What we all think of as efficient homes and lights is actually a matter of opinion in many cases. I remember rather casually telling someone that our gas fire at home was an efficient – big mistake – this chap was a proper engineer, one who’d got degrees coming out of his ears and knew a thing or two about gas fires and their very famous lack of efficiency. I never made that error again. It would be interesting now to meet up with him again and ask his opinion on the efficiency of the average homestead. Looking around at my neighbours, they are all currently sporting enough lights outside to keep the planet alight from the space station. I imagine with all the Christmas bulbs twinkling away madly, planet earth must be equal tothe sun for brightness. The efficiency levels dipping rather dramatically then. It was quite funny listening to the nearest neighbour bemoaning the size of their last electricity bill. I wonder if I should mention anything . . . .