Go electric! Just don’t turn anything on
I’ve been feeling rather muddled lately. Not the age-related muddled, that’s something entirely different. Nope, my problem comes from all the conflicting advice we seem to be getting from our governments, environmental warriors, crown corporations and anybody with an opinion on our future prospects.
Like many of you, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I have made an effort to wean ourselves away from carbon fuels. We dumped the old oil furnace and switched to electricity to heat the house and the hot water. We’ve cut back on burning wood in the fireplace using it mostly for power outages.
We didn’t get an electric vehicle the last time we purchased a car, although we did buy a used, excuse me, a preowned, automobile so at least we didn’t add to the number of polluters on the road. We also went to one car and reduced our driving to about 4,000 kilometres a year which is about 11,000 kilometres below average.
We have an electric lawn mower, an electric leaf blower, an electric chain saw and an electric hedge trimmer. We’ve even started checking out the cost of putting solar panels on the roof which faces directly south and gets sun all day. Then it happened.
In a recent announcement both the Quebec government and Hydro Quebec started yelling that we waste too much electricity and the grid can’t keep up!
We’re now told to turn down the heat, re-insulate the house, buy new windows, go solar and only use one light bulb per room.
The most disconcerting advice is to “avoid peak periods.” It’s simple we’re told. Run your dish washer at night. Do your laundry at 3 a.m. Try taking your shower after work instead of first thing in the morning. Experiment with dinner hour and maybe eat at four in the afternoon or eight in the evening when no one else is using their oven.
But what happens if we all do what Hydro and the Premier say? Wouldn’t it only mean that we shift “peak hours?’ Would it not be better if we just started eating our food cold or perhaps only showering once a month? Let the dishes pile up but don’t use so much electricity.
The federal government isn’t any clearer. We’re told to buy substantially more expensive electric vehicles but don’t count on the rebate which they’re fading out. The government wants all cars buses and trucks across the nation to be electric as soon as possible. Just because we still lack, and will lack for some years, enough charging stations to accommodate that many vehicles is irrelevant.
Like most of you, My Bride and I would like to combat global warming. We’d like a cleaner environment and air you can breathe even in August. We would gladly do our part so that future generations can be as happy and safe as we have been. So telling us all to switch to electricity, just don’t use it, isn’t quite as clear or helpful as it might be.