Finding the chase and cutting to it

I’ve been checking out what the upcoming change in the price caps means.

Electricity usage is going up by a third (so a bill today of £100 will be £133.33) per unit – the standing charge is then on top of that, for a 31 day month, £13.95.

Gas usage is going up by just under 75%, (4p -> 7p is 4*1.75) so a bill of £100 will become £175 and the standing charge is a max of £8.37. As this is happening over the summer, what is likely to happen is everyone moves to heating hot water with immersion heaters from solar power where possible. Immersion heaters are really good in terms of efficiency – using 3units of electricity to get a completely cold hot water tank up to temperature – at the maximum for electricity, that’s 84p. Do this at mid-day, using solar power which is what we do from March to October, and the savings can be huge – we spent £8 on gas (i.e. the standing charge) in August which is not the month we get the most from our solar panels…

Switching from baths to showers over the summer makes this a cheap way to make the most of energy use without too much bother.

Of course, I’m typing this as someone with an energy efficient house and not being penalised for having a bad credit score.

I’ve spent the past three years reducing my electricity and gas usage by insulating and switching technologies – not all in one go, but in small steps, the most expensive being changing 8 radiator value controllers for remote, programmable ones (£500).

But I could have done this one room at a time, reducing the bill to £60 a room, though there is a discount for the bulk buy. When I replaced the halogen bulbs to LEDs, I did this in stages to break down the costs.

We’ve saved more than 70% of our electricity use over three years, which we’re now enjoying relatively speaking and 30% of our gas use. Of course, planet Earth is also in a position to enjoy this.

Sounds great, how do I do this?

Electricity usage is easy – more efficient lights and devices, only 7% of our usage is lighting. Heathing is harder and there are three basic options…

Going smarter

If you haven’t done so already, changing room or zone thermostats can be ground breaking. A simple digital thermostat, the Heatmiser slimline, costs about £53 (this time of year) but can deliver significant savings if you have everyone out of the house for school and work each day.

They have four periods a day where you can say what you want the temperature to be. Cold over night, warm when you get up, cold while you’re away and warm when you get through the door. A different setting for Saturdays and Sundays and saving 20% on your heating is very easy to do. It can be overriden for holidays and high days (or working from home days), and for holidays to prevent damage from damp and frost.

We started our journey that way and using smart radiator valves, you have a winning combination for getting the most out of your system, saving up to 30% in combination. We still use this approach for two of our rooms.

Semi-smart

This is what we did with our upstairs – a series of smart valves on our radiators. Any number of scheduled temperatures over 7 day, 3 day or 2 day patterns (think everyday, different during the working week and unique programmes for Saturday and Sunday or a set for Monday to Friday and a set for Saturday and Sunday). You need a wired internet connection.

This makes for better fine tuning and savings around 25% especially when teamed with open window detection and geo-fencing. It is costly, but a one off cost of £50-60 depending on how you buy.

If I were renting a house with radiators, I would replace the existing radiator thermostatic valves with these and take them with me. Each valve takes 20 minutes or so after the first one is paired.

The whole hog

The next step after the programmable thermostat is the remote programmable thermostats, usually over the internet and there are various systems, typically £85 per unit and the need for a hub (typically another £25). Savings of up to 30% per zone done.

For a geo-fencing capability, you may need to pay a service charge annually of £24 but it’s not necessary to make full use of the systems.

Easy to do?

Not trivial, it just needs some time, patience and a screw driver. Don’t do when you need the boiler on full power to keep the frost at bay!

The use of a thermostat always gives you repsonsiveness against what the weather is doing – some claim to do that with weather reports but that’s unnecessarily complicated. What programmable thermostats do is go to the next level and tune comfort.

Would you go back?

No. I wouldn’t necessarily pay for the full geo-fenced automation but the comfort piece is lovely and seeing the humidity in every room with our system is a boom allowing us to reduce damp in some of our rooms with heat and ventillation: we’ve taken out 20% humidity. If windows are open, the heat loss is limited. It’s all good.

I’ve talked a great deal about how our heating works. In line with what I’ve been talking about the past few months, I thought I’d share our latest adventure.

Adventure, is that over cooking it a little!?

It might not be a terribly exciting adventure for many but it certainly burned up some energy.

We had an offer from our energy company to buy a wired thermostat and given 5 such devices in our house (every room downstairs has individual room thermostats and the upstairs hallway), I was keen to take them up on their offer. Only they were out of stock…

Okaaaaay…

However, this time of year is good in terms of pricing for heating system upgrades, so I bought directly from tado themselves and although it arrived last week, today was installation day.

Our boiler is on a separate fuse, I’d read and watched several instruction blogs and youtubes and felt pretty good about what I was doing and having put it on inside out (which made it incrediably fiddly), I got to the point where I switched on.

All looked good so I tried to get it to heat and killed a fuse somewhere in the system. Oh dear, or words to that effect.

We found the fuse in question, found a 5A replacement, took the thermostat out of circuit and checked everything was working. Phew, or words to that effect.

Of course, being a German system, once you have it talking to the internet, it is really helpful about telling you have it should be working and it seemed obvious from the much more detailed “replacement instructions” for our old thermostat, where different wires should go.

Did that, switched on again, all work, so again tested the heating. Bliss!

Out of interest, why bother?

Good question. I did replace one of the internet controlled systems with this new one, so on the surface of it, might not have seemed worth the effort.

First one

Is always the hardest, and took 90 minutes. Having done it, I’ll work through the remainder of the thermostats, one a month, until they are all done.

Newer system

Don’t get me wrong, our 2011 Heatmiser thermostats did their job but we’re living different lives and starting to travel a lot more. I couldn’t get the old PRT-Wifi for the non-internet sockets we had, so we were going to have to start upgrading at some point.

Having been impressed with the tado smart radiator valves, it made sense to stick with that company and a single interface. With this new zone thermostat, we now have 8 devices and will be putting a smart radiator valve on our new radiator in the ensuite.

While nothing lasts for every, the device I’ve chosen is their latest and greatest and when we swap out our current boiler, it should be compatiable with whatever we get to replace it.

Will the job ever be done?

That’s an interesting question. I don’t believe it is possible to get our house to an EPC grade A without completely replacing the boiler with an electric heating system and even then, I think that might be close but no cigar. We’re not 100% passive, we’re very good but completely passive is a different story.

That final step is unlikely to be cheap. We’re not keen on an air source system as we have too much space to cater for, and ground source systems are very efficient but much more expensive to install.

Who knows though. The future is not set quite yet.

For various different reasons, the UK is facing inflation of between 4.8 and 7% this year.

This is against the backdrop of a highly priced housing market and fuel shortages (if you’re a big energy provider), driving up the cost of power being delivered to houses.

It’s not uncommon for people to be facing increases of £100 a month for their combined fuel charges.

The average house in the UK is 85m², ours is nearly three times that at 251m², but we feel we’re sitting pretty.

The reason is our house is relatively energy efficient, it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad. We’re a high C or low B in terms of our EPC. That means it’s well insulated and using energy efficient devices (bulbs, fridge, cooker, etc). Despite being 3 times the size, we’re only using 75% of the energy of the average house in the UK to heat the building! Our electricity use is a little skewed as we have an electric car, solar cells and are doing vehicle to grid. That means it’s not easy to see what we’re actually using at any time – yes we have a smart meter but cooking Sunday lunch on a sunny day allows us to denote 6kWh over the period!?

It’s also meant our house’s carbon footprint is down to 3.95 tonnes per annum. The average in terms of heating is 2.7 tonnes and 5.3 tonnes for electricity not used for heating. Many options for reducing your carbon footprint will reduce your bills long term. If you’re bill has increased by £1,200 per annum, that’s a great deal of wiggle room to make small and larger improvements. At £10 a bulb for a remote controlled, programmable bulb is much more reasonable if it can save you £40 pa.

Basically, we’re some of the few sitting comfortably, enjoying the fruits of our previous investments. Just everything else to worry about…

We’re all used to hearing the slogan reduce, reuse and recycle when it comes to waste in general especially man made products.

When it comes to eating though, it all seems like such hard work and not necessarily that environmentally useful.

A different approach is needed, then?

This is an experiment I’ve been running the last three roast dinners and thought I’d share the results.

Principle 1: Cook once, eat many times

We’re buying bigger which does not sound that eco friendly, but doubling our “joint size” more than tripples our left over meals and reduces packaging.

For Chicken, we keep the joint whole and roast then make use of the left overs, more about that later.

For lamb, beef and pork we take a different approach. A 750-1000g joint can be cut into smaller sections. A good meal is 80g of meat each, so splitting a 750g beef joint into a 350g roast and two 150g meals and one 50g meal gives us three really generous meals – for us the roast on Sunday with sandwiches for tea. Stir fry on Monday with the 50g bit. Spaghetti bolognese on Wednesday and Saturday had two frying steaks served with bread rolls, onions, mushrooms and fresh veg. Or potentially using a portion on Saturday.

Alright for you, buying a big bit of beef, some of us our struggling…

Chicken is the most popular joint for a Sunday roast in the UK. Chicken does not directly produce greenhouse gases and it is still a high protein source for relatively outlay.

As a family, we roast it very plainly and serve with stuffing on Sunday. Let’s look at what can be done with a 1.75kg bird cooked over 90 minutes on a Sunday with roast potatoes and freshly cooked boiled vegetables (say carrots, broccoli, cabbage or leak and sweetcorn. We save 15ml or so of the vegetables and serve the rest with gravy and stuffing.

As soon as Sunday lunch is over, we strip the carcase of meat and reminants of stuffing.

The chicken is covered and left to naturally cool then stored at 0°C until a serving is removed for each dish.

Stock produced in the microwave

One of the issues with a traditionally cooked stock is the hours it needs on the hob, burning energy and producing CO₂. This approach uses the microwave and produces enough stock for a couple of meals.

A few freshly boiled vegetables are reserved and some skin off the joint as well as the bones and added to 500ml of plain water and some herbs and seasoning into a litre microwave bowl or jug. Microwave for 14 minutes over three slots, stirring each time. Leave to stand for 2 minutes then sieve out the bones and vegetables leaving a home made stock. We use half for soup that night, cooked while there is still daylight producing some solar power.

Monday: cheat’s curry

I love this as a lazy ready meal with a difference. Buy a great vegetable curry (Thai, Chinese, Indian) and boil your own rice. With 5 minutes to go on the rice, add left over chicken to the rice’s cook pot. Serve with the vegetable curry for a little extra protein.

Tuesday: rissotto

25% of the left over meat is used with the reserved stock to make a tasty chicken, pepper, baby or big sweetcorn and pea rissotto.

Wednesday: stir fry

Chopped vegetables or a premixed stir fry. Requires very little meat to be more generous than a shop bought ready meal.

Thursday: have a break

Treat yourself to something, anything different. All that money you’ve saved allows a take out treat. We often do fish and chips.

Friday: chicken pie

This requires very little meat and if using premade stock and pastry is really quick to make. Think chicken stew with a pastry side. You can put all the vegetables in the pie for a nutritous single meal that’s really filling.

Very comprehensive, but what about Saturday

We cook vegetarian: chilli or pasta or a soup. Or a burger from the mince produced from the meat for Sunday served with home baked rolls or salad. I make a lovely coleslaw.

If we have pasta at the weekend, it tends to be fresh reducing plastic waste.

Our approach means very little waste including electricity to cook the meals but means everything is simply produced at home while we’re both holding down full time jobs.

For me, the story starts in the Spring of 1992 when I got a phone call from my parents telling me the offer they’d made on a house had been accepted. I was living in Bath in rented accommodation working out what was next in my story.

The house had been built in the 1600s and was partially renovated by the current owners but it was a big job and they couldn’t finish the task.

What my parents got was a lot of furniture left in the big house: 254m² with a big garden and a lot of work which over the next 12 years they did. They down-sized and what they couldn’t use they left. That helped my parents out a little and in turn, as me and my brother left to make our own lives: us.

One piece was a small “gentleman’s wardrobe” from 1960. At 50cm deep, 80cm wide and 150cm tall, it had a built in tie rack, 5 shelves, a 3/4 hanging rail and two locking doors, one with a key. It was made by a company called Austinsuite who specialised in fitting Londoners with bedroom furniture just before the war.

Between the wars, it wasn’t uncommon for a “bedroom suite” to come with two wardrobes – a larger woman’s one to house her dress, often with full skirts, and a small man’s one. A dressing table for the lady would finish off with a little storage for jewelery and of course cosmetics.

Of course, for us in modern times, with all the pieces we have, it’s not nearly enough but being freestanding, when I moved into a house, I inherited it from my folks. Along with a tall boy, that lasted until we got to fit our family house. Then my son got to use the cupboard.

It lasted him until he was 13 and we fitted his room. At which point, the little wardrobe went in to the spare room for guests.

It was pulled in to full time service again when we bought our current house. Having sloped ceiling in a chalet styled house is very awkward but it’s narrow and short stature allows it to nestle. Again it was relegated to a spare room and now it sits in our upstairs lobby, providing emergency storage while another cupboard sits in the spare room.

But we don’t actually need it which means what’s next in its 62 year history? Do we hang on while my son decides his next step or sell it?

Watch this space.

On the face of it, our lives at the moment should resemble hell. We’re having building work done and have vacated our bedroom but thankfully our son is a grown up and living in Newcastle, so we can live in his old room. Despite the noise (we’re both still working from home), life is surprisingly comfortable.

Eh?

Our master bedroom is a little wow, about twice the size of a standard bed one and the ensuite is of the same proportion. We’re having that ensuite completely remodeled. It will take a while and we’re a week in. Thankfully, that’s the ripping out and because no nasty surprises were found, the rebuild is already underway.

Our son’s room is bed 2 and has it’s own bathroom too. So we’re not really slumming it. His bed is a little smaller and there’s less storage but we’ve moved a unit in from our room which makes it feel like home from home.

There are terrible things happening, as usual, across the world. These have caused gas and electricity prices to go up, however going through our budgets, things do not feel too scary. Yes, it will mean more money going on power but the steps we’ve taken to reduce our carbon footprint have all meant we’re spending less than the average house in terms of power anyway.

Our house has a carbon footprint of 3.99 tonnes per annum: we’ve knocked nearly 0.4 tonnes off our annual consumption. Our electricity bill is negative (i.e. we’re contributing more than we’re using) and goes a long way towards paying for our heating.

While we’re still using gas in the house, we use 19,176 kWh per annum over approx. 653m³. So that’s approx. or 29 kWh per m³ a day, which isn’t at all bad.. We’re never cold. Over the summer, excess electricity generation from our solar cells warms our hot water, reducing our footprint a little.

We’re not using a heat pump, but given the average house in the UK produces 6 tonnes of CO₂ a year, we’re using a lot less than the average.

Aren’t you goody two shoes?

For me, everything everyone does matters. The price of electricity and gas going up is awful. Simple things can help.

Using gas to keeping warm and using the same techniques to stay cool during summer

1. Fit blinds to your windows. Thermally insulated ones needn’t cost the earth but provide an extra layer of protection to an area where heat is lost.
2. Ensure your loft is insulated. There are many options, but fibreglass works really well and is relatively cheap but ensure condensation and roof leaks are sorted out. If fibreglass gets wet, it doesn’t work well. There are other alternatives as seen in https://www.insulation-info.co.uk/roof-insulation including Rock wool. If you’re relatively fit and healthy, it can be a DIY task, but both these options require the use of protective equipment to ensure skin and lung irritation is avoided.
3. Only heat what you need to: we’re talking thermostats here and timed ones are better than just setting a temperature as all people have different physiological needs during the day. The big beauty about controlling your heating by the thermostat is you can protect against frost, keeping rooms above 12°C means burst pipes are avoided and above 16° helps avoid condensation and therefore damp. For radiators, although this is not a cheap option, smart radiator valves can make a huge difference where you already have thermostatic valves on your radiators. At least one radiator needs to be open (we have that in the bathroom) to protect the boiler, but this can make a huge difference to heating bills and comfort.
4. During the winter, make use of thermal gain. Open curtains during the day and close them about 30 minutes before sunset. Teamed with room thermostats, this can make a big difference on a sunny day.
5. If you’re sitting at home cold and it’s possible, go outside. This sounds insane, but stepping outside for 15 minutes and getting your muscles working will make your house seem warmer when you go back inside. Remember to wrap up warm before you go 🙂
6. During the summer, close curtains and blinds to prevent solar gain. Open them up once the late afternoon arrives. The thermally insulating blinds we used over the winter can stop thermal gain too – don’t air condition, block the sun. For a modern look, a plain blind a similar colour to your wall can help tie in a look while a white one can help make the most of lighting schemes.
7. Keep air flowing – insulation is great but you and your home need to breathe. Trickle vents should be open during the winter when people are in the house and opening windows would lose too much heat.
8. Service your boiler at least once a year. This ensures it is working at its best efficiency and every 1 kWh of gas burnt is used to full benefit.
9. If you have a dual cavity oven and are only cooking a small thing, try using the small oven. Much like using the right sized hob ring, smaller spaces are cheaper to get to temperature.
10. Over the winter, we use a big (not thick) duvet. Going from a single to a double on a single bed can stop draughts by ensuring the duvet hangs over the edge of the bed. We use a super king on a king size. That allows us to have the room we sleep in down to 16°C without suffering at all. Over the summer, I swap the duvet for sheets under the much thinner and smaller duvet. When it’s really hot, the duvet can be stowed at the end of the bed and the sheet allows for a wicking effect to happen and at 3am or so, the duvet can be readded.
11. Do make the effort to close doors. Even if there is a draft under them, thermally, they make spaces smaller and easier to heat 🙂

Electricity use

1. Swap out halogen lights. While they are bright, they are as bad as incandescents in terms of power use (or may actually be worse). CFTs or LEDs are better alternatives and both are available in a range of fittings. Typically, lighting will make up 20% of your household consumption.
2. When looking at lights, check the rating of the lumens (may be given in lm) , this is the brightness, against the power, measured in watts. High lm value against a low W value is the ideal and can help you work out the best options for you.
3. Cooking options using electric rather than gas: cooking is typically 7-10% of a weekly “energy spend”. Microwave ovens are much more efficient and combination microwave and convention or grills can make cooking quicker while leaving a crispy finish. You’re not limited to just reheating either, microwaves can be used for many “from scratch” recipes including stocks, soups, poaching, and baking. I love them for vegetables and fish. If you don’t have one already, a basic one can be bought for very little, https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=microwave+oven against what it might save.
4. If you have solar cells, cook main meals at midday and have cold or quickly cook meals in the evening, making the most of your prepaid power.
5. You don’t need to replace your whole hob with an induction hob, a simple plug in one can allow you to access this cheaper form of hob cooking without a huge expense. I bought one for our barbequeing to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce fire risk but my lunch is often cooked on this. The only downside is needing a steel pan – I would recommend doing that as opposed to buying a big adapter plate for all your pans and that will reduce efficiency.
6. Of course, using the camping induction hob has let us know we really like this way of cooking, so that’s something we’re saving against.
7. Use a lid when heating on a hob. A bit like insulating your house, your cooking will heat at a lower temperature and boil quicker. I bought a Silicone Lid for Pots a while ago which not only provides that cover but stops the pan from over boiling.
8. We keep vegetables in the fridge to maximise shelf life. Taking them out 30-60 minutes before you’re going to use them makes use of ambient temperature rather than the oven or hob taking the strain. You can do the same with roast meats too.
9. Roast meats at a cooler temperature. Cooking for a little longer at 160°C for a small joint can make a big difference, especially if your using solar electricity to cook.
10. Use the timer on the oven to ensure the oven is switched off when cooking stops.
11. Heat pumps (air or ground) are not the only way to switch from gas central heating. Modern storage heaters are worth looking at, especially if you are out of the house all day and have solar cells. Originally, they were used to balance the grid and cheap electricity provided at night was used to provide heat during the day. Instead, the new ones make use of cheap, green electricity generated by the sun while you are at work and store heat in the radiator until it is needed when you get home. Storage heaters expect there to be a period in your day you don’t need to be using the heaters so they can get warm. If someone is in the house 16 hours or more a day, they may be less suitable.
12. “Effectively going off grid” and ensuring you are not going over your solar generated electricity can be done with some serious planning. High power kettles, running cookers on full power, washing machines on a boil wash and microwaves run on high can all hurt the cause if run willy nilly but staggering when things run can mean you make the most of what you generate. In the summer, the UK has between 5 and 8 hours of sun on average (over the last 10 years). which makes this an interesting option.
13. If you have solar, the other thing you can do is buy a Solar iBoost. Any unused solar power is used to turn on your hot water immersion heater without the need for complicated solar heaters. Over the summer, our gas consumption goes down to 400 kWh a month without modifying our behaviour (4 baths a week and a morning shower every day). It works during the winter too but is harder to see. When our boiler broke down one year, we just used immersion hot water and can really cut our CO₂ usage: so we’re thinking that might be the way we run things over the summer.
14. Again, if you have solar, charge batteries during midday rather than over night.

Of course, there are other options for cooking including using charcol, wood, or bottled gas. This is an interesting take on the cooking issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ueUXAzPltE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXWfmN1wMhs, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szIRgcGyLdw if you have the patience to wait if there’s no direct sunlight. An interesting option for spending time in the garden though. GoSun are not the only manufacturers on market, as https://www.ecowatch.com/solar-oven-guide-2655204322.html demonstrates. If you have a suitable area, an option for weekend living and going zero CO₂?

I’m typing this in bed due to being infected by Covid-19 at some point over the last two weeks: I tested positive very late on the 16th February.

I feel reasonably lucky as the impact has been devasting on my insulin requirements, but I have food booked via my local supermarket, the internet at my fingertips and feel snug as Storm Franklin rages outside my window. I seem to have a coping mechanism working for the insulin requirements and am no longer swinging from high to low. And the power is still up, go PowerGen.

Actually, Franklin may be why I’m typing this – the noise is horrendous and while I am definitely achy, coughy and headachy, I’m not actually ill enough to be out for the count while my subconcious is going “threat”. Why is it prioritising the wind outside to me getting better? Doesn’t my subconcious trust that I wouldn’t subject any part of me to unnecessary risk.

Oh, that’s right, I am in this position as I managed to pick up Covid from somewhere: point taken.

Location is so important in where you live, we have a show in the UK called Location, Location, Location.

We ended up moving for that very reason 8 years ago but after the initial shock of the cost of moving, one thing we noticed moving from a village to the main town was how cheap everything got.

Our council tax is lower despite moving up a band. Local services are much better.

Heating is lower as the air temperature is a good 1°C warmer, often two.

The roads are gritted automatically, so journeys in the snow and ice are easier, even on foot, and there’s so much competition, many private services are cheaper too.

The main library is a mile away and we can get evening classes easily. We can often walk for most things and it’s only 2 miles to several big supermarkets and an actual market and green grocers are much closer than that.

I fill up the car once every 6-9 months or so because of Covid and lockdowns, but before that, once every 3-4 months. I can walk to the train station though often I used a fold-up bike as I then had transport both ends. No searching for a space to park the car or waiting for a taxi. Thanks to the house being well insulated, we’ve reduced out carbon footprint considerably.

Because I am no longer travelling an hour or worse a day, I am not so knackered at the end of the week either. I may even be fitter, though lying down in bed with Covid-19 is not making me feel particularly perky.

Did I mention the gyms? I miss the department stores that have closed over the past few months but the town has many stores offering different merchandise and there are stores in other towns and London available by rail.

Then there are deliveries. Everything now delivers to us, including take-outs. Not necessarily cheap, but when isolating, it means there are options. Many, many options.

Many things are happening tomorrow, the result of which is I’ve just spent the best part of 6 hours designing and making a pump case so I have the luxury of being where I was this morning at 6am with a new insulin pump.

Let me explain.

My first ever pump came with three cases when it turned up: a clip case, a “sleep” case and a neoprene one.

Every case was exactly what it needed to be.  The clip allowed it to be attached to the edge of clothing and yet rotate so it was easy to read the pump at any one time.

Perfection.

The neoprene one allowed the pump to be protected while rough and tumbling or performing some sporting activities.  I have dropped the pump with these cases on and had absolutely no damage to the pump.  Not quite indestructible but with it being waterproof as well takes the stress out of swimming and sailing too.

The sleep case was always my go to case.  I wear it long, across my body with any kind of PJs or night dresses or indeed when in leggings lounging round the house on a cold winter’s day.  The real benefit is while sleeping – as an occasional sleep walker when hypo, having the pump firmly attached is a game and face saver.

So may I ask why only a couple of pump manufacturers or indeed other “case” suppliers do not include such items in their ranges, please?

I bought material, formed a design that would protect the pump, allow easy reuse of the older cases I no longer need and then made the cases.  My husband feels I should be very proud of my efforts but it’s just annoying.

I am not a seamstress or tailor; people with these skills would have knocked up the one measly case I have produced at this time in minutes rather than hours and in better material than I have been able to source – I ended up using a plain soft cotton as you would use for a child’s romper suit rather than the slick Alcantara my pump manufacturer sourced and worked out all the design issues.

At £15 it was a bargin in terms of price too – most cases last 20 years, I know, I have ones that old.

When a pump retails at £2,500, the assurance of having that device protected even over night is gratefully received much more than the colour of the pump.

As you’re aware, in my spare time, I’m an insulin kineticist. That means I study the impact of artifically given insulin on the human body.

The title is putting it mildly. Timing matters, it’s not necessarily what you do but when you do it.

Take today. After a very lazy Christmas, I’m starting to exercise again and that means my flat blood glucose levels are taking a hammering. I walked back from my retinal screening (with very dark glasses on as it’s a lovely sunny winter’s morning) with flat levels all the way home and poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat down.

Now, resting after exercise is the wrong thing to do if you’re looking to maintain blood glucose levels as it can start muscle filling. That’s the process of taking glucose from the blood stream and stowing it in the muscle reserves. While you’re exercising the opposite process happens which can lead to high blood glucose readings albeit temporarily.

Anyway, while I love the taste orange juice, it is a terrible hypo treatment. It is slow to absorb and heavy in sugar when it does hit the system, which can lead to rebound highs. You basically have to sit out being hypo, waiting for the levels to rise. Not great! Compared to my favourite treatment, coca-cola, orange juice takes twice as long.

Plus, the orange juice may overshoot. At 25g of CHO, it is a big hit – in my case raising my blood glucose levels by 6.25mmol/l. Think about that, if I’m a little low say 3.8mmol/l, that’s going to make me 10.05mmol/l which is technically speaking hyper.

Of course, if I have the orange juice 15 minutes before I stop walking, the levels are all seemlessly perfect. The low never happens, the bump of the high is avoided too.

Timing is everything.