Tell E.ON what your energy saving tips are - an iPad Air to be won! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

We have been asked by the team at E.ON to find your best energy saving tips - relating specifically to gadget use. This comes following new research from E.ON has uncovered that UK parents now spend almost £300 per household on gadgets for their kids each year.

E.ON know that with technology playing an increasingly significant role in family life – from helping the kids with their homework to listening to the latest music – there’s rarely a time when a gadget isn’t on the go. However, their research shows that under half of parents (44%) consider the impact their gadget use could be having on their energy bills.

That’s why E.ON is working with Mumsnet to highlight their Saving Energy Toolkit, which enables E.ON customers to monitor how much energy their family is using – and compare it to similar homes in their local area. E.ON’s research found that eight in 10 parents find gadgets useful in running their households.

The E.ON Saving Energy Toolkit also contains tips to save energy, and they are now keen to know more about the ways parents stay savvy with their energy use. Whether it’s getting the family to watch TV together – so multiple devices aren’t used in one go, or ways to incentivise children to turn off their bedroom lights, E.ON want to know how your family uses no more energy that it needs to. What are your tips to save energy? Please share them on this thread.

Everyone who posts a tip on this thread will be entered into a prize draw, where one winner will receive an 16GB iPad air worth £399.

Please note your comments may be included on E.ON’s social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

P.S. Please click here for the terms and conditions of this thread.

A blanket to cuddle up with at nighttime.
Turn all lights of when not in use.
Dry clothes on airer or outside wherever possible.
SHower at the gym.

No tumble drier unless necessary (like in deepest darkest winter!), open the oven door when done to warm up rest of the kitchen. Cook using slow cooker.

Big duvet over the back of the sofa means we hardly have to put the heating on.
We have solar panels, so we run appliances when it's sunny (using our own energy rather than the stuff we pay for).
We have a pulley in the hallway to hang washing up inside even in winter, it pulls up out of the way where the air is warmest by the ceiling.
Curtain over the front door keeps draughts out.

Unplug or switch off at wall all chargers when the gadget is fully charged. When I got my new washing machine I checked the manual to see which was setting used the least amount of energy. I expected it to be 30 degree wash but was actually the economy 60 wash, so I use that often - my tip is to check and not just guess which is the best setting.
Also, quick wash mode uses more energy than regular mode.
Other tips mentioned by others already - switch off lights when not in room, only boil the amount of water you need, not whole kettle full.

Biggest thing with gadgets I think is not leaving them on standby but switching off completely and also when they are charging, checking when they are fully charged and then disconnecting and switching off the charger.

This includes checking hair straighteners are switched off after use!

Charging phones on short car journeys helps too.

I use my pressure cooker, I can do dahl in 20 mins!

I make sure my phone charger is unplugged and put away when it's not needed rather than being plugged in all the time.

Non gadget related - I made a beautiful olive green velvet curtain for our draughty front door, it really makes a difference.

Look out for solar chargers and devices powered by alternative means, such as wind up. My bicycle lights are wind up ones and I have solar chargers which charge an internal battery to be used when you need to charge your device.

Changing the brightness settings on tablets and phones can save a lot of energy, as can turning off bluetooth, wifi etc when they are not needed.

A multi socket extension cable with individually switched sockets will make it much easier for people to turn off chargers when not in use (so more likely to do it!)

As a parent, if you can educate yourself as to when a game your child is playing (on devices such as DSs) can be turned off mid game without them losing their place, you will be able to tell them to power down devices fully when appropriate, and say they can be left on standby for short times when it would be a crisis to turn off.

The kids are allowed a set amount of 'screen time' which they can choose on the iPad or TV, it's upto them. Once the time is up, all screens switched off. Dh and I only watch a couple of programmes at night when dc are in bed. This saves energy plus TV/iPad on all day does my head in completely!
Turn off all switches before going to bed.
Never leave things plugged in/charging for longer than necessary or overnight.
Use only energy saving bulbs in all lights and lamps.
Everyone showers, I even shower the toddler

Close the fridge door quickly, don't hang about peering in. Turn sockets off at the wall when chargers are plugged in

Reading all of these tips with interest as we could do better on the energy saving front.
Our main one is to turn lights off when leaving a room.
Heating is on low all winter to maintain a background heat, I swear this is cheaper than having the heating on/off/on/off and trying to heat an old house from cold every day.
In cold weather I close the curtains early to try and trap the heat inside.

Make sure chargers are unplugged when not in use. Check energy monitor before I go to bed to be sure nothing unnecessary is left on over night

Like many others here I don't wvwer tumble dry. I was on good drying days in summer and use a dehumidifier in winter.

once charging up phones, tablets and laptops, I would check the charging station is off. And I have also have a sticker at every wall socket saying turn me off please :).. After watching tv we will turn of the mains in the night During the winter time we will switch on the heater and set the timer so it automatically switches off, every if we forget to do so
we use the drying line in our garden and air dry clothes maximum w/o need for tumble dryer . My dd will switch of the lights or fan if she leave the room. if we all remember to switch off then we would save lot of energy.

Keep a stack of fleece blankets downstairs in winter, lovely to snuggle up whilst lounging around in the evening rather than automatically putting the heating on.

Draw curtains in the winter evenings to keep heat in.

Draft excluders on doors.

Switch off lights when no one is in the room.

Everything except home phone and fridge/freezer gets switched off at night or when we leave the house.

We have fake fur blankets behind the sofas. Also cats. (Not behind sofas) to warm you!

Watching tv together than separately on different TV's.

Wearing items of clothing more than once (not underwear though) saves a fortune on washing / drying costs.

Having an owl monitor and showing the kids how much the numbers go up when all the technology is in use. It makes them more aware of their energy use.

I have a four year old who is scared of the dark. She really wanted to keep the bedroom, hall and bathroom light on overnight, which is a waste. So I bought her a wind up torch. She never actually needs/uses it, but feels comforted by it!

To be honest I don't worry too much about gagets as their electricity consumption in the main is fairly negligible compared to energy use heating water (washing and heating) for example. So as far as gagets go, we don't have a massive plasma TV, but a low energy LED one instead and I did go around the house with one of those plug in consumption monitors and check the consumption of various transformers - mostly they are all fairly efficient and draw only a very small current, but I found ds's keyboard transformer was very inefficient, so I do always make sure that is turned off when not in use. You don't really need a monitor to do this, if the transformer gets hot in use it is inefficient and is wasting more electricity than it needs to, but even so, the waste of electricity is going to be very small compared to the savings you could make by only boiling the right amount of water when making tea or washing at a lower temperature and only heating bath/shower water when it's needed.

Not that exciting, but wearing jumpers and slippers rather than whacking the heating on, drawing curtains at dusk to keep the heat in, and shutting the door to the room in which we sit all help lessen out heating bills.

Re gadgets - turning them off when not in use, and not leaving them constantly on charge, nor the chargers plugged in.

I'm very keen on turning lights off, in fact we rarely use lights in our home, particularly at this time of year.
Electrical appliances in the kitchen are turned off at the plug rather than just on the device.

Probably lots more, will keep thinking, and I'm going to have a read of everyone else's ideas now!

Peg the washing out. Cook
In one pan if you can or oven
Roast it all.

Energy saving lights in whole house
A rated machines, wash on 30c eco wash
We had new boiler, instalition and caveraty walls done
We have fleece lined curtains in whole house
Heating off for three months and low in winter. We have summer and winter bedding with higher tog.
We use a draft excluder on the front door.
We only cook one meal per day
Bath the children together once per week
Use dishwasher but only when full/ one bowl of water to wash up at night.
Only landing light stays on at night and everyone is in the one room the rest of the time.
Also only use a little water in the bath.
Turn off everything at night for 8-10 hours and when we go away.
Take meter readings each month.

I am very aware of energy being wasted used by my family.
the dc leave their bedroom lights on...loads of gadgets are left on standby, the family are a nightmare.
Ive become a kind of moaning energy tsar I walk round switching stuff off and reminding people to turn off lights
I hand wash dishes rather than use the dishwasher... we're economical with the washer and always line/rack dry clothes only tumble drying in emergencies.
dh is probably the worst of all though, he'll nip to the shops leaving the TV on ffs! I will be victorious though.......

Behind the radiator foil boards to reflect out the heat.

Change all light bulbs over to energy saving, it's obvious but really makes a difference. Also, use the microwave to cook vegetables wherever possible instead of boiling for ages (wastes energy and boils away the goodness), splash of water, lid on loose, 2 minutes and done!