It's not easy being green - energy saving devices installed in your home/solar power - the drawbacks

Have you been visited by the polite young man who offers you free energy saving devices? This Victorian Government (Australia) is commendable and sounds good on paper but...

Being a whingeing old fart, here is my rant.

We already had been visited by another friendly young man with free devices to save electricity – powerboards that turn off automatically, you have to keep pressing your remote each hour or the television goes off.

Yesterday another visit from another energy saver. My wife said yes. Because this dude also offered some good stuff: weather seals on front and back doors and a nifty inflatable damper that fits up your chimney to stop heat loss (free pump – looks like a sex aid – I think).
This stupid balloon thing spread soot everywhere each time you removed it and deflated over time.

The not so good stuff:

He replaced our low water pressure shower head with his version (boring and no adjustable flow). The replacement shower head in our daughter’s bathroom leaked, not much of a water saver, so I had to reinstall it when he left.

Now the really crappy stuff:

He took all our light bulbs, replacing them with 24 of his, except the dimmers he couldn’t change – thank Christ for that! The new bulbs are so dim it is like mood lighting, tough luck if you drop a tiny object and want to search for it. The ceiling recessed downlights used to have globes that fitted perfectly. These new screwy, ugly looking bulbs leave a huge gap so draughts from the roof cancel out any energy saving from other means. So this morning I’m up in the ceiling placing cloth around these circular gaps to stem Melbourne’s wintry winds.

An extra word on solar power:
Unless you have at least 8 panels (2 person house) or 12+ panels for a large house/family the outlay isn't viable. It also concerns me that people cutting down north-facing trees so they can get more sun for their solar panels. In the Southern Hemisphere, surely north-facing (particularly deciduous) trees are environmentally (as well as aesthetically) desirable.

As a cute amphibian said once, “It’s not easy being green”.

The most overused question at the moment: "How's your day been?"

I am so sick to death of  hearing:
"So, how's your day been?"
This hackneyed icebreaker thought up by some marketing guru/psychologist to keep the punters relaxed or to fill 'dead air' is well past its use-by-date. Salespeople, telephone operators, checkout staff have been using it for a few years, now it has filtered down to anyone. It's just lazy claptrap. Less is more.
Here endth my grumpy rant.

Being grumpy is useless

Grumbling about the state of things (anything from bitching about people dropping litter to global warming) achieves nothing. Am I changing anything for the better?
Vitriol achieves only a short term "buzz" but long term it's fruitless. Negativity only breeds more negativity.
Here endeth the lesson. As Charlie Brooker would say, "....now go away!"

:-)

What this blog is NOT....

This blog is not about my friends, my achievements, my travels, my children. I will mention them in passing but I would update you to "blow my own trumpet". I think this is self indulgent but tell that to hundreds of millions of Facebook and Twitter users. My blog will be simple. Oh, I don't do DRAFTS either. It will be straight off the top of my head, for better or worse.
In the spirit of being a grumpy old man (of 56 years), here's more negativity......

THINGS THAT PISS ME OFF AT THE MOMENT 

1. Facebook dependency and self-indulgence (see above).
2. People who buy bottled water in Australia, particularly the eastern states. Melbourne's tap water is of a high standard. It's disheartening to see empty plastic bottles dropped everywhere - ending up in stormwater drains and ultimately our waterways/oceans.
3. Parents in the supermarket who hold up a cereal, biscuit packet, etc and ask their young ones sitting or hanging off the trolley, "Would you like this?" "How about this one?" Don't pander to the kid, don't give 'em a choice for God's sake, just buy the generic/cheapest brand or the healthiest one. Too many choices, kids want/need structure in their life not more decision making.
4. The current breastfeeding in public debate cooked up by the media. David Koch (google him, if needed) used the wrong adjective, rather than saying mums should be more "classy" in the way they breastfeed in public, he should have used the word "discreet". Class has nothing to do with it.
I must say, male eyes often go straight to the boob - it's in our DNA. It's not creepy, it's just the way it is.Breastfeeding is the best - my daughter was for nearly 18 months. No allergies now either.
5. Maccas ...let's face it, it's a global monolith, nothing Australian about it, don't patronise me.
6. People drop junk takeaway wrappers from their cars (see No.5).
7. Smokers who think their butts aren't classified as rubbish so they stub them out/drop them anywhere.
8. Smokers in general.