The social media user said their wife had become extremely conscious of their home’s energy use, to the point it is making it difficult to sleep. Commenters had a range of advice
With climate change showing no sign of abating, many of us are looking at steps we can take to help the environment. One of the easiest things to do is simply to turn off electrical and household appliances when they’re not being used – and this will save money on energy too.
But for one social media user, their wife’s drive to help the environment has been having an undesirable effect on the comfort of their home. Posting on Reddit, the user said: “She’s always been concerned about recycling, using reusable shopping bags, and so on.
“But a few months ago, she suddenly became incredibly enthusiastic about energy conservation. Almost obsessively so.
“At first, it was normal: switching to LED light bulbs, unplugging unused chargers, turning off lights in empty rooms. No problem, and perfectly reasonable.
“Then she installed smart plugs and started monitoring our every watt of electricity consumption. She even created spreadsheets. Even stranger, she decided we could only use the oven twice a week because ‘the oven is such a waste of electricity’.
“Now she thinks air conditioning is a ‘luxury we don’t deserve’. The house is 30 degrees Celsius, but she absolutely refuses to turn it on. She says we should ‘learn to adapt to the natural climate’.
“Last night I was sweating buckets and couldn’t sleep at all. Around midnight, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I quietly turned on the air conditioner. Less than ten minutes later, I heard a beep – she had remotely turned it off with her phone.
“I completely broke down. I told her she was going too far, and I didn’t want to live like it was before the apocalypse. She said I was ‘going against my conscience for comfort’. I said I was upholding basic human decency.
“I told her that if she continued like this, I would move out until she calmed down. I love her, but I feel like I’m living with an environmental dictator. Was I going too far?”
Users had a range of advice in the comments. One said: “You should have a good talk with her and make her take your thoughts seriously, or suggest she see a therapist.”
But another said therapy may be “too far as a first suggestion”. “It sounds to me like she’s found a new hobby,” they wrote.
“It’s fun to optimise and collect data. As you get older, new hobbies or projects can keep you awake at night out of sheer excitement. I know they do for me and my partner. We both obsess over a new interest until it balances out.
“I would start by apologising for yelling, but mentally I wasn’t able to control my emotions in that moment because my physical wellbeing was compromised. How can I help with this project while still caring for my health? Maybe we can do some research together? Something like that.”
Another wrote: “I went through a similar phase. Unplugging everything, LED everything, rationing hot water even turning the freezer off – a real audit of all power use. All that anxiety and double thinking everything saves about £3 a month. It turns out that modern electronics are phenomenally efficient.”