Preparing house for winter to keep energy bills low - ideas?

[Beaucoup]

We are taking the summer months to get the house ready for winter partly to avoid energy costs going even higher.

wanted to start a thread with peoples ideas to pool together.

things we are currently doing -

1. We’ve set up ceiling lines in our south facing conservatory which is a gorgeous space for us all to sit and play/host but doubles up overnights and slow days as drying space. Tumble drier stopped being used but we do switch on the ceiling fan if we’ve hung things up.
2. getting an electric blanket for my large downstairs office for WFH days to drape over legs instead of having heating on
3. getting blankets and dressings downs for us and DC to keep in ottoman in sitting room
4. getting a few microwaveable Sheep as hot water bottles without water!

need advice on a few things -

1. is an air fryer worth it to avoid oven?
2. we lack knowledge about insulation and draught proofing particularly - particularly for bedrooms upstairs and front door too
3. assuming that electric oil filled radiators are v costly to run and isn’t worth using those in rooms we are using rather than heating on centrally?
4. spouse is thinking of smart thingies on each radiator which means rooms can have heating switched on and off remotely on a timer depending on household routines. Am not sure what these are..
5. Also thinking of smart plugs at various points in the house to auto switch off things forgotten on standby

any other ideas ?

I've just calculated the cost of running my gas central heating system per hour - it's be £1.44/hr under the current prices.....

We have bought some oodies and are working on eliminating any drafts. Need to get some nice warm socks for everyone.

We are looking to buy some coal or logs in bulk in August, and I also might get another plug in oil filled radiator. I want to have some options to heat the house that aren't just oil.

I fitted a portiere curtain over my front door. Made a big difference.

Following ⚒

I've been told that using the microwave more rather than the oven is more economical than running an oven (I live alone)...is this true ?

An oven/cooker is an energy guzzler. We have lined up - in our utility area - an array of things - toaster, microwave, rice cooker, Instant Pot and Air Fryer - and we dont use the cooker at all anymore.

The reason a microwave is usually more efficient than using the conventional oven is that with the microwave pretty much the only thing that gets hot is the food itself (and possibly also the container).

Whereas with the conventional oven you're heating the oven itself, the room, the container, and the food.

In winter all this by-product heat might be quite useful, unless you suck hot air straight out with an extractor fan. Howevr in the summer it's just wasted.

Other small gadgets like the rice cooker and air fryer do get hot themselves, unlike the microwave, but you're still only heating a small gadget (which may be well insulated to not lose that heat) compared to a large oven. This is why small gadgets can be much more efficient to run for preparing small amounts of food.

But horses for course. The large conventional oven can be the right answer even in summer when one is preparing a large amount of food (bulk cooking items either simultaneously or one after the other while the oven is hot).

Definitely invest in an air fryer, we hardly use our oven now, best kitchen gadget I have bought in years. As a previous poster said, buy the largest you can afford.

I’ve just done a fillet of fish that I got yellow stickered in the air fryer for the kids - crisp, barely 7 mins. Put in potatoes just a few mins before the fish went in - Al together. 11 mins job done - healthy, crispy kids meal in all of that time. My oven would be heating it self up for that long and eating electricity

I used occasionally to have to spend the night in an elderly relative's bitterly cold house. Putting a spare duvet under the sheet (so you are lying on it) really helps keep you warm in bed.

Buying long sleeved t-shirt, leggings and jumpers from a charity shop for everyone will give a stockpile for the winter. Layers really are the answer to dressing warmly. If you can afford new, Heat Holders are very cosy.

A really energy efficient way to cook basmati rice is one cup of rice to two cups of water, lid on pan, bring to the boil, boil for a minute then turn hob off and leave lid on for 15 mins. Should have nice fluffy rice and only need enough energy for a quick boil.

Not very cool looking but very efficient - I have a giant roll of bubble wrap I bought from Amazon and I will be hanging this on Command hooks in front of my downstairs windows as I'm not allowed double glazing because the house is listed and I have a lot of glass one side of the house because it was previously a shop. There is no height above the windows to install curtains.

A gas engineer told me that if you need heat in a room that has a gas fire put the central heating on instead. The central heating heats the whole house from one gas source whereas a gas fire only heats one room.
Another tip I learned was to turn the boiler down to 59 degrees (centigrade) . It's warm enough to heat water and for central heating. It also inhibits the formation of limescale inside the pipes as calcium carbonate precipitates out of solution at 60 degrees.

Boil a full kettle of water in the morning for your first drink and transfer the remainder to a thermos and use that to make hot drinks later in the day.
We have also installed thermal underlay in our spare room under the carpet which is built over an open porch and a garage.

I've not got far but we are all out for the day 5 days a week . My heating used to go on an hour before we all wake so this winter I'm hitting the shops to buy us all fleece pjs . They'll hold the heat to get us through breakfast then out the door for the day . Primark do great pjs .
The evenings I've got blankets from dunelm that we can wrap around ourselves ..
slow cooker for as many meals I conjure up . Old clothes stuffed into pairs of tights to use as draft exclusion.
I don't know how we will get on and I'm pissed that this actually going to happen .

I bought an Oodie each for my DS and me. We have ridiculously expensive electric heaters in our rented flat. We didn't have to put the heaters on at all last winter. Saved a fortune!

I'm getting a bit obsessed with checking the electric meter and in the last 24 hours we've used 14kwh of electric at a cost of around £5 if my maths is correct )we don't have a smart meter). Don't know if 14kwh is good or bad tbh. Does anyone know?

I’m also obsessed with our electric and gas data and check daily and switch to the “£” tab to see it as downs not kWh. £5 seems very high to me. We currently average £2.20 a day - family of 4 in 4 bed semi. But we don’t use oven/cooker at all. Do you know which times of the day the usage peaked from the daily data? Ours shows us half hourly figures in great granularity.

So this was us yesterday - £2.39 yesterday for slightly above 8 kWh for the day. Attached screen shot of kWh view and £ view.

We don't have a.smart meter just an old fashioned meter where the numbers turn slowly round.

It's 31p per kWh so 14 X 31 is £4.34 I think. (Plus standing charge and vat)

Ah okay sorry maybe someone else can help. Ours is a smart meter and we see half hour usage for gas and electricity on our app which has really helped tweak habits and usage.

Rather than slippers, I have some sheepskin type boots (Matalan, but I got them on Ebay) which I only wear in the house and they are way warmer than slippers as they cover your ankles, and the thick soles stop the cold striking up. If you are sitting at a desk, put your feet on a folded up blanket and the extra insulation will make your feet loads warmer

Ah would you mind linking please? I’ll have a good 50% or the week WFH in the coldest room of the house so am hunting out tips !

I think 14kw is at the higher end of things. If we didn't try to take any energy saving measures at all and just work away on the electric we would have averaged 14kw per day. There were 7 of us.

For people working at their desk at home, I saw someone recommend sitting in a sleeping bag.

Listen to 'Sliced bread ' available in R4 about air fryers . An oven uses over twice as much energy . Best thing I've purchased in a long time . Just get the right size for your family .