Visiting

As it was a nice day I decided to call my Italian friend to see if he would be in the home if I called a little later. He assured me he would so I arranged to see him around 9.00am.
 I arrived just after 9.00am and was welcomed as usual. I did take a yellow rose cutting which has a wonderful scent, this was mainly for his wife as she has not been too good lately.
 I was taken outside the rear and shown the patio that his wife had ordered and bought. It certainly looked very nice indeed and improved the rear an awful lot. She can now hang out the washing without wondering if her shoes would have mud on them. He also showed me the Solar Panels. 16 in all and he told me that this was a 3.5kilowatt system. I think it is probably a 4 kilowatt system although it does not affect him as he only gets the free electricity that the system produces.
 We went indoors and after giving me a coffee, I asked them to show me the controls. He only has the meter which tells him if he is not being charged for the electricity he is using. There is a constant red light on all meters if there is no electricity being used. I then told both to use electrical appliances if possible when the sun was shining and the system was producing electricity. I told them that it would be wise to buy an oil filled radiator as this could be used instead of a gas fire reminding them that they must check to see that the red light would be constant and during the winter months that would almost certainly not be possible for many of the winter days. However in late February and March when it was clod the oil filled radiator would serve it's purpose well. I also suggested that they purchase a George Foreman grill or something similar. His wife has always wanted him to have one. Whether he will get one is debateable. I did remind him that what the system was producing would automatically go to the National Grid and it was not possible for him to save electricity for later. He then showed me everything and sure enough the light was constantly on. What he said then made me realise he hadn't grasped the situation completely. He told me that sometimes he would get up in the night go and look at the meter and see it was flashing. I told him that of course he would not be producing any electricity at all when the sun went down and there were appliances that would be working such as a fridge and freezer. I asked him if he left his T.V. on standby. He confirmed he did. I then asked him if it was an LCD or LED Television. He got his book out and told me what I had expected, it was an LCD. I told him he MUST get into the routine of switching the T.V. off at the mains at the end of the day as the set on standby would be using about 70watts per hour. Probably more if I am honest but at least he did seem to take notice.
 TheT.V. was on, as it always is when I visit them. Always Italian as he has a Satellite dish that is tuned to Italian T.V. His wife is not interested at all and told me that an oil filled radiator would suit her fine as she goes into another room to watch Television. No wonder she is rather poorly. It is her nerves and she is on several drugs. In fact she was going to see the Doctor later this morning.
 I finally told her to come to see me, she always feels better for seeing me, well I presume that would be the same with any caller. Still I hope She will get to see me with her Husband before Christmas. More soon.