Making my family greener and more cost effective

Several times recently I’ve come back from the school run with both children only for the baby to get grumpy at about 5pm because she’s tired. When this has happened, I’ve taken her upstairs to run her a bath and get her ready for bed.

This is when disaster strikes. Having left the taps running I return to the bathroom only to find I’ve run a bath full of cold water because our hot water, like the central heating, is on a timer and it was just slightly too early for it to come on.

Okay, I’m being melodramatic, It’s not really a disaster. It is, however, exceptionally irritating and extraordinarily wasteful.

If the baby is really screaming I’ll let some of the water out the bath (water, of course, being metered and every litre charged for) and top it up with hot water from the electric power shower  (electricity being charged for by the kilowatt hour). While a nice, clean, baby does eventually get put to bed, it is far from ideal and I often find myself wondering just how much the bath has cost.

This is just one example of energy inefficiency. I can think of many others. Although my green credentials have taken a battering since becoming a parent, a common complaint among friends of ours, I think it is very important to make the effort.

I’d heard rumours about a smartphone app that’s come on the market that can control your central heating. It sounded to me like a fantastic idea and so I was delighted to receive some details about it the other day. Known as The Hive, it seems very straightfoward to use.

Although there is a small financial outlay, my wife and I are seriously considering the product. I imagine it would be very useful.

Of course this is just a start. As I said, my green credentials have taken a battering. Truth be told, I need to use the car less and public transport more. If we could cut down on use of the tumble dryer and I could persuade my eldest to turn the lights off when not in use I’d be very happy indeed.