What if electricity was free?

The temperature is increasing almost per day now, yesterday was the first day above 40° (104° f), 42 degrees to be precisely. Today was around 45°. Yes, that's very hot! Fortunately, we live in a dry semi desert climate, which makes it a lot more bearable. Humidity makes the windchill a lot hotter. 

Despite the hot temperature, we still try to be moderate with the use of air conditioning. It's set on 26° c, and it's not on for the majority of the day. It's not that we cannot afford running the airconditioner all day long, we can, but I really don't see the need to pay that much for utilities.  And not just because of finances, although that certainly plays a role too. My first and foremost reason is the environment, then our health. Yes, I don't think airconditioners are good for our health - especially if there's a huge gap between outdoor and indoor temperature. The other day I read an article written by an pulmonologist about that, and how it can trigger issues for asthma patients. Both my oldest daughter and me happen to have asthma... We're not with a lot of issues during the summer drought, fortunately, but anything we can do for our lung health is a win. 

But something got me thinking: what if electricity was completely free? What would I do in such an instance? I need to be honest with myself (and my readers 😉). I'd probably use it a tad more than I do now. Not necessarily all day long, and I wouldn't mess up with the temperature setting, I still want summer to feel like summer. And I still value protecting the environment, within my limited means anyhow. It doesn't really feel hypocritical to be honest, because I just don't want to spend fortunes just on getting our house cold enough so I can wear sweaters at home (lol). So I would still use it moderately even if electricity were free. 

There's a reason why that came to my mind. Somebody I know is married to a man who works for the electricity and gas company. There's just one such a company here, owned by the government. Their employees get the privilege of having free electricity- and also for one extra house of their choice, for example their parents home or whatever other home they wish. I think that's pretty cool. Without wanting to sound too socialist, it seems like things like these usually stop when those companies are being privatized, sadly. As soon as it's being privatized, company greed changes a lot. My grandfather also worked for the electricity company in the Netherlands, before it was being privatized, and he had exactly the same privilege. I remember my grandmother using only an electric hob, which was a bit rare, and I only ever saw it at her house, not anywhere else. Apparently, now it's getting more common to use an electric hob but at the time it wasn't- she even got hers from Germany as they were better available there. Interestingly enough, my grandmother was one of the most frugal people I've ever known, despite her electricity bill being zero regardless of her use. She didn't have a lot of electric guzzling appliances, such as a dryer or even an electrical lawn mower (despite having a big garden). So basically, electricity being free didn't affect her use at all - she could have taken advantage of that privilege but didn't.

And to get back to my acquaintance I was referring to, it happens to be the same with her. I was visiting her recently and noticed that she still hadn't installed her airconditioner. She owns one, but having moved to her current house around a year ago, the airconditioner being installed apparently wasn't a big priority. She said they didn't really miss one and that her fan was enough. I must add that she lives in a house that stays relatively cool during the summer, but still, most people in her situation probably have taken advantage of free electricity. Also, like most people here, she's frugal by nature. She doesn't necessarily call herself frugal but she definitely is. 

And of course, then there's people who have plenty of solar panels to have enough electricity during the summer for all their appliances. That's a bit of a different story. I wish we had solar panels, but unfortunately they're so expensive! That might be a disadvantage of the grid not being privatized... it's still a future goal of ours to have enough renewable/sustainable electricity. Not necessarily going offgrid, but to have our "own" power for the majority of the time and to still be connected to the grid as a backup. I think probably when one has solar panels, that's also a way of being more mindful of your usage of electricity. Because you never know when you run out. 

I guess the moral of this story is that we should always be mindful of what we use, regardless of its abundance, it being free of charge, etc. In tje end, even "free" stuff is never totally free- someone or something is paying a price. In this case, that something is the planet.