Monday 12 December 2022

Hot Tea, Maths {oh! no!}, Yuletide Lads, and Advent Day 12

Hello friends!

I think you've heard me mention the money saving expert Martin Lewis before. Well he has a useful calculation for working out how much an appliance uses and costs to run. I'm not mathematically inclined, and to be perfectly honest the way our bills are presented to us in the United Kingdom you need an “ology” to understand them.  However, his calculation is simple and straight forward and even I can manage it! So here it is, and I hope it helps you calculate the costs of some of your appliances as you run them. Of course if you've moved into the 21st century and have a smart meter you won't really need this information but I know there's a lot of us out there who still don't have them.

1,000 watts = 1 kw   and  a Kilowatt hour is what the companies use to charge you.  You will need to check this on your bill, but for sake of argument let's say the average cost is 35 pence per kWh.
say your appliance is using 200 watts an hour.  This means if you run it for one hour you are using 1/5 of a kWh. of energy per hour.  Or, You are using 1/5 of 35 pence. Which is 7 pence per hour. 
I am not mathematically inclined. It took me a while to work this out in my head to where I could understand it, so I hope I've put it down so you can understand it too. And I hope it helps you work out your usage, even if it's only an approximation.

I am drinking gallons of hot tea throughout the day. Ginger tea, or ordinary black tea without milk and a slice of ginger or even chilli in it helps warm you up from the inside. 

Today sees the arrival in Iceland of the Icelandic Yuletide Lads. Those of you who follow my blog regularly will be familiar with them, so I won't go on about them again, but for those who are interested in reading about this tradition I have written about it daily starting here.  I shall let you read the back blogs on the Yuletide lads instead of sharing a Christmas or seasonal book today.

Well my friends, the mystery of the key deepens as today we're back to a dear little British Robin hiding in the bare winter branches of the tree.  What is that key hiding? What secret will it unlock? We must all wait and see now!



Until next time,

stay safe, stay well, stay warm

Debbie xo


9 comments:

  1. We do have a Smart meter but to be honest - certain things you need to do. They keep harping on about how you can save but don't take into account many people already have made all those savings in the past. Then there's little point in telling someone who is struggling with bills to invest in extra loft insulation etc. I read one piece of daft advice about supermarket deliveries saying instead of having shopping delivered do click and collect as you will have already bought the fuel in your car!

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    1. I agree Sue. Although there are schemes that provide free loft installation for those who are eligible. I had an e-mail recently regarding a Courier delivery suggesting I could save the planet and my wallet by going to one of those drop off pickup points. What they don't take into consideration is that my nearest pickup point is 20 miles away. So that would be a 40 mile round trip when the Courier is already in my village.
      I fall into that category of having made the effort to make a lot of these adjustments in the past. In fact, over the last 20 or 30 years since climate change first hit our radar. It's very difficult to make cutbacks when you've already done it.

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  2. Nice to see the robin back on today's door, Deb. They are the most darling of birds in your area. As you know our robins are larger and will not be seen until spring is knocking at the door.
    Your meter calculations are very interesting. Are you saying you have to send in your own readings or is this something you can calculate for your own knowledge of use? Grayden is saying the latter. Stay warm. xoxo

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    1. Thank you my friend. Yes, your Robin is quite different to our Robin, isn't it?
      Grayden is correct. The calculation is for our personal information. Not all have a smart meter which automatically sends your readings to the company and shows you how much you were using at the same time. However, some of us have opted not to have smart meters. I send my usage reading in manually when it is due. This calculation is to help people like me to roughly calculate how much energy we are using and give us a guideline of the cost. It's a dreadful thing that we have come to this state, isn't it? Stay warm. xoxo

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  3. Your robin is very sweet. Those calculations are really simple and easy to follow, thanks. I used to love maths at school and I still do. Everything is so much dearer these days. Keep warm and stay healthy, hugs, Valerie

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  4. https://wildbounds.com/products/scout-kettle-12l?variant=37195541840039&gclid=CjwKCAiAv9ucBhBXEiwA6N8nYG5ZoId1045oQBhbMlPKwGnKYYIM1JziLTEfp4bVY3PJjlsN9YPlVRoCEbIQAvD_BwE How to save money for your cups of tea. It is a live flame so will need to go on a hearth, but will run on twigs/dry grass.

    Robins here in our garden, waiting for the seeds flung to the ground by the greedy and picky Nuthatch who helps all the ground eating birds get by.

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  5. Thanks for the calculations - a very simple way to work it out :) The robin is so sweet - we had two in the garden yesterday and one chased the other off being very territorial :) Can't get the link to work for some strange reason.

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  6. A key and then a robin...hmmm...the mystery deepens. I can't wait until tomorrow to see what it will bring.

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  7. This calendar is just fascinating and so beautiful. That formula is beyond me!

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