The cold winter months have brought with it the deposit of the electricity and gas bill, reaching tripled in many homes, including the emoticon of gravity. This increase has opened a hole in the accounting of both households and public buildings. And it is not a joke when, among the measures taken by the Madrid community to reduce electricity expenditure, it has proposed reducing 10% of train metro trips, adding the emoticon of panic.

At the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, the faculty management has informed the teachers of the measures taken to reduce energy consumption and some recommendations for saving to be adopted individually. In the building the hours of the heating have been adapted, prioritizing the coldest classrooms and reducing the hours of ignition in the rooms facing the south. Teachers have been alerted not to use artificial light in spaces with natural light when they are not used to hibernate computers and devices and to extinguish the light from offices and bathrooms once they have left the room. More than energy efficiency measures, we have been alerted to the habit of spending energy, calling for the same domestic logic to be applied to work spaces.

I remember when I received an architect from Arizona at home. He worked in the search for architectural and technological techniques for energy saving in public buildings. He made a holiday trip to Europe and brought his obsession with him in his suitcase. He was very interested in the inner courtyards of many of our buildings, the sensors of community portals, the night lighting of the street. There were lots of talks about the possibilities of architecture to save energy. As a result of the journey and the long conversations, I left him resting at home, taking advantage to take a walk. Upon returning from the walk, I was shocked to see that all the lights in my house were on, while my friend was in a deep sleep. Their impact showed me about the politics of the gesture of turning the light off.