We have a family room in our basement, and it's fairly large so there are 4 overhead lights. I also have to walk through the family room to get to my laundry room, and with 6 kids I spend a lot of time going to the laundry room. I also spend a lot of time turning off lights because I haven't found the right motivation to get my kids to do it on their own. They did great one year when we told them we would take them to Disney World if we saved money on the electric bill, but once they won the prize it was no longer in the forefront of their minds and we're back to the status quo.
So hubby decides that the way to solve our electricity problem is bluetooth switches. He set it all up downstairs so that we could go to an app on our iphones and choose a lighting scenario from a list of possibilites. For example, if we're watching tv, this light will come on, but will be fairly dim so that it's easier to see the tv. If I happen to be crocheting while I watch tv then I can choose this one so that I have one light on directly over my head where I sit. We can choose this one if we need more light on this side of the room, another if we are on the other side of the room. Or we can turn them all on full strength. An other option is all of them at 50% if we don't need as much light, and so on and so on. He also put my laundry room on this same system. He taped the switches on so that we wouldnt forget and turn them off, rendering our app useless.
I find the whole thing ridiculous. Although he has his phone permanently attached to him with an umbilical cord, if I'm at home mine it is probably in the last place I used it. And, if I can't get a kid to remember to flip a switch, how am I going to get them to use the app on their ipod to do it. So, the question is, is this a better method?
Let's do multiple choice.
1. I'm at the top of the stairs and I can see that there are lights on in the basement. Should I:
a) walk down one flight of stairs and turn them off?
b) go to my bedroom, pick up my phone and enter the passcode. find the app which I can't remember the name of, select the family room from the menu options, and choose a scenario based on the task at hand. In this case nobody is down there so I want all the lights off.
2. I need to do some laundry so I grab the hamper by both handles and lug it down the stairs. Which is better:
a) turn on one light switch in the family room so that I can see to navigate around any legos that may have been left on the floor, then flip the switch in my laundry room and put a load in the washer, turning off the switches on my way back upstairs.
b) plan ahead and get my phone out, enter the passcode, find the app (what was it called again?), select from the menu, turn on one light in the family room, then another in the laundry room. Then I can lug the hamper down the stairs and put a load in the washer, remembering to go back to my phone, enter the passcode, find the app and turn off the lights.
Ok, one more
3. It's dark outside and one or more of the kids is out. Do I:
a) Turn on the porch light so they can see to get back in the house
b) Just let the motion detection lights by the garage come on as they walk by and figure that's good enough to get them to the door.
c) Set up a timer so that the porch light and the motion detection lights come on at dusk and turn off at midnight.
In reality, this is the way it goes.
1. I see a light on downstairs. I'm can't turn it off by the switch because it's taped up, and I'm not sure where I last used my phone so I leave it on, counting on the fact that we have energy efficient bulbs.
2. I grab the hamper full of clothes, manhandle it down the stairs with both hands. The family room light is still on because I never bothered to turn it off with my phone, then I get to the laundry room and realize that the light switch is taped and I forgot to bring my phone with me, so I have to go back upstairs and hunt down my phone, enter the passcode, find the app, select from the menu... This time I bring my phone with me so I can turn out the light when I'm done, half the time forgetting about it and leaving it on top of the dryer until the next time I need my phone and can't remember where I left it.
3. Now #3 sounds like a great idea. right? But every day my porch light and motion detection lights are on in broad daylight and because the switch is taped I yell into his office "the outside lights are on" and he responds with "I need to fix the timer" and the next day I go outside and the lights are on in broad daylight. Not to mention the fact that the timer has them turning off just when they need to be on. This goes on for weeks until I finally snap and rip the tape off the switch and turn them off the old fashioned way. Then I hear about how he's trying to simplify our lives and save us money and I'm not being very supportive and how can he expect the kids to do it when I am not setting the example. During this same period of time our power bill went up by about 20% and I have to wonder: is it a coincidence. or are the two related?
No comments:
Post a Comment