The Television Inspectors

The Television Inspectors rang our doorbell the other day.

In England, television watchers have to pay a license fee which is payable to the BBC. This helps support the programming costs (etcetera. I've linked to their official site for more information).

One day last week, the television inspectors came by, reminding me that I wasn't paying for a television license. I assured him that we did not have a television. He asked if he could just confirm that, so I let him look in the living room. He glanced around, and then filled out a form (of course - what's life without forms!). Thinking about it later, I'm glad that he didn't want a more thorough search - I certainly wouldn't have wanted him beyond the living room. Even that seems an invasion of privacy (but at the moment I was just thinking of being polite).

They won't ask me again for six years, apparently, unless I move. I'm not sure how they find out about tenants moving in and out, but presumably they'd find me every time I moved! Of course if I do get a TV, or an attachment for my computer (you can do that, I asked?) they'll expect me to report my new acquisition.

I'm left wondering how many people keep a TV in their closet and cautiously pull it out if they want to watch Life on Mars, or Gardeners World.

My impression is that this is regarded is a pesky annoyance in Britain, but to fold the cost into current taxes would of course not be popular "I don't even watch television" would be the cry. There is also quite a bit of expensive form filling, checking up and license issuing costs. How many jobs would be lost if they didn't need to send out representatives to look in our living rooms?

What I know about radiators

We had to call British Gas yesterday - the sixth or seventh time since Paul's been here (my first). Vince came today, and it was very educational for me.

The boiler had overheated (again), and so I was quite miserable yesterday in a flat with no heat. Vince from British Gas was very helpful however, and pointed out (very kindly), our failure of logic. Paul had been turning off all the radiators (but one) in the flat to save on energy. This strategy, plus the fact that the pipes are only 8mm rather than 15mm, meant that the boiler cannot push the hot water away fast enough, and so it overheats and shuts down as a safety precaution. Instead, we have now opened all the radiators, so that the hot water can circulate freely, and turned down the water heat on the boiler. The boiler now hums instead of knocking and shutting down.

This solution was perhaps quite obvious to many, but we were both raised in hot-air furnace households, so we had no idea! I'm reminded of my fathers story of heating a coal fire in Wales many years ago. It just doesn't occur to ask how to manage your heating some days.

At least the laundry went well.