Jump to content

The rubbish they come out with!


Chancer
 Share

Recommended Posts

Whilst typing I was listening to the TV, C'est du propre is on and they are sermonizing a housholder on gaspillage of energy and water.

They showed a barely dripping tap and said that it used 4000 litres of water a year, the other night o another program thye were saying 1.5m3 pe year which is equally exaggerated.

My favorite was pointing out a maximum 500 watt halogen floodlight, it may have had a 200 or 300 watt bulb but they reckoned it consumed €1.60  per hour, by my reckoning it uses about 5cts per hour.

Another great one was advising someone to change the mousseur on their robinet for a water saving one, which cost €40 [:-))], they would have been better off telling the woman not to do the washing up under a running tap, to fill a bowl with the old or the new aerateur would consume exactly the same amout of water.

Every night I hear very convincing presenters talking total rubbish but they are French, its on their script so they believe it, and so do 99 of the viewers, someone somewhere apart from me must know they are talking out their culs so why does no-one ever bring them to account?

Just before finishing typing I heard the best one, a leaking chasse d'eau will consume six cent mille litres par jour, 600m3.

These people have no comprehension of units.

It gets better, they have just gone on to the gelled up fridge, do youy know that your fridge uses 30% of your energy consumption, no neither did I because it is bollox, the they put a meter on it and it was using 162 watts per hournow that must be some batiment basse consommation! I will hang on to see if they remeasure the consumption after defrosting and degaging all the dust from the back.

Well it was 130 watts, quand même, ca vaut le coup! But then they said that represents a saving of €55 per year, not unless they have 48 hour days where they are.

They have just done the same bulls**t calculation for the telly on standby 30 watts saving €55 per year.

I have to stop now, their mathematics are doing my head in. Still at least the house will be clean at the end.

OMG they have just trotted out the mousseur line again (its not the same program) they have decided to say now that it only costs €3.

Sorry cant stop, now they are advising to scrap the chauff eau on heurse creuses by a chauff eau instantaneé to save money!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steady on there lol.

600m3 from a dripping tap!  That's a swimming pool lol.  Nothing will ever be done about all the erroneous fact and figures because it's done in the name of the green, that sort of bull gets to me in the UK, at least I won't be able to understand it for a while in France.

 

We got one of those electricity usage meter things and it has made me turn off the crt projector instead of standby cos it used 50watts, other than that we have stopped leaving candescent lamps on.  We have an LED TV and low energy bulbs in the living room, if we leave the 6 spots on in the kitchen after making a drink they use as much as everything else in the house!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My attitude with things like lights etc is that as long as I can afford the electricity bill when it comes in I don't really care, a sort of "its my money and I will waste it as I like" attitude. Having said that I do automatically turn lights off having lived on boat for two years.

What does annoy me is the amount of calls from companies that are 'part of EDF' trying to sell me solar energy especially as we had a director of EDF stay last year and he assured me they don't approved or anything else companies to sell solar stuff. I just say it's a rented house and they throw the phone down on me. I also don't like the 'bills' that come addressed to Mrs Q but are actually some form of assurance to do with burst water pipes. I wonder how many old people think it's a bill and just pay it? I suppose every country has it 'fiddles' especially after a certain double glassing company in the UK "You know the one, BOGOF" who have been done again for 'cold calling'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

600m3 is roughly 10 domestic pools. I know what Chancer means, hero worship of tv presenters who really haven't a clue. Mustn't object though or we'll be in the wrong, happy happy shiny people in little bubble worlds, BTW why do these idiots have to earn so much for regurgitating a script?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just spoke to my pal who swopped over to a water meter n the UK as he lived alone in a one bed flat.

He was slightly unnerved to recieve a bill after a 6 months for 1500m3, he turned off everything and the meter was still whirling ike a dervish, it turned out thankfully for him that that they had connected it to the flat underneath him but where was all the water going?

The tenant was a Cassoce, he used to call her Chavleigh, and she refused entry to the water board guys, she or more correctly the social services were paying water rates so she didnt care, my friend spoke to her, he had always managed to keep on the good side of her, and she said "yeah the toilet has been running for a few years now but it still flushes innit".

Being worried as he was at the time he looked in to water leaks in general and tells me that the water meter throttles slightly the supply pipe and a normal domestic one is calibrated to pass no more than 75m3 per day, it still is frightening to think though that if you go on a wineter holiday and dontturn off your stop cock a burst pipe could cost you in the region of €2400 a fortnight if you are on mains drainage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We used 57 cubic meters of water last year and I have two ponies here all summer long.  What are these people on, one wonders?

You are quite right, the stranglehold which the state has over the televised media and the fact that they are allowed to peddle this cr*p amazes me.

I turn off anything I'm not using and I only use "captured" water from the roof on the garden and in the fish pond, also for the ponies until it runs out.  But we dishwash every day, we both shower, and I use the washing machine a couple of times a week so how a dripping tap could produce that much I cannot imagine.  In fact, our outside tap used to drip until we had it replaced and the replacement has barely affected our water consumption at all.   I'm careful not to waste stuff even though I don't have kids so it really is unlikely to affect me or mine if the planet runs out of resources in 20 years, but I do hate pointless consumption (my o/h is a master at leaving lights on in rooms where he isn't).  Otherwise as Quillan says, if you have no investment in the future who cares? - it's your money you can spend it as you wish. 

But I do think the argument for conservation is damaged rather than reinfoced by these stupid statistics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am glad I am not the only one too do a double take when such things are presented.

What worries me is that even my most intelligent and open minded French friends seem to accept everything that is told to them without question, I guess they had to be that way to succeed in the education system and to get to where they have in their careers..

The very few people that I have met that show some signs of having a similar questioning outlook on life, those that are willing to take the odd measured risk or two without worrying themselves to death, those who when push comes to shove will stick their neck out, are either second generation immigrants and hence had taken on different parental values (their parents having to fight hard to succeed in France) or those that lacked academic qualifications, went into low paid manual work but nonetheless broke out on their own and have bult up successfull P.M.E.'s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know Chancer nothing surprises or shocks me anymore, perhaps its part of getting old. In the past I would be 'doing a Victor Meldrew' over such things but you know what I can't be ars*d anymore. If people are so stupid enough to believe these sort of things on these sort of programs then good luck to them. I don't even bother to say 'I told you so' anymore, I just simply smile inwardly and walk on by. We get people stay looking for houses, either to live in France permanently or just a holiday home. In the past they inevitably asked questions and when they don't hear the answer they want tell you that your wrong. Later on, when they have bought and moved in, they come round complaining about this and that, the same things I tried to tell them when they stayed but didn't listen too. Simple now, I just say I don't know and let them go figure for themselves, my blood pressure goes down, I feel less stressed and they don't come knocking anymore. There appears to be a generation out there now that want others to do the 'finding out' for them, perhaps its this 'not my fault its the other fella' mentality, so if they believe these programs and it turns out to be wrong later on then its not their fault is it, I mean the chap on the TV said this and that so it must be right. It reminds me of The Sun newspaper that used to have (don't know if it still does) a bit called "The Sun Says" so if they say it then it must be true. [;-)] Still I suspect you had a fun evening listening to all this, did you stop and think it might have been a comedy program or just a comedy of errors?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh its definitely a comedy program, its a copy of an Eenglish one, the name escapes me where a pair of harridans with pink fur trimmed rubber gloves declutter (degage would be better here) and clean up (well of course they dont actually get their hands dirty themselves) the hovels of people who have no idea how to remain tidy let alone clean, they then revisit to see if they have kept it up.

Its voyeuristic to see just how some other people live and often its those who outwardly are immaculately dressed, coiffured and made up, some are just sad old batchelors/spinsters like me and I often say to myself, there but the grace of god go I.

Anyway they take great pleasure out of sermonising their victims (not sure how to say that in English, lecturing perhaps) and literally rubbing their noses into their own lack of hygiene, all makes for good viewing figures of course.

Nowadays the program seems to have taken on a green or Eco twist like everything else and so not content with humiliating these poor folks with their lack of (percieved) hygiene and proprieté they also make them feel responsible for destroying the planet, it seems clear that no-one on the program has even the slightest knowledge or experience to do this.

We need Anne Robinson (or at least her plasticised eternal effigy) and we need her now! Not just to present "Watchdog" but "Points of view" as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

August last year we got a whopping great electricity bill for 900€ - not even for the winter period when we had the rads, lighting etc etc. Obviously as is the way here we had to pay it and are still waiting for the decision as to whether the meter was faulty or not, but they helpfully accused my fridge freezer of eating the electricity as it "could'nt possibly be their meter" which had been here since time immemorial. (And they read the meter every single time too!)

Is it not strange then that since August we have'nt had a bill over 175€, even right through the cold spells, so it obviously was not my fridge freezer munching through the watts.

I await the verdict but don't hold out much hope.....................
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A french collector of football jerseys buys three "maillots". One worn by David Trezeguet when france won the world cup in 1998. He goes to the "poste" for his chronopost parcel to be informed that the "douane" have destroyed it for being a "contrefaçon".[:)]

http://www.20minutes.fr/article/667130/sports-le-maillot-champion-monde-trezeguet-detruit-douane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Framboise"]August last year we got a whopping great electricity bill for 900€ - not even for the winter period when we had the rads, lighting etc etc. Obviously as is the way here we had to pay it and are still waiting for the decision as to whether the meter was faulty or not, but they helpfully accused my fridge freezer of eating the electricity as it "couldn't possibly be their meter" which had been here since time immemorial. (And they read the meter every single time too!) Is it not strange then that since August we haven't had a bill over 175€, even right through the cold spells, so it obviously was not my fridge freezer munching through the watts. I await the verdict but don't hold out much hope.....................[/quote]

Hey they still have not sorted out the Tempo problem in our village (I now know I am not the only one), we are still getting billed at 'Blue' night rate for 'Red' days but I am very honest and am going round turning all the heating off manually on 'Red' days and not using the oven, they must be loosing a few bob there. [;-)]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too am in the 'I can afford to use what I want' camp. I'm still working and pulling in a good salary so why should I skimp. Even if I did what real difference would it make to anybody or anything except my own bank balance ?

Out of pure interest I have done some checks and in my lounge my 3 Sky boxes, each with their own TiVo recorder, are sucking 200w 24/7 - plus another 60w when the big telly is on.

In the study with the computers, hubs, phones, printer, various chargers, TV, etc. etc. etc. another 200w odd is going more or less 24/7

Do I care, no.

Maybe when I've retired I'll look to make some savings but until then to hell with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="AnOther"]  Do I care, no. Maybe when I've retired I'll look to make some savings but until then to hell with it. [/quote]

But the planet,![:-))] Global warming!!,[I] Antartica!!!,[6] Hell freezing over[:D]

We'll have to change that lightbulb symbol, that's not allowed[Www]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was an absolute howler on M6 Global mag before I went out tonight, they were talking about les biffineurs in Paris although I cant find the name on google, they used to be called les chiffoneuses in the 50's (they collected rags from rubbish) the people on the program I would call glaneurs as they trawl through the rubbish in the posh district of Paris recovering what they can spiv up and sell.

They concentrated on a young single mother of 4 with the obligatory tattoos and piercings who they said was really adept and could turn her hand to bricole anything, she had recovered a table lamp with the cord cut off short (probably because the person who dumped it knew it was dangerous) and she was showing how she was going to recover it with another piece of flex with une prise atached, they kept saying how clever and Systeme D she was.

Both flexes looked to be two core 1mm2 or so, no 3rd earth wire, she stripped the cables awkwardly with a massive chefs knife on a chopping board, twisted the two bare conductors together and seperated them slightly and plugged it, in all the time the interviewer was cooing about how clever she was, when it lit up she said "Voila! ça marche", "all I need now is a bit of scotch or some sellotape and it will be as good as new and I can sell it for €10"

Anyone looking for a cheap electrician? She is really good! They said so on the telly.[Www]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And, a quote from the forthcomming ECObuild show at ExCel next month.

"Taking into account ‘hidden’ water, each person in the UK uses over 3,400 litres of water each day! That includes not just the water we use in our homes and workplaces, but what is embedded in all that we consume - in our cars, our clothing, even in our sandwiches...."

I will need a full breakdown to work that one through.

The light fitting so cleverly repaired, will need a PAT test before it can be legally sold cost £50....so a loss of 40 then [:P]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And what about the phrase so often trotted out, "gaspillage d'eau" or "wasting water" as both countries are as bad in this respect.

One cannot waste water! There is a finite amount of water contained on, within and around the planet, it does not change, it is so immense and so abundant that one could consider it infinite even given our overpopulation.

A leaking tap does not waste water, it justs does what nature intended of it, it goes into the ground, evaporates, forms clouds and falls to earth again as rain ad infinitum.

The water companies act as if they own the resource that belongs to all of us, there  overseas expansion and globilisation means that sure as eggs is eggs wars will one day be fought for the right to exploit what belongs to all of us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The argument, as I understand it, is that it isn't the water per se which gets wasted, but the purified water - it is the energy involved in processing it for the tap which is being wasted.  Of course it goes round and round, Chancer, it's the processes which use energy, afaik.   But as AnO says, these stupid exagerated numbers just put people's backs up and do nothing for conservation.  Far more important, imo, is to point out to those who insist on giving birth to more and more human beings, just what kind of planet these unnecessary offspring are going to have to live in if the rubbish continues to pile up and all the fuel is finished.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I couldnt agree more, whilst everyone is chanting the mantras of global warming, carbon emissions, worldwide food shortages, speculation on commodities causing famine, no-one seems to want to tackle what to me is the one obvious thing that we could do something about, the ever increasing world population.

France and in particular my region seems very proud of its poulation growth, my region proudly boasts to be the most fecund in France, governments of all countries seem to think that economic growth is the answer to everything, they cannot countenance that perhaps it has played its part in towards all these threats they would like us to worry about.

All the unemployed familes in my village seem to be pushing out kids as fast as they can and the working families gradually seem to be leaving, in my time here I have seen every year considerable investment in our two maternal schools (boys and girls) they have twice extended them, built a dortoir and now a canteen.

I have just recieved the yearly newsletter and it shows the Etat civil for the village it shows 14 births and only 10 deaths which I guess is pretty common, and I am sure the figures were like that in all the preceding years yet the population is in decline. Despite several new builds per year our population has diminished by 9 over the last 3 years, there are far more abandoned properties than when I moved here and far more overcrowded ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"How clean is your house?" is, I believe, the name of the UK version of the program mentioned earlier. Last time I was in UK I spent 3 miserable days stuck in my sisters house with nothing but daytime Sky tv for company and some channel was running repeats of this show back to back.  The astute observer will notice that in the "before" shots of the manky hovels, the floors are always strewn with pizza boxes and knotted carrier bags containing items unknown - Those very same boxes and bags make an appearance in each and every episode. Infact I would bet they get a mention in the shows credits.

As for the French and waste, it makes me laugh. When I moved to my current house, the previous tennant (nosy old boot) came by as I was moving in. I expressed surprise that the socket by the washing machine had no power to it. She practically burst with delight and launched into a tirade about how it was wired up to only come on at off-peak times, saving an absolute fortune every year. Its for a washing machine, not a particle accelerator - how much power does she think it used? But then, she was the same woman who told me to make sure I plugged the pump for the well when watering the garden into the gite socket not my own appartment, that way the site owner pays for the power, not me. Then again, she was the same woman who used Brand X cleaning product and the same wee bit of cloth to clean the sink, bath, toilet, kitchen worktops and kitchen sink when doing Gite changeovers. In that order. [+o(]

My new place is curently undergoing serious work before I move in next month. Since the kitchen and bathroom are currently in a pile in the garden, I have turned the water off and while I crack on with plastering and tiling the new rooms, I am using water that I bring with me each day in 20litre bidons. Truth be told, the tile mix doesnt need much water, most of it is for washing the tools when finished. The new neighbour was almost foaming at the mouth when he saw we wasting all that water in the back garden cleaning out the buckets and trowels. "that water is costing you a fortune, my boy."

If 20 litres of water is a fortune, then this areas must be poorer than I thought!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...