Through his One Tree Travel blog posts, our Director, Roland, shares his personal journey towards a greener, more sustainable lifestyle.
Throughout my career, I’ve looked for opportunities to champion environmental issues and our One Tree Travel insurance product is a great platform from which we are aiming to help our business and its customers do more to protect our planet, its people, and other animals.
At home I also try to do my bit, with my family’s support, and hope you enjoy the experiences I share through these personal blog posts.
Proud partners of
Proud partners of
The growth in the production of electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind has brought about an unexpected benefit, the opportunity for electricity suppliers to encourage consumption of electricity where supply outstrips demand. This arises during periods of high generation and low consumption, such as during the afternoon.
Instead of it going to waste, suppliers may offer customers an opportunity to opt in for free electricity during a defined period of time on a given date. Customers are encouraged to move their consumption to this period and may even have the value of the electricity consumed deducted from their bill.
When my colleague, Karl, advised me that his supplier offered such an incentive, and I realised my supplier was now the same, following a change in ownership, I started to pay more attention to my email inbox where notifications of the offer periods and the opt-in links are delivered.
These offers represent an opportunity to consider how we think about energy consumption during periods of surplus, especially when battery storage technologies are still expensive. In the short-term they present our household with an opportunity to reduce its energy bills. So it was with much enthusiasm that I explained to my teenage daughter the plan for Thursday afternoon last week when electricity was free between 2 and 4pm.
Before heading back to work after my lunch break, I would run the dishwasher and set the washing machine to come on. I would also switch on the immersion heater for the hot water tank in the airing cupboard. All she needed to do on returning home from school was switch off the immersion heater at 4pm and, if she had time (I was pushing my luck here), put the washing out to dry! Everything went to plan initially. I walked home for lunch, programmed the washing machine, ran the dishwasher and planned to switch on the immersion heater.
And then my son turned up!
Having enjoyed a geology field trip in Scotland, he had come back to the family home for a few days before returning to university. We had a quick hug and a chat, added his washing to the machine, and I explained that the immersion heater needed to be switched off at 4pm, showing him the switch which I turned on before heading back to our office.
Just before 4pm, I messaged him and he said he was just about to switch off the immersion heater - he hadn't forgotten! But what happened next literally changed everything and was a classic example of not practicing what I preach at work, "Never allocate an action to more than one person as neither or both of them will do it". Unbeknown to him, his sister had arrived home from school shortly after 4pm and, within minutes, she remembered that she had to flick the switch in the airing cupboard to turn off the immersion heater. Bless her!
At around 10pm when we were saying our good nights, I asked her if she had remembered, saying that it didn't matter as ber brother had done it anyway. She said, "Oh, no, I was a few minutes late but I switched it off after school." Of course she hadn't switched it off, she'd switched it back on, and it had been on ever since! An attempt to save money on electricity had led to the immersion heater being left on for six hours after the period of free electricity had ended. Oops!
In the final reckoning, the additional costs won't be too excessive, and we've had several more successful attempts to claw back our losses since. It feels counter intuitive to be using as much electricity as you can. But in regards the use of the immersion heater in our home, it's actually better for the environment; the hot water would otherwise be heated by a gas-fired boiler.
Another lesson learnt then. I hope it all made sense and thanks for reading this far!
Roland at One Tree Travel 🌳