Author Topic: Energy saving in the home (Read 1807 times)

Brockett · « **on:** October 22, 2022, 17:03:03 »

1. When making a cup of tea or coffee there is always some hot water left in the kettle. Pour this excess into a vacuum flask and keep it next to the kettle. Next time you want to boil water / make a drink, pour it back in the kettle. You can also put a little cold water in the newly emptied kettle to capture the residual heat and after a minute or so pour that into the flask.
2. if you have an unused room you can turn the radiator off to conserve energy. However when the room cools down it can become a trap for air carried water vapour and spread black mold. Instead of turning off the radiator use double sided tape to fix bubble wrap to the window and then draw the curtains.
What do others plan to do this winter?

Rusty Nuts · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2022, 17:12:45 »

In February I shall stay warmer by fecking off to the Canaries for a week.

Warmer clothing in the house, lights off when she leaves them on, emptying 75 percent of the water she's just put in the kettle, no doors/windows open for too long. Boring stuff, really.

Upt North · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2022, 17:13:58 »

I've just bought a litre of Whyte and Mackay and when that's gone I'm going to buy another. Makes you all warm inside.
Glad I could help.
Upt'North.

MartinW · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2022, 17:30:58 »

Eat a vindaloo.

StromGeeza · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2022, 17:38:36 »

If you think you can benefit from cheaper night time eleccy get a smart meter fitted if you don't already have one.
My other top tip to save money is proably courtesy of Viz. Take your daily dump while at work to save on the cost of loo roll.

mr_diver · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2022, 18:43:45 »

We tried a recent trick to fill the slow cooker with potatoes wrapping in foil, on low for 8 hours. (No water)

Jacket potatoes and the house has been kept mildly warm all day.

The down side is that it's jacket potaoes for every meal to do the same thing every day.

purplebikeunicorn · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2022, 21:57:11 »

I've got a big, compressor type, dehumidifier. I've also got electric heating.

The dehumidifier blows out warm exhaust air when it runs (if you leave the tube indoors, it dehumidifies, if you put the tube outside, it's air conditioning), and cold air out the front.

So, kill two birds with one stone, heat my flat and dehumidify it at the same time... only problem is, is that it's a bit noisy!

kwackboy · « **Reply #7 on:** October 22, 2022, 22:07:19 »

Even before all the issues we were frugal with our home energy.
All our bulbs are LED , we heat our water 1 hour a day and in the height of winter we heat just one room sparingly.
Even our meals are chosen by how quick and efficiently we can cook them.

Shit times we're living in right now ..

Rixington43 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2022, 23:22:13 »

Likewise as I'm a cheap skate trying to earn Yorkshire citizenship.
LEDs everywhere, 1 cup water boiler and heating never goes above 14 via a smart stat that turns everything off when I leave the house.
This latest crisis has finally made the case for going big though, solar panels and battery storage going in later this week and I will then use a smart diverter to heat the water cylinder via immersion when generating excess.
Long payback for me but I'm a nerd so looking forward to the experiment.

Robotstar5 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 22, 2022, 23:59:20 »

We haven't put the central heating on yet, the house is still tolerable at 16°C, we have economy 7 so the immersion is on for a couple of hours on cheap rate which gives enough hot water to last during the day.
Bought a Breville hot cup kettle a few years ago, just fill the tank up and it boils one cup of water at a time in about 30 seconds.

Barbel Mick · « **Reply #10 on:** October 23, 2022, 09:53:10 »

The heating has been on three times up to now this 'winter' and that's because the grandkids have been here, or the Mother in law.
Good thermal loft insulation, wall insulation & new double glazing all done a few years back have kept the house to a decent temperature. Mostly I've still had shorts & T shirt on, (that might change in a few weeks

but I hate being too hot, preferring it a little cooler.
Deb, however, is now considering her 'old lady' blanket when sitting watching the tele in the evening......despite having her fleece on

We have used a slow cooker for a number of years and considering an air fryer but not researched them enough yet.

Rixington43 · « **Reply #11 on:** October 23, 2022, 10:32:25 »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63317138

Beeb did a good dig in to air fryers last month. I'll definitely be getting a Combi air fryer, slow cooker once the solar is in.

2112 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 23, 2022, 11:10:45 »

Some good tips folks, obviously fit LED lights where you can, drop the thermostat down as much as possible and try to wear an extra layer around the house. Microwaves use a lot of energy when operating but operate for very short periods of time and can be very cost effective, depending on what you are cooking.
I am all electric and have an air source heat pump which to operate efficiently needs to run 24/7 which means big bills in the winter. But, as I have a huge PV system (14.9kW through 12kW of inverters) & battery storage (2x Tesla Powerwalls @ 27kWh) I only pay for electricity for 6 months of the year. It's a bit 'swings and roundabouts' but I am heading into the expensive period now sadly...
So far this year I have generated 11.22MWh from the PV, stored & used 3.28MWh from the battery & imported 3.77MWh from the grid. The house (including 2x EV's charging) has used 14.43MWh so far this year. The mathematicians amongst you will notice that the numbers do not quite add up, this is because at peak generation times when the Tesla batteries are full I export to the grid. If I had another Powerwall this could be just about reduced to zero but at over £10,000 installed I'll make do with 2 for now... And yes, I do mean mega watt hours not kilo watt hours!

Barbel Mick · « **Reply #13 on:** October 23, 2022, 14:39:19 »

Forgot to mention above, that back in August last year I signed up to a three year fixed price contract with my provider, Shell, although it cost a few pounds more than other contracts on offer back then I thought it was a decent deal, now I'm thinking it was an excellent deal.

pichulec · « **Reply #14 on:** October 23, 2022, 15:20:53 »

I don't get how anyone can survive having 16C in the room. It is like a freezer.. In our house we don't put the heating on yet but my room is in comfortable 23C thanks to my PC (powerful water-cooled rig)

endintears · « **Reply #15 on:** October 23, 2022, 16:58:45 »

Sounds obvious but try and understand what things actually cost to use so as to be able to make informed decisions

I'll be generous and believe it was unintentional disinformation but recently there was a presenter on daytime telly saying that it would cost about a pound to boil the kettle because it's rated at 3KW and a KWH of electricity costs over 30p

BBC news had sombody last week as I remember explaining how an average house had a 26KW boiler and [a KWH of gas costing just over 10p] therefore gas central heating costs most people £2.70 an hour to have on.
The situation is bad enough without uninformed over simplification scaring some people even more.

Tusker · « **Reply #16 on:** October 23, 2022, 17:30:10 »

I insist on living with no cold blooded creatures...Also in a month I'm leaving my 1894 End Terrace home for a more efficient 1990's one..

Landsurfer74 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 23, 2022, 17:35:25 »

This post is Extreme Victim Blaming .... by the Victims !!
The heads of the power companies, paid hundreds of thousands of pounds per year ..plus dividends and mad pension contributions are supposed to be providing energy at affordable prices and without blackouts .... Why are we being charged world market prices for gas that comes from our own wells in the north sea ... and is landed in our own country ...
Windfall tax the lot of them .... obscene profits while we discuss how to keep warm ... it’s like turkeys voting in favour of the Christmass ....

2112 · « **Reply #18 on:** October 23, 2022, 17:36:10 »

There is quite a bit of scaremongering going on at the moment in the media. Yes, it will be a difficult winter for a lot of people and some folks are going to have to make very difficult decisions. I had to chuckle when they asked the CEO of N Power if they would disconnect anyone for non-payment this winter. He simply replied that customers would not be cut off but would be transferred to a pre-payment meter (key meter) instead. It's the same as being cut off because if you can't afford to put money on the key you are effectively cut off, but N Power won't physically disconnect you. A clever use of words which won't actually help anyone...

kwackboy · « **Reply #19 on:** October 23, 2022, 17:42:23 »

Hope they've got enough key meters to cover all those that can't afford their bills ...

I'm willing to bet they haven't...