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.

Hello,
I dry on the washing line where possible and just air in the dryer.
We have a log burning stove so keeping the heating timed to 4 hours per day, thats all we need with the burner. I have trained my children to turn off lights when leaving the room, when buying appliances we always buy A rated. And have thermostatic radiator valves of radiators to control room temperatures.
x

Remind everyone to only have the light on if needed and switch them off if you see them left on. Also I tell my children not to 'pause' their games consoles or leave them on standby. I also tell my children to turn tings off at the plug.

We have a 'charging station' area for all our battery powered gizmos. It's an individually switched extension lead where all the charging leads are plugged in. You find the lead you want, plug in your device and turn on the power for that plug until it's charged.

Keeps everything together so it's easy to find/use - less faff and chance of breaking the chargers by constantly plugging and unplugging them. Where possible we choose chargers that switch from a red to green light to let you know when charging is complete.

Batch cook and freeze smaller portions. Defrost by putting into warm water or in the fridge overnight.

Switch off all plugs that aren't in use.

Charge phones in airplane mode - chargers so much quicker.

Use energy efficient lightbulbs.

Layer up on clothes or blankets when it starts to get chilly.

Switch off radiators in rooms that you're not using much. So you're only heating rooms you use most.

Only one TV in the house.

We don't use standby for anything, if it's not used it's switched off.

Log burner so heating costs aren't too high

Efficient thermostat to control the heating

We had a new boiler fitted last year and we've seen a drop in our oil usage

Only use the tumble drier in an emergency, otherwise we have a clothing rack that hangs from the ceiling above the AGA and dry everything on that

Have the boiler and cooker serviced annually to make sure they are running as efficiently as possible

Use energy efficient light bulbs, when we moved in this house had ineffience (think they were halogen) lights nearly everywhere, replacing those was a priority

Lined curtains to keep the heat in in winter

Always turn off a light if you're the last one to leave the room.
If the weather is nice, dry your clothes on a washing line rather than the radiators or tumble dryer.
Take showers rather than baths.
Don't leave windows open when you have the heating on, that is just silly!
Turn it off if you're not using it!! No point having anything on standby.
Wear more jumpers, use more blankets and cuddle more in the colder months!

unplug when not using...eg,.. toaster...kettle.... tv...its a pain for others who come round but we are used to it now lol

Replace traditional light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb of the same brightness. One bulb will typically save around £3 a year, or £55 over the lifetime of the product. LED lights use 10% of the energy of a typical light bulb.

I have drummed it into my son that there is no need to have his console, tablet and iPod on at the same time to chat to the same friends over and over again, one thing does the job so he tends to just use one or the other now as I had noticed a massive increase in the amount of electric I was using. My children also know to unplug chargers after use and to turn off lights as they leave a room. I am also going around flicking off any points that are not in use at that time ... It's hard work as the hubby likes to leave everything on!

I have drummed it into my son that there is no need to have his console, tablet and iPod on at the same time to chat to the same friends over and over again, one thing does the job so he tends to just use one or the other now as I had noticed a massive increase in the amount of electric I was using. My children also know to unplug chargers after use and to turn off lights as they leave a room. I am also going around flicking off any points that are not in use at that time ... It's hard work as the hubby likes to leave everything on!

shower not a bath ,turn off computers etc completely when not in use , do not keep tv on stand by , only fill kettle for as much as you need.do a full load of washing , dry washing out on a line or indoors on a folding dryer to save using expensive to run tumble dryers.cook with a full oven ie I cook a large chicken and fill rest of oven with stuff we can re heat quickly so saves fuel ,

The obvious ones are turning lights off (I am militant about that one) and also not leaving appliances on standby. Insulating our loft too. Need to get better curtains for our lounge this winter as the flimsy ones let the heat out.

washing at 40, batch cooking and filling the freezer, putting more clothes on before turning the heating up!

Instead of leaving the landing light on in case the children get up in the night. I now use a little low energy plug in nightlight in the hall. It switches itself off as soon as it gets light
I plug my TV, games consoles and other things that don't need to be always on standby, into an extension socket with a switch on it. Then I just turn that off when I go out. The recorder stays plugged in separately so it will still record programmes

If on economy 7 make sure all washing, drying, using electric shower and other high energy things are done within the low price hours. Also check that you know when the cheaper hours are, some change with the clocks in March and October.

Unplug chargers. I follow DH and DC round the house unplugging things they've finished using. And I charge my phone at work!

Oh and shutting internal doors to keep the heat in. "Were you born in a barn?" is uttered a lot around here.

Lower temp and different cycle on wash
Ditto dishwasher
Sensor lights in bathroom make sure they don't get left on, and are great when people use loo for first time, spending ours looking for light to switch off
Peg washing outside if windy and no rain forecast

hours not ours

I have draughty old sash windows that I can't afford to replace so we use window film in the winter to help keep the heat in. Works surprisingly well!

Tell the children you as a family you need to reduce energy consumption and as an incentive give them 50% of the saving made. You are still saving and they are rewarded for their efforts.

Dry clothes on washing line.
Wash clothes overnight (economy 7) and use dishwasher overnight.

Between my husband and I we have 3 smart phones, 2 tablets and 2 Laptops for work and personal use. My DH is a stickler for switching things off when fully charged and this has rubbed of on me over the years. We really make the most of the devices battery so we don't run this down as quickly and need to constantly recharge.

Our tips for Gadgets are as follows..

Laptops/smartphones/tablets

If your battery is fully charged don't feel you need to have your Ac plugged in just because you are in the house. Make use of the battery and unplug from your wall!!

Look in your device settings and ensure you have enabled power saving mode and if you can further reduce screen brightness as this will also increase battery life.

Delete any unused apps or make sure apps that are not frequently being used are not constantly running in the background again to increase battery life.

If you are at home/work and have multiple devices power down all those that are not going to be used in the foreseeable future as standby mode and all those pesky notifications use energy!!

I would often potter away in the kitchen cooking recipes from my tablet and playing music from my Dab radio when my DH reminded me that I could play tunes from my tablet at the same time - so make the most of multitasking devices!!

My DS could play on my Tablet for hours but we limit this to set time this is more for his development but it also saves energy!!!

All of our light bulbs are energy saving and all of our spotlights are LED. The appliances we use are all A rated or A+ even our TV is energy efficient (according to my husband that was a selling point when he bought it!) so we are pretty energy efficient. We always turn off computer/tv/ lights etc when we aren't in the room and are currently trialling the nest thermostat for mumsnet which seems like an excellent way of not leaving the heating on unnecessarily and cutting it down a degree or two which makes a difference. We just form the habit of turning lights off when we move to a different room. I always try and bake cakes/cookie snacks for the kids when I'm using the oven to cook dinner anyway and I do batch cook and freeze meals. This will save energy in cooking further meals and of course if the freezer is full then this helps it to work more efficiently too.

Turn off the lights, wash at 30, switch TV off at the wall, batch cook...