Middleagedad has a new gadget, the Wattson, which is a clever little device that measures your electricity consumption in watts and converts it into £s so you can see how much your electricity is costing you. Middleagemum likes it because it is pretty, small enough to blend nicely into the home and keeps middleagdad busy.
It is a very neat system, you clip a monitor onto your electricity fuse box, and place the Wattson somewhere you can see it in the house (it needs a plug) then stand back and panic at how much the tumble drier costs. Middleagedad runs around the house turning everything off and gets very excited at how low he can make the Wattson's numbers drop. And it does have a positive effect on the electricity bill, we've had ours for a while now and our electricity count is down about 20% and we now always check the Wattson's numbers before we leave the house emprty to ensure we've not left something electrical on.
This week middleagedad found out that Prince Charles has installed six Wattsons at Clarence House to encourage his staff to watch the electricity consumption, so I guess if it's good enough for the Royal Household it's ok for us. I wonder if Prince Charles has been nerdy enough to download the additional Holmes softwear, which allows you to view your electricity consumption pattern on line, and 'share it with others in your community' if you should so wish, a step too far for middleagedad and besides, we don't have the sort of friends who'd want to talk electricity consumption, but maybe our next King does.
Terrific website too, which we suggest you bookmark for when you are thinking of what to buy middleagdad for his next christmas/birthday present .
