The Sauna

Not really a real sauna - since those are pretty cool - but my dog, some workplaces! As part of my job I often visit work sites in evenings, meaning I can arrive there at 6pm, or even as late as 10pm if I have a lot of places to get to that evening. On Sunday while it was only a few degrees above freezing outside, I stepped into a local Professional Businessy Office and nearly keeled over from the Hell-type blast of heat that greeted me. 10pm at night! Boss lady and receptionist person, what are you doing, does your photocopier start shivering if it's not like the Sahara in there or do your empty office chairs appreciate the warmth? Or do you maybe own part of the power company so it's in your interest to be this wasteful with your energy? I've even seen it in huge, cavernous car showrooms, those triple-storey aircraft-hangar-sized glass houses, heated to the point they are seriously uncomfortable and it's actually a relief to step out into the cold. But hey at least the sensible family vehicles on display will have nice warm door handles even if nobody's there to touch them.

The thing is, these people must notice early in the morning when they walk in and the place already feels like the inside of a toaster, so it makes me wonder if they also heat their empty houses around the clock. And it's not just one or two people, some of these offices have 50 employees, and you'd think that at least one of them might think to say: hey, should we turn the heating down a bit when we're all leaving for the night?

The fact that this isn't happening, and so many workplaces are heated day and night, it tells me that this is normal, that so many people must do the same at home. Is it any wonder so many people say they can never save money, and are only barely getting by? That maybe, a lot of us assume that we have already tightened the belt as far as we can, but really, someone else would notice ways that we're wasting money.

I am going to try to see it as a challenge, to examine my own spending and see if there are ways I could do even better.