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.

Put a lid on saucepans when boiling anything on the hob. It boils much faster/ less energy. I also have stacking steamers so I can cook several things at the same time from just the one pan of boiling water. Turn the hob down once it is boiling, just to keep it at a simmer instead of boiling its head off for no reason.

Don't use the oven for just one thing, use. If cooking a pizza, I'll have a cake and be making croutons too.

Shower the kids instead of bathing them.
I have a washer with a fast spin speed so less drying time and don't use the dryer unless really necessary
Use induction hob and halogen oven
House is very well insulated so heating required is minimal even in winter
Fish tank filter on a timer so it's not on all day/night
Cold water washing
Built a brick pizza oven in garden - great for dinner & baking bread
Dry hair naturally, don't use the hair dryer

It's an uphilll struggle for me as my husband and kids are very wasteful. I leave before my husband every day and come home to find all the lights on every day even on sunny summer days.

Nevertheless, our bills aren't too bad. We don't have a tumbledryer and I keep everyone warm in the winter by insisting on layers instead of heating whenever reasonable.

My DH works from home so I got him a halogen heater for his office so he can use that instead of turning on the central heating and therefore having the whole house heated when it's only him using one room.

Get a smart meter!

Ask your electricity company to fit a smart meter and put the little moveable readout thingy somewhere prominent. And set it to the "pence per hour" setting.

Our sits on the microwave in the kitchen and we are constantly aware of it. If it goes up above its usual background rate of between 1p and 4p an hour, DP or I go marching around the house to find out why!

It also made us realise our freezer was on the blink before it actually stopped working because we could see the electricity consumption had gone up and could work out that it was struggling to keep itself cool.

We are with Eon, they fitted the smart meter for free. Have had EDF and NPower in the past, Eon are far better and have genuinely good customer service and easy to understand bills.

*Lights are turned off in rooms that are not being used
*Appliances are turned off and not left on standby
*I charge my phone at work :-) or in the car
*Re-shape clothes straight out of the machine before line drying - saves on ironing
*Fill the freezer with empty boxes to make it run more efficiently
*Boil kettle and fill saucepans rather than boil from cold on the hob
*Keep lids on saucepans whilst simmering
*Layer up in winter

My husband has horrible habits like leaving things on standby and leaving things plugged in to charge even when fully charged. Now in days gone by we'd have argued, now however I bite the bullet and last thing at night just go around turning everything off after him. I am also in the process of teaching my daughters to do the same, an since my eldest is just now tall enough to reach light switches it's working a treat.

Silly as it sounds, get a small airer (one that hangs in an airing cupboard with little pegs on it) for all underwear, it saves me having to use the tumble drier when the weather is a bit dicey.

Always boil water in kettle for pasta, rice, eggs.

Get your clothes out of the washing machine immediately after it stops, hang up as much as you can, I now practically do no ironing!

We have a log burner, in winter we tend to stick to the living room during the day as it's saves having to have the heating on as we just burn enough to keep that room warm.

Batch cook, one massive packet of mince makes chilli, spag Bol and a moussaka type thing all done at the same time and freeze what we don't eat. Means I'm only using the hob once for about 30 mins rather than 3 times for 30 mins. I'd hope the quick ping in the microwave to reheat would be less energy that cooking it from fresh.

Turning off lights!!

With regards to gadgets we have stopped charging them over night, as they are usually fully charged within an hour or 2 and are then just left on all night using electricity which isnt necessary.

Keep the thermostat as low as we can, use blankets and keep doors shut to keep heat in.
If you need to use a tumbledrier use one with a timer so that it is not on for longer than needed.
Turn things off, don't use standby.

DS has been taught to turn off everything that DH leave son standby. Also the iPad is on low energy settings, low light emission, various options turned off. I shout at my children every time they needlessly open the fridge - it is starting to work.

We just try to be mindful of energy saving by turning lights off and turning TV off instead of on standby when not in use. I always press the Eco time button on the washing machine and wash at 40 x

Specifically gadget related - I try to have the screen brightness as low as possible so that I don't have to charge it as often. I also charge the phone in my car but I don't know what If any cost or saving that is?

On more general energy saving, we switched all our spotlights from halogen to LED and have seen a cost reduction on our bill from that. We have thick curtains and blinds on all the windows to keep cosy. Extra thick socks and jumpers in the winter rather than turn the heating up. I've also started using the 30 min short programme on the washing machine rather than the 2hr one - our clothes are never generally filthy so the short wash is usually enough.

We constantly seem to have things plugged in charging, so I just whip them out whenever I pass - otherwise DH and the DC will just leave them there for hours even after they're fully charged.

DH has an annoying habit of flicking the kettle on whenever he goes into the kitchen and more often than not he's not actually ready to make a cup of tea and so needs to re-boil it. I switch the kettle off at the plug whenever I pass to try and limit this.

We have showers rather than baths and for all of the summer months have the whole central heating system switched off. I do monthly meter reads on the same day and so have been able to compare our usage month on month. Seeing how little we use in the summer when the water, heating, tumble dryer etc aren't being used is a real incentive to keep trying to reduce the energy we consume.

We recently bought a multiple extension plug socket thing, which has individual switches for each plug, so we didnt need to unplug anything and we can now switch the things things off easier. We tend to hang out in the same room in the winter more. We dont own a tumble dryer and have curtains infont of our front door.

If the children are charging their gadgets they know to unplug when they are charged and not leave plugged in and especially overnight. The littlest ones roams from room to room a lot so getting into the habit that if she leaves the room the TV is to go off and not just be on in the background.
I have also turned into my dad and have started following the children around the house switching lights off after them whilst mumbling about Blackpool illuminations...something I swore I would never do! :)

Get a new boiler is number 1 biggest bill saver. Went from a dodgy 50yo heating system to a super new combi. And even then there's usually only 2 radiators on in the house.

Always boil minimum water for a brew (even hunted out the kettle with the lowest minimum 0.5ltr)
No tumble drier, no electric heater, no gas fire. Blankets and cuddles ftw!
LED tv uses about 1/5th the energy of old plasma

If lights are left on in this house we always call back the offending child and get them to put the light off...the theory being that it's such a hassle coming all the way back up the stairs that they'll start to remember to do it in the first instance. Seem to be waiting an inordinately long time for this to kick in

We all have short showers.

Gadgets aren't allowed to be endlessly left on charge and I encourage them to use their whole battery up instead of top up charging all the time.

Try and get them to switch wii/Xbox off completely instead of leaving it on standby.

Heating on at the last resort...and then only for 2 hrs on a morning and 3 hours at night. Lights off when leaving a room (unless there is someone in there!) We share baths. (Controversial!) Have quick showers. Only full loads of washing and more so if I can hang it out to dry. Washer and dishwasher on quick wash settings.
Otherwise we are not brilliant at saving energy, a lot of gadgets remain on standby.

always check your bills and make sure that usage is similar to previous years/what you expect, turn off lights/heating in rooms you are not using and close doors to rooms.

sex is a much more energy efficient night in than a movie... just saying

Turn off absolutely everything which isn't being used at the wall.

Mobile phones can only get charged over night.

Heating only goes on if we are cold and turned back off when we are warm.

NEVER put wet clothing on the radiators, they either go on the line outside or hung up inside the boiler cupboard.

We give our energy company our meter readings every month, that way we only pay for the electricity we use.
We got a woodburner 18 months ago. By asking around and scavenging we managed to accumulate LOADS of wood which we used last winter. Only had heating on for an hour in the morning and 1/2 an hour in the evening (to coincide with the kids bath) all winter and kept the woodburner ticking over almost constantly in the living room. Meant we always had one room that was toasty and used 2/3 less oil than the previous year. At this rate it'll pay for itself within 3 years. (Now we need one in the kitchen! :)
Tv always properly off at night. No chargers left on overnight (this is due as much to the fire hazard as the energy savings frankly) lights to a minimum and off when the room is empty.
We limit our tv use, only watch programmes we really WANt to. We banned just sitting watching whatever was in regardless and now we get more done and save on leccy!

We have energy saving bulbs.
No tv on standby, always switched off.
We go away at the weekends quite regularly, so everything is switched off, including the gas to heat the water.
We get a regular service on a boiler, and an engineer comes out and gives us sound advice, like only having the water heated come on once a day, rather than twice.
We've just changed our old draughty wooden windows and doors to upvc, so hoping that will help keep the heat in in the winter.
Really thinking about solar panels now, as we are at the top of a hill, so we get great sunlight through the day.

my advice is to only turn on lights when it gets dark, and sit togeher in one room if kids want to go up use the lamp. only one tv in house so we watch one program together, i put on the lamp when i am on my own, and only use washing machine at 30 degrees,. switch of all kitchen appliance when not in use, shower only no baths, use technology for limited time only, and share if possible. i have cut my electricity this year.

We only have one TV in the house and we all turn it off when not in use (rather than on standby).

We do however use the computer and tablets a lot - its hard to know how to save energy on those. The kids know to switch those off properly and to close down any apps they are not using to try to make it last longer before the next re-charge.

I just got a new smart phone and although my old charger would fit, the energy efficiency was far better on a new charger so for a reduced price of just £5 I was able to get a charger that is far more energy efficient.

My phone itself is also pretty energy efficient and I love how it tells me when to charge it up by specifically saying '12% left - you need to charge up soon.' So that I don't have to keep it 'topped up' just in case as i did with my old phone.