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Housekeeping

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help!! we NEEEED to save energy!

19 replies

Bubbless · 17/02/2013 17:48

Just got through our new bill from our electricity company saying that per month, based on our useage, we need to pay £90 per month!!

We have a two bed flat, which is all electric, with storage heaters.
We have a couple of those lights with 4 light bulbs in them in a row (baby brain!!), one of which we leave on all night for our daughter, a washing machine which we use once a day (we dry our clothes in front of our singular storage heater that we have on!) Fridge freezer, and the oven- which we switch off at the plug when we arnt using!

So..
Please tell us how to save energy!

My thoughts were maybe switching to energy efficient bulbs in the 4 lights light that we leave on over night, but I'm not sure if you can / what sort we would need, but anything else?!

Will accept and try anything! :D

OP posts:
CunfuddledAlways · 17/02/2013 17:51

turn off anything when not using: tv, laptop charger etc, dont keep light on overnight??

switch energy provider!!

CunfuddledAlways · 17/02/2013 17:53

only put heater on if you need it.

do you have an energy meter thing?? (shows how much electric you are using and when) found it very useful and most energy companys now give them out free

Bubbless · 17/02/2013 18:11

We have storage heaters and we only ever have one on, but we were always told that you should leave it on all the time as it stores heat then pushes it back out again? :/

I want an energy meter!! How do I go about getting one?!

OP posts:
splishsplosh · 17/02/2013 18:21

That does seem high - have you tried looking into alternative energy companies?

Make sure you never leave chargers on once phones etc have finished charging.

Swap all bulbs for energy efficient ones.

Could you buy a small night light to plug in if your dd needs a light on at night, rather than leave a main light on?

Can you turn the heater down when it's not as cold?

specialsubject · 17/02/2013 18:32

check you are on the correct tariff for the storage heaters (this may take some arguing with your supplier), and that you know how to use them. Try and get a mid-day period of low charge to top them up.

run the washing machine in the cheap periods (with a smoke alarm near it). If there is a mid-day cheap period, use that for the oven and other electrical use. Buy a slow cooker. Turn off all you don't need - chargers and standby items.

change the lights. Four bulbs on all night?

£90 might well be reasonable for the cold months we've just had, but in the summer when you don't need heating it will be a lot less.

CunfuddledAlways · 17/02/2013 18:35

cant think what our eletric meter thing was called but we got it free when we switxched energy companies and i can see how much electric we use per day and how much it costs, really helped me see what was costing lots. not sure about your electric heaters as dont have them

CunfuddledAlways · 17/02/2013 18:37

was it definately only electric that is 90?! double check...ermm...no more useful ideas

PigletJohn · 18/02/2013 00:01

looking at the estimated monthly payment is no good. Look at the kWh you use per year. Have you kept your electricity bills or meter readings? If not they should show the last 12 months usage on the latest bill, or if you are an online customer you can with some companies look up the meter reading history online. Look at your bill and your meter to check that you are paying the cheap rate for overnight heating on your storage heaters. Look at the meter during the night to see if all your electricity is going on the cheap register during the night, if it is, then use as much as possible of your electricity during those hours.

Electricity usage will mostly be for heating followed by water heating as I presume you have an immersion heater. The storage heaters I will guess use about five times as much energy as everything else in the flat put together. Look at your summer bills when the heating is off to see.

If you have a hot water cylinder, what colour is it, and how is it insulated? How are the hot pipes insulated? How hot is the tap water? Are there two immersion heaters, one in the top and one in the bottom? Are they both on timers? Do you leave the top one switched off?

Have you got a loft? How thick is the insulation?

Lighting uses very little but you can cut it by about 70% by changing to low energy light bulbs. Get cheap ones from the supermarket. A 100W filament bulb needs about a 22W CFL to give equivalent light, don't make the mistake of buying an low power CFL and then complaining that CFLs are dim. It is especially economical on lamps that are kept on for long periods, such as hall or porch lights.

A 20W low energy lamp runs for about 50 hours for 14p so don't fret about switching them off every ten minutes.

A 12W CFL is adequate for a bedside lamp, or for a landing light that you leave on all night to save falling when you go to the bathroom or to reassure a child. It will cost you about 2p for 12 hours so not worth worrying about..

A tumble drier will use in the region of 2kWh (30p) for a typical load.

An oven doesn't use much because it has a thermostat that turns the power off once it reaches temperature. Slow cookers use even less.

Despite what people will tell you, a phone charger uses an infinitesimal amount of electricity even if you leave it plugged in 24 hours a day. If you have 60 million of them in your home it will add up to a noticable amount, but you haven't. Modern TVs, decoders, DVD players, Hifi use very little on standby. A radio uses an infinitesimal amount.

An old fridge or freezer will use much more than a modern one. I chucked out an old fridge and saved £60 a year. All the chargers, TVs and lamps you can cram into a house won't use that much.

It's a pity you are on storage heaters, they are not much good unless you are at home all day while they are giving out most of their heat.

PigletJohn · 18/02/2013 00:31

for example bulb this one will replace a 100W filament lamp but uses about one-fifth the electricity, and bulb this one is nearly as bright as a 60W bulb You can put one in a simple table lamp with a timeswitch if you want

If you have spotlights and downlighters you are tipping money down the drain but energy-saving lamps are available at a cost. most ordinary lamps (light bulbs) in the UK use a 22mm Bayonet Cap (B22 BC) fitting and not a screw-in (ES 27) or small screw-in (SES) fitting. Be careful to buy the right ones

From time to time there are subsidies on energy-saving products, so I stock up (especially as the lamps last 5 to 10 years in typical use). sometime there are Tesco Value ones in the shops.

If you have too much money, you can buy bulb LED lamps, which for the same amount of light use the same amount of electricity as CFL energy savers, but cost five times as much, which rather defeats the money-saving object.

PigletJohn · 18/02/2013 10:10

Sorry the Wilkinsons links don't work but if you put "light bulb" into the Search and sort by price, their energy saving lamps start at £1.99

Tescos start at £3.50

I stocked up last year at Wickes at 50p per lamp last year when there were energy-saving subsidies by the Electricity companies. Now ended Sad

PigletJohn · 18/02/2013 10:24

p.s.

A 10kW electric shower uses about £1.40 of electricity per hour, and a 12kW electric shower about £1.68 per hour. Luckily most people run them for shorter times. There is nothing in your house that uses as much.

At economy night time rates the cost is about halved, so it is cheaper to heat your cylinder overnight and keep the cylinder very well insulated. Hence my wuestions about the colour and insulation of your cylinder and pipes.

An immersion heater is 3kW so costs about 45p an hour to run at standard rate and about half that during the cheap rate tariff if you have one.

PigletJohn · 18/02/2013 10:27

Of course, thanks to the thermostat, it stops using electricity as soon as the water is hot, even if it is switched on.

Like your kettle.

mumblecrumble · 18/02/2013 10:32

We have silly light fittings so instead use lamps with ebergy saving light bulbs in (and LED fairy lights......).

Best of luck

SavoyCabbage · 18/02/2013 10:36

We as those storage heaters in a flat and they were expensive. We got oil filled radiators instead.

erowid · 18/02/2013 12:36

Some teeny things I've picked up the habit of doing to save energy. Smile

Fridge/freezer - Clean the grill on the back from dust, helps it run more efficiently.
Fill up any empty space in the freezer with newspaper
Don't put hot food straight into the fridge (the food won't cool down quicker and you'll just end up heating the fridge)

-Only fill the kettle with the amount of water that you're going to use
-Turn the temp of the washing machine down
-Thick curtains in the winter keeps the heat in
-Draft excluders on all the doors/letter boxes and keyholes
-Turn everything off at the plug (even if standby uses almost no energy its a good fire safety tip imo)
-Leave the oven door open after you've finished cooking so the heat continues to fill the house (obviously not a good idea if you have small children or pets)

Bubbless · 18/02/2013 13:56

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions!
We are renting so some of them arnt possible ie- new fridge / freezers etc, but deff going to start changing other things!
Also, going to phone the electricity company later!!

OP posts:
CarolynR · 18/02/2013 14:00

I heard a tip to put a sheet of tin foil down the back of radiators (that are on external walls) to reflect the heat back out towards the room rather than heating the wall.

Haven't got round to do this myself yet though!

specialsubject · 18/02/2013 14:40

if you are cooking on electric, turn the hob off for the last five minutes of cooking. Same with the oven, only for longer. The oven and hob retain heat and so you might as well use that heat.

thick curtains are good. Open them when it is sunny to let in that free light and energy!

is there any outside space for the flat? Even if it is communal, speak to the landlord about a washing line. You don't want that laundry indoors on nice days.

PigletJohn · 18/02/2013 16:31

it's the heating and the hot water that use the most. Deal with those first. Nothing else will come close.

Let us know about the HW cylinder and the actual meter readings when you have time.

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