For those that know me, I am not that much into computer games. I used to be, way back, before I consider they got too clever for themselves and started being a chore rather than entertainment. And my attention span became too short.
I blame the transition of Commander Keen from a clunky 2D game with minimal controls needed to play it, to the “3D” version that needed a photographic memory to retain all the available commands. And that’s only got worse as games evolved.
Anyway, yesterday, I was introduced to a brand new game on my Samsung phone called SolarEdge. And it is brilliant!
Basically, you watch a little graph that shows you power usage, and your job is to minimise it so that the battery in the game keeps charging while you use as little power as possible coming from an external source.
There is a drawback though. The game costs around $16,000; but on the bright side, the Gummint will cover $5K of that if you ask nicely and fill in a whole pile of paperwork. Or find a retailer that’ll do that for you.
During installation of the game, you will lose the power to your home for about 8 hours and end up with big white boxes bolted to a wall somewhere. But it’s a small price to pay when you work out that except under extreme circumstances, you are going to get really, really low – if not zero – power bills in future.
As long as you keep playing that game and trying to win that is. It does mean you tend to take far more care of what devices and appliances using electricities are left on or, indeed, even used. Or whether to run the dishwasher or washing machine now, or at night in lower tariff times. And that sort of stuff.
But that’s half the fun!