). Only remembered to export again for about 5 mins before the 7.30am negative slot, but then ran it down nicely by running electric heating until midday. Although really I should have turned the heating off, emptied the battery, and then run heating from the grid as I could have made 15p for the export and only paid around 3pm for the import. Which has reminded me to put the battery on stop now to run the heating from the grid for the next 40 minutes! I need to get my head round some of this stuff a bit better to maximise the benefits of Agile/free slots. I did at least remember to stop the hot water diverter while I was exporting and therefore heat up on the free electricity! I ended up having to switch it off and on again yesterday as it was refusing to heat from schedule/boost. However, I've imported 42 kWh at at estimated cost of 24p today, so not too bad. Pity I only exported 6.6kWh as I should have been able to do at least another 15 if I'd been a bit more on the ball. I really do need to learn how to set up some automation!

Better get out into the garden again and keep working on getting stuff done!