Genesis? Cool.

Having turned 30 at the beginning of the year, there’s two inexplicable changes that have occurred within me between then and now which i could never have envisaged:

(1)   I’ve started really appreciating the musical dexterity and craftsmanship of U2 and Genesis. The Edge is such an amazing guitarist, and Mike Rutherford’s got some darned impressive licks too. I can’t believe I’m admitting this, and have to concede that for someone so image conscious, it’s a major concern.

(2)   All of a sudden, monitoring energy usage, and trying to keep energy bills as low as possible, has become of pivotal concern to me.

This could be due to some evolutionary, hormone driven change that occurs in a man of my calibre around this sort of age, whereby preparing for the future and potentiality of providing for (and protecting) a family becomes paramount over the concern for oneself.

On the other hand, I might have really loved Bono for ages, but just been too embarrassed to admit it.

Life is such a minefield.

However, tapping my feet to ‘Mysterious Ways’ I can live with; keeping the fuel bills down is becoming something of an impossible task.

E.ON, my ever faithful German energy supplier (and I do love the Germans, as evidenced here), has gone on the record to say fuel bills will continue to soar without let up while crude oil prices skyrocket.

The pressure to regenerate an ailing and inefficient energy network is also preventing energy suppliers from reducing premiums. The cost of building new power stations, overhauling existing power plants, and integrating renewable energy sources into the energy infrastructure will shake out at around the £100 billion mark.

It’s the energy suppliers who must foot this bill.

So what can I do?

Well, I recommend those of you out there who have an E.ON online account to get yourself the ‘Energy Tracker’ tool. It provides you with a daily breakdown of your energy usage, the results of which can prove to be startling. Take the following for example:

• Boiling a kettle uses as much energy as it takes to run a fridge for eight hours.

• The Central Air facility in my flat costs 75p an hour to run. 75p an hour.

• The hairdryer is more expensive to run than the cooker.

• Running my computer uses very little energy at all.  

In energy saving terms, the Energy Tracker has revolutionised my outlook.

With reference to my coolness rating though, it doesn’t really help. If only someone would invent a meter which illustrates how much damage listening to Genesis can do to your credibility.

Phil Collins though: what a drummer. Who needs a real kit when you’ve got electronic drum pads?