I’m a poor energy user. I’m not terrible, I turn off lights when they’re not in use, and I “unplug” when I go away on trips, but I don’t think much about everyday use. When I see all of these doom and gloom articles about Energy, rising cost of bills, Inflation, Recession, I put it away in my mental file cabinet, but I’ve got a laissez-faire attitude to the whole thing. The cost of electricity has become a bit annoying (personally seeing it jump from 25€ to 80€), but I feel like there are probably worse places to be, 

I mean it’s a little scary because of how they’re going about meeting the needs (deregulating in order to get them up faster feels a little bit like the French version of Dark or The China Syndrome), but the government has already said there’s no need to worry about rationing. They don’t foresee any issues with meeting demand (France is home to 56 operational nuclear power reactors and 70% of it’s energy comes from it).

That said they’re encouraging everyone to pay a little attention to energy use by way of the Ecowatt website. The website will give you a glimpse of consumption in your area by labeling them by color; green (energy consumption can continue as normal); orange (the electrical grid is strained, individuals are encouraged to reduce energy consumption); and red (the electrical grid is very strained, and short localised power cuts could be possible without a reduction in energy usage). The hope is that people will see orange or red and cut back. It all feels a bit dystopian. 

If you’re wondering about your consumption, I would suggest investing in some smart plugs. I’ve not used the consumption features on mine, I have them because I enjoy having Siri do things for me, but the feature exists, and they’re supposed to give you a better idea of your personal use. In my house (an Apple home) I use EVE. Apple recommends them (which gives me a sense of security), and they’re Thread enabled. I’ll go into a discussion on the benefits of Thread on my personal site. 

One more aside, the Bouclier tarifaire (tariff shield) ends this year and prices will rise by 15%. Something to be mindful of if you’re someone who eagle eye’s your bill. 


A doom and gloom article: https://fortune.com/2022/09/24/europe-energy-crisis-winter-natural-gas-putin/