To think that a lot of cost saving suggestions are a false economy and actually aren’t that cost saving at all?

[GhostFromTheOtherSide]

So increasingly there are suggestions as to how to save energy.

Buy an electric throw/electric blanket/microwave/slow cooker/air friar.

And then people will tell you that these cost almost nothing to run.

Except they often cost £££ to buy, and if you settle for cheap you’re settling for a false economy.

Electric blankets/throws are notoriously unreliable and have a tendency to break.

Air friars are small so if you want to cook whole meals in them you need something like a double drawer ninja which costs a fortune.

So while you will be saving money on the energy, you’re actually going to be spending it on the measures to save on the energy.

Obviously if you already have these items then the cost has already gone.

But if you don’t then surely people should be thinking twice about whether to rush out and spend money they potentially don’t have on items which are going to cost them anyway?

Someone suggested sewing cat litter to weigh down curtai s, but I'm sure that's not a good idea as it's absorbant. Some gravel or bags of sand/ rice maybe to stop the draught and weight down the curtains?

So don't you have anything covering your windows at present?

If you are starting from scratch, curtain tracks and pencil pleat curtains will probably work out cheaper than poles and eyelet curtains. But if you already have some curtains of the right size or can pick some up used get poles or tracks of the correct type. IKEA is good for cheap poles, tracks probably B&Q or Wickes would be cheapest.

People who say they boil a litre of water and then fill their thermos as it's cheaper than boiling water during the day clearly don't understand the physics - as boiling 4 x 250ml uses about the same energy as boiling 1 litre.

Same for people who say they leave their laptop off charge until the end of the day - a laptop will use the same anount of energy to work - and you won't save energy by unplugging it - as it will simply want more later.

The payback time for things like double or triple glazing can be a very long time - even with increased energy prices.

And some of the suggestions are very expensive.

Everyone who drives an SUV or a large car can make a significant saving by getting a smaller car. A proportion of journeys can be made less often, or be shorter, or be walked (many to and from school). Many people (not all) forced into an office five days a week can be just as productive with two in the office, three wfh.

All three could make savings far greater than those usually suggested.

If you’re into eating nuggets and chips and everything else that’s baked then an air friar has its place. But if you want one that’s big enough to cook for a family you need one of the ultra expensive ones.
We are a family of two. I almost always cook on the stovetop but I was looking at airfryers for jacket potatoes and the occasional roast (chicken thighs and roast veg). If we were a bigger family then the oven wouldn't be so uneconomical as we would have more to put in in it.

Heating a whole kettle for one cup of tea makes no sense. Yes if you are brewing up for several people at the same time, but not for one person. One works better for one household but not another. And the key isn't to replace before the end of the life of the product unless it's so inefficient that it no longer is worth continuing to use the product (this is rare)

@RedToothBrush

Well - you don't have to heat a whole kettle. Some kettles can have surprisingly littlle water in - so you aren't heating 1 litre - maybe 1.5 cups worth?

So that's 0.5 cups of water 'wasted' - although it just cools down till the next boil.

1 cup kettle can be expensive - so it's interesting maths to see how many cups you would need to boil to get payback.

The boiling tap system bugs me - effectively people are boiling a volume of water - and then when it boils, it's being kept boiling. If you use some of that water, it then adds more to the system and uses more energy to boil that.

Convenient - yes
But money saving? No

Friar.

*sorry, couldn’t take anything else OP said seriously, was it good?

I think a lot depends on your circumstances obviously. The only thing I do is if I need a certain product toothpaste, shampoo , face cream, hair dye etc is check boots, Superdrug and supermarket to see where its discounted. I always save money this way.

I've seen several people on a money saving fb group I'm on saying proudly how they've just bought a load of led candles so won't need to turn on their big light over the winter. Recent one had a photo of a living room with about 10 led candles of different sizes, all on.

Firstly even with them all on it was still really dark- might be "cozy" if you're watching tv or something (in which case you don't really need another light!) but way too dark to read or knit or anything. Secondly what an absolute faff to go around unending and turning every single candle on/off everytime time, and tbh that many candles just look cluttery (I appreciate that might just be me!) But thirdly and most importantly, 1 "big light" with an led lamp cost absolutely pennies per day to run, even with the new tariffs- so even if they kept it off for six months from Oct- March they'd save maybe 7 or 8 quid - the led candles cost several quid each! (And will also need replacement batteries at some point!)

This is why we need proper advice about what actually costs money - saving in the dark will save pennies and be miserable, cutting a shower down by half and going to bed with a hot water bottle and turning the heating off will save loads with, in my experience, no loss of lifestyle or decrease in warmth/ happiness!

I have poles, but they have wooden rings; which the curtain hooks slot into.www.argos.co.uk/product/6247757?clickPR=plp:2:73

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon Today 00:20

So don't you have anything covering your windows at present?

I've got wooden slatted blinds from Ikea. They've done for privacy and some light filtering so far, but not great for keeping the heat in/out, so it's time to add in curtains.

^The boiling tap system bugs me - effectively people are boiling a volume of water - and then when it boils, it's being kept boiling. If you use some of that water, it then adds more to the system and uses more energy to boil that.

Convenient - yes
But money saving? No^

But no-one claims they're moneysaving, do they? They cost more than a lifetime's worth of kettles to install.

I’m considering making a haybox (an insulated box that acts as a slow-cooker), which would mean only 15 minutes of fuel is used to cook E.g. a casserole, instead of the 15 minutes to brown and then the 4-8 hours of low electricity that a slow cooker or low oven would cost.
My DGM used one all her life and her casseroles were never under-done…
materials to make the box are cardboard, foil, polystyrene from packaging, and hay from a pet shop - so definitely not expensive…

The company who sells them do.

www.quooker.co.uk/pricelist

"Our tanks all have the patented high-vacuum insulation, which keeps the water at the right temperature in an energy-efficient manner. The stand-by consumption is as little as three pence a day."

No where on the website does it explain that you still need to add the same amount of energy as you would do to boil a cup of water from room temperature.

It does have an explanation about energy which misuses the word energy.

www.quooker.co.uk/energy

"A Quooker consists of two parts: a boiling-water tap on top of the worktop and a small tank under it, in which the water is stored at a temperature of 110ºC. This tank is a kind of thermos flask that’s connected to the water mains. Thanks to the high-vacuum insulation, the heat can’t escape. That means that only very little energy (10 watts) is required to keep the water in the tank at boiling point. When you pour boiling water from the tap, fresh water immediately runs into the tank under the worktop. So all you have to do is top up the tank and reheat what you’ve effectively used."

Watts is not energy. Watts is energy per second.

So you are basically using 10 watts - so 0.24 KWH per day (12p) just to keep the water at boiling temperature. Then when you take some water out , you add more water which must be boiled so the energy usage goes up to raise the temperature.

And yes - they cost a lot as well

we Replaced our old fixtures that basically ate bulbs because they weren’t designed for modern lightbulbs with led fixtures. Crazy cheap to run.

the candles though are probably remote controlled. Really easy to turn off and on in bulk.

Some cost saving tips are pretty useless, like charging things at work. However, with the price hike it's still worth making an outlay for certain things
Eg a non heated drying rack versus the temptation to use a tumble dryer at £2 a go.

My 300w Lakeland heated drying rack is going to cost me £1.50 for 9 hours so not very much saved for a big outlay versus using a tumble dryer carefully.I bought mine about 5 years ago but it will be used sparingly. It might be better to by a heat pump type dryer long term.

Also please use flame retardant curtain linings, and research risks too. I often wonder about the consequences of poor ventilation, damp will be far more costly to fix than putting the heating on for an hour a day.

There's lots of dodgy advice and numbers floating about.

The airfryer is massively cost effective.
Also I will be using my trusty pressure cooker a lot more. My electric hob costs about a £1 an hour so need to cook quicker on the hob. So will be using boiled kettle water to boil pasta, using quick cook pasta etc or soaking lentils and rice so they cook quicker. Those ready cooked rice pouches might be cheaper too.

It requires careful thought to make actual savings and I'm trying to concentrate on big wins like reducing hot water time, showers instead of baths, foil behind radiators, simpler cooking, no fan heaters.

Ah right yes definitely worth getting some thermal curtains. Dunelm do some very reasonably priced ones that are really effective. Not the most glamorous but perfectly respectable. Or if you can get curtains that fit elsewhere you can buy thermal liners that fit behind them.

It doesn't really matter whether you have a curtain pole or track/rail. A track is normally slightly cheaper and as it fits a bit closer to the wall cuts drafts/light out a bit better so would be the best bet if you are starting from scratch, especially for a bedroom.

I was going to say the same on the candles, most you can program to come on at certain time and switch off automatically.

However the battery cost is not great on them. Most take either 2 or 4 batteries each. I can get about a winter season out of mine, but yeah they aren’t bright enough to actually do anything by.

On the topic at large I agree with the Op…mostly ‘tips” on anything need to be met with a high degree of skepticism and common sense.

Even better when there is no office to go back to.

Really?learned something new today. I've only ever seen those candles that switch on and off at the bottom (which were the ones this particular poster linked to) so no idea how you'd link them up to a remote control?

But even then, say you only needed to replace the batteries once or twice- that's 3-10 quid per candle to buy, plus a few quid for a pack of batteries - at least 30 - 50 quid outlay whereas a low energy lighbulb would cost, what, a penny an hour to run? Less? And would actually light the room!

I have to say I was surprised when Martin Lewis (who I normally think talks more sense than most) suggested people would be meeting in community buildings/museums/libraries etc.
The library in our town is only open about half the week and the rest of the time offers an express service where you can return books and look at around 15-20% of the books, with the main part of the library shut off. There are no chairs and you wouldn't fit an awful lot of people in there.
I'm sure most free services (including libraries) had been drastically reduced due to cost, several years ago. I'm not sure there are an awful lot of community spaces that will be a) open b) able to afford their own heating bills and c) big enough for any significant amount of people.

This

cant R.E.M. what ours was to run but say 20p an hour. Nothing. But if on for 12hrs as dd as baby likes a warm 22 room or would wake. None of this 16/17 lullaby trust - that is far too cold

so 10hrs £2 - 12-13hrs aa slept well was £2.50
a night times 30 and was paying extra £75 a month on heating one room

but to have heating on whole house meant we were too hot in bed , even if turned radiators off

now 5 she will be having an extra thick duvet on her at tog 15 if cold. Can’t have heater on all night insane prices

Yes, you are right that some items do not really save energy, but if you have a gas oven, it may be better to use an air frier than the oven. Slowcookers are great for soups or stewes. It may not save Kw, but it does inspire me to actually make the soup, because it is so easy to just put all the ingredients in and leave it overnight and wake up to fresh soup to take to work.
For energy saving if you like to cook from scratch, I think pressure cookers are better as they take such a short time, but they are not cheap and you need to be careful with them.
We have decided to move to electric for our shower, so we will only need the gas supply for the central heating, and if we cannot afford to turn it on, then we will not. It is expensive, but it gives us the option of quitting the gas, which is the more expensive factor for us at present.
I also have reduced to bare minimum how much I use the car. I walk, use electric bus or electric trains, all named as green, as much as I can.

I got a halogen oven which uses similar technology to an air fryer I believe, and is very cheap to run. You can buy one for £35-40. I cooked a roast chicken and roast potatoes in it yesterday, then did veg on the hob. It's 12L so big enough to fit in most things you would put in an oven, except something like a big lasagne or shepherd's pie in a large dish.

Yes you have to have £35 to spare in the first place but would make that back in a matter of months on cost savings.