Cost of living reporting

2nd_time_buyer

Listening to the news this morning, I have been pretty shocked by people's misunderstanding about energy savings.

For example, one person said it would cost £6 for a tumble dryer load - which would work out at 20kwh! Another lady said she could not afford to charge her electrical wheelchair every day - which surely must be pittance.

None of this was corrected by the reporting. 

markin

What station? Or are they all just as bad anyway!

2nd_time_buyer

That was on BBC breakfast.

The level of ignorance at all levels is pretty depressing - the Keir Starter interview wasn't that reassuring either - neither the interviewer or the interviewee came across as understanding the situation.

Hexane

BBC reporting can be absolutely dreadful. A year or two ago they had an "ordinary member of the public" keep a diary of how much electricity they thought they were using each day over a week. Without the benefit of a smart meter or anything like that. The lady decided that Friday was the day she had used most electricity, because the family was downloading some large files from the internet that day, so she saw the lights on the internet router blinking faster than normal, and was sure that must be using a lot of power. The BBC happily went ahead and published this without any sort of correction or sane input at all.

(For those interested, most home broadband internet routers would normally use less than 10W regardless of how "busy" they are, your tumble dryer might use 3000W constantly, your dishwasher and washing machine might use 2000W during their relatively short heating cycles, an electric oven 3000W when it is heating but not when it's at temperature, an 800W microwave might use 1600W constantly, large kettles are 3000W.)

2nd_time_buyer

When you hear about people on disability benefits, having to choose between heating and mobility, and you see an "efficient" oil filled radiator in the background my heart sinks.

I don't think it is deliberate on the part of the media just ignorance. 

MSE should probably run a media qualification for home economics. 

JKenH

We forget just how tuned in most of us on MSE are to the cost of living - my wife doesn’t give energy usage a second thought. I don’t think she would have any idea how much electricity a year we use. That’s fine as I take care of it but I wonder how many families never have given it any thought until now. 

When it comes down to it though energy is still pretty cheap. Probably the average electricity bill costs no more a day than a single coffee from Starbucks or a sandwich from Pret.

Edit: some historical data

2nd_time_buyer

JKenH I think you have hit the nail on the head. What frustrates me is that for the people who really need to worry about it, there is often very little they can do about it e.g. they are are in rental accomodation and have little disposable income to make improvements -: even if they were well advised on what to do.

Without, meaning to get too political the government seems to have done very little for those who need immediate relief either in terms of cash or advice.

shinytop

And even though energy share of expenditure is less nowadays, we are getting a lot more for our money.  Whole houses heated to 21 degrees weren't common in the 1970s.   

paul991

we never had the heating on in the early  70 s until my farther came home to light the fire in one room and  we  were my  no means regarded as poor . luxury came when we moved to a new house with mains oil central heating.I am not saying there is no real poverty today because there is but also the bottom rung of the ladder has risen considerably one  example if the school heating wasn't working the teacher would just tell you to keep your coat  on ,if you complained you sent to  run round the field to warm up

Magnitio

As someone who was also at school in the 70's/80's, I can remember how cold our house was and scraping ice off the inside of the windows. Having the heating on all the time was too expensive and the insulation was terrible. We just put more clothes on and got on with life. I do remember the TV was a great source of heat in those days!

JKenH

I remember going to school during the winter of 1962/3. Some of our classrooms were wooden huts and we used to sit in top coats, hats and gloves for lessons. I don’t think regulations would allow that nowadays.