From the column.
*My indefatigable assistant Una conducted a long-term research project in which she installed a programmable thermostat in her house, aggressively dialed back the nighttime setting for winter, **then tracked her energy use for three years, *using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to correct for outdoor temperature differences before and after installation.
Does this mean,this question was asked 3 years ago,and Una did her research?
As it happens: No., It’s just that Una is one of the most lovable of analytical people, and that she was (coincidentally) tracking this anyway for her own purposes.
Well, I am aware that Una does research , but this sounded odd.
What’s odd about it? Lots of people do research on topics that interest them. If Cecil happens to know them, and the research they were already doing for their own purposes happens to answer a question he’s writing on, he’s going to use their results. Why not? The answer’s already there.
I think you’re missing the more obvious answer - Una has time travel.
Una, why haven’t you ever taken me along on one of your jaunts, huh?
And a cell phone. Mystery solved!
Because Catherine would get jealous.
Seriously, yes I tracked energy consumption for a very long time, to make sure there were no anomalies over a single year period which could be statistically invalid.