ok we have one of those things that measure how much electricity you're spending and the tumble dryer is on...

[brimfull]

so guess how many pence per hr I am spending right now?

We have one of those electricity checkers, and our big users were the computers left on standby all the time, the tv/video/dvd left on standby, and (to my surprise) the microwave not being used but plugged in and switched on at the wall. So now we turn all those off at the wall when we're not using them.

Also our fishtank heater was using a lot of electricity, which made us realise we didn't actually care about the tropical fish anyway. .
we don't have a tumble dryer but I might if we lived in Scotland.

actually we don't iron much either. we are just crumpled. in a green chic way, I like to think.

Scottish Hydroelectric have a scheme where they're issuing these things free. I found out after calling them with worries about our huge energy usage for a freezing cold house. They were supposed to be sending me one so we can check our storage heaters are working correctly. Nothing yet though.

We are apparently using our storage heaters just right, yet our usage is sky high. Higher than "high" apparently, even with only half the storage heaters on low. Obviously now they're not on at all.

We have a tumble drier and it's a complete godsend. Otherwise our heating bills would be even more enormous and we'd all be walking around smelling of wet dishcloths - nice.

exactly, twinkle.

it has been incredibly wet here in scotland this year.

fennel - don't broadcast about the fish using electricity! I put a lot of effort into convincing MrNC that my fish are really economical pets even when I spend £100 on new plants, fertilizer, food, additives, lightbulbs and then a week later have to comb London for a £40 pump...

Fortunately there's a nice spot for them in this house so they don't need heating for 6 months of the year.

I predict I'll go from using my dryer once a year to a lot more once Squirmy is born, what with clothes and washable nappies, but will try to only use it to finish off damp stuff rather than putting things in immediately. Our washer spins really hard so that helps.

Will see if switching the microwave off is feasible (our switches are in very odd places) - I try to get MrNC to close it when not in use as the light on annoys me.

finally got to peg out today!

Cats are economical pets, in that they can sit on you and keep you warm so they save on heating bills (spot the proud owner of two new kittens )

Our switches are all inconveniently placed too, I get tired of the new regime (since we bought an electricity checker) of crawling under dusty places to switch off appliances at the wall. So DP has bought a new appliance specially to switch things off at a distance. he loves gadgets to save energy though I'm not sure whether buying more to save more is really green.

We have had giant snail babies and guinea pig babies and now cat babies this year. not sure I'd have called us a breeding ground though, except possibly for germs.

Snails really are economical pets, they don't need heating and you can feed the eggs to your aquarium fish.

I prefer to pick those snails up off the porch and fling them into the heather.

I just wanted to report back to this thread, since we bought one of those electricity measuring things our electricity usage has gone down by 25%. Very satisfying. So it really is quite a money-saver, getting those gadgets, it seems.