Every winter, the same discussion:
Me: “When I came home today, there were 6 lights left on around the house. Why can’t you ever turn off a light? The electricity bill is quite high enough without wasting it.”
Him: “Don’t waste your time worrying about the lights. Why do you keep leaving heaters on?”
Me: “To stop it getting cold. To keep the house aired. To prevent those black spots growing in cold corners.”
Him: “If you want to keep the electricity bill down, turn off the heaters. These low energy lights cost next to nothing to run. It’s keeping the heaters on that costs the money.”
Me:”Yes, but if you leave enough lights on, that will cost a lot too.”
Him: “Nowhere near as much as the heaters.”
And so on… These discussions in themselves must be energy saving, because we both feel quite heated by the end of them (though I have yet to find a way of making them generate light as well).
But it occurs to me later, (and far too late to count as a witty, argument-winning riposte), that if you follow his logic, you can create a convincing reason for not worrying about eating small chocolates. Because it’s only the jumbo Toblerones that are going to make me fat. The odd Malteser is as nothing – as are five, or six, or seven…
A delayed, but a worthwhile, victory.
