In early May I was invited by Smart Energy GB to attend an
event organised to highlight the absurdity of estimation in our daily lives. We
don’t and wouldn’t accept it in other parts of our lives yet seem to have no
problem using estimation to pay for one of the largest household bills, our gas
and electricity.
On 19 May the date had arrived, hubby had managed to say
nothing of what was in store* and I made my way through the streets of trendy
Hoxton, dodging hipsters, the pools of beard wax on the pavement outside
overpriced bars and artisan coffee houses to Open Kitchen.
So, what was on the cards? Well, it was described as a strange
an unusual punishment in a jokey way, but it actually turned out to be four
hours of fun, laughter and a great chance to see how other bloggers coped with
the challenges. Hosted by Ian Cumming of chocolate well fame from a certain
baking show had developed two recipes for us to try and bake, the twist being
that the recipes didn’t have any measurements, we had no way of measuring
anything and we had no idea what temperature and for how long they had to be
baked for – everything was to be done using estimates.
As we had an odd number I had the beauty of lots of advice
and assistance from Ian. Without it I would have been lost, completely lost and
despite his expert help I have to say the first challenge resulted in lovely
looking cakes but on tasting them they had a sharp taste. Way too much
bi-carbonate of soda!
As the chefs from Open Kitchen made their way around the
work stations to judge the offerings we had come up with we adjourned
downstairs to a beautifully decorated area where we learnt more about smart
meters and how they will bring an end to the age of estimation and drag one of
the last analogue industries into the digital age. We even got to watch a short
hidden camera video showing the reaction of shoppers when a supermarket
estimates their final bill. I had seen it before but it still makes me laugh.
You can see it here:
After taking on some tea it was time for Ian to set the
second challenge. Cheese and herb scones! I’ve never made a scone in my life
and dreaded this section! After much tutting and deliberation it became clear
that I had to get a move on and again I was pulling my scones out of the oven
as time was called. These were much worse than the cupcakes and it took about
five minutes to chew one bite – not good.
There were prizes for the best estimator bake and to my
surprise the worse bakes also received vouchers for cooking lessons with the
excellent chefs at Open Kitchen.
I didn’t win, I couldn’t (see the disclosure at the bottom)
but that didn’t take anything away from the day which I thought was a fantastic
way of bringing energy and an energy related topic to life, brilliantly organised
and well executed.
Three things I learnt on the day:
- Estimation sucks and smart meters will finally bring this to an end for my bills
- Ian Cumming is not only a great baker but also he is a genuinely lovely man and it was an honour to cook with him
- Smart meters will show me, in pounds and pence what I’m spending on my electricity at home - we don’t have a gas supply.
Smart meters are being offered to every household in
England, Scotland and Wales between now and 2020 at no additional cost. They
show how much energy you are using and do so in pounds and pence so you can use
the display to make energy efficiency savings around the home, easy steps like
changing to energy efficient light bulbs, turning off lights when leaving rooms
and switching devices off standby.
*it’s an obvious
disclosure but hubby does work for Smart Energy GB, he offered no help on the
day and he even excluded me from the possibility of winning or losing so there
could be no accusations of bias. It was fun though and an experience I’ll never
forget.
*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise