What are you doing to reduce electricity consumption?

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What are you doing to reduce electricity consumption?
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Fee

Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 11:58 am Post subject: What are you doing to reduce electricity consumption?

We had a candlelit evening playing Trivial Pursuit last night, it was lovely

Even cleared the dining table and ate there by candlelight!

And while the oven was hot from cooking our roast dinner (which was almost entirely cooked in the oven at the same time, instead of boiling/steaming a lot of stuff as well as the oven being on), I made a chocolate cake for OH to eat while I'm away...seen as he's being really good and taking on this reduction of lekkie so enthusiastically.

Now I'm away working, in Bath, until Friday, so I've left hubbie with instructions, which are:

- No electricity to be used whatsoever in the bedroom (no TV, radio, stereo, or light...though I did say he was allowed to turn the light on briefly to see his route to the bed over the mountain of clothes and junk on our bedroom floor, aren't I generous?).

- Lights to be used sparingly where needed, and no two lights allowed on at any one time in the house.

- The PC has to be turned off if it's not being used, including both monitors off proparly, not just on stand-by. THough I have asked him to turn the PC on before he goes to work, and switch it off again when he gets back, to simulate me being there working from home in office hours, otherwise it wouldn't be an accurate image of what we use and what we could use.

- The TV is to go on only when something we've planned to watch is on...or, we were thinking maybe we should set the Sky+ box to record anything we want to see, and watch only those programmes...so no flicking around channels trying to find something to watch.

Think that's it, what's everyone else doing differently this week (though I know a lot of people here already do all the things above)?

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:17 pm Post subject:
My main thing is to have put my beloved blow-heater away. I DO like having a quick blast of warm air round my ankles when I'm making my brekkie before the CH has kicked in . Other than that, just being a bit more vigilant about switching things off and using the cooker efficiently. Oh, and I won't be doing any hoovering or ironing this week!!

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:21 pm Post subject:

A really useful thing is to carry out a last minute walk around before bed, checking all lights are off, including outside, TV's turned off rather than standby etc.

It's also wise to incorporate this into a fire safety check, make sure all candles/naked flames are out, devices unplugged which aren't meant to be left plugged in, that all doors etc are shut properly (even a non fire door will give you 15 minutes)

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:26 pm Post subject:

I cooked a roast yesterday, but whilst the oven was on, I did another four meals, which will cut down the use of the oven a lot during the week. (I was exhausted last night though).

We've not had the telly on yet - and will only put it on if there's something specific we want to watch.

Looking at what uses the most electric in our household, we've hopefully sorted the oven with the cook-a-thon yesterday. We're only running the hot tap for a bath every other day, and sharing it

(we don't have a shower

). I'm only washing the clothes that are absolutely neccesary, and as the weather looks OK this week I should be able to put them outside to dry.

Is it better though to leave the emersion tank on, or just switch it on to warm when we need hot water? We will need some for washing up every day though. Anyone any advice on this?

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:33 pm Post subject:

I am not doing anything which I don't consider sustainable - my first thought when doing this challenge was to not use the washing machine, computer, oven etc.. for a week but then I would be producing false usage - particularly as we have looked very carefully at our energy consumption already

However, the good thing that has come out of this challenge so far is that a number of bad habits have slipped into use since we made energy saving changes - so we are turning the tv off from standby every night again - identified a number of other appliances being left on standby

- we are turning things off at the socket (does that make a difference) and we are ebeing very careful with lights

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:35 pm Post subject:
Take a look at the lights in your house and decide which ones are on the longest. Pick as many as you can depending on finances and swap for eco bulbs. Four would be a good start.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:35 pm Post subject:

In a perverted sort of way I'm jealous of you lot with electric cookers, CH and so on. We have a solid fuel Rayburn for hot water anf cooking, a Wood burner in the parlour, no CH, no electric kettle, etc etc etc. We do, however have 2 freezers, one of which I emptied and turned off yesterday. As we don't have any TV reception we only watch TV (videos & DVDs for an hour or so on most evenings and we don't have any outside lights. So we can't cut our consumption by much except to check nothing is left on when it's not being used.

pricey

Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 6444

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:43 pm Post subject:

Penny, immersion heaters are 3 kw, it really depends on how well insulated your tank is. I f it's fairly newish it will be covered in expanded foam like stuff, very well insulated. If it only has a fibre glass filled sectional jacket on, then get as many blankets/ duevets around it as possible. This will cut down on the amount of time it bi-oles every hour. Also turn the stat down to 55 deg, this is well hot enough, but this involves taking cover off, so please every one turn of electric first. I wouldn't like to think I wiped out 30 odd downsizers

Fee

Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:44 pm Post subject:

I forgot to say that we shared a shower this morning too, very nice start to a Monday morning it was too

We're trying not to do things we won't reasonably be able to keep up either, hence me asking OH to put the PC on during the day when I would normally be at home...I'm doing this challenge for us really, I'm not too concerned about the actual result at the end of this week...well, as long as it;s lower than last week

Plus, the washing machine not being on isn't too much of a biggie, it hardly ever is (hence th big pile of clothes on the bedroom floor

)

moongoddess

Joined: 24 Jan 2006
Posts: 673

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:54 pm Post subject:

I've been vigilant about lights and have now turned off the stereo components at the wall (they're usually left on standy all the time).
I haven't used electric heating except this morning because dd was nearly blue with the cold, so it went on for a 15 minute blast.

Unfortunately, we have workmen in this week and they're drinking a lot of tea

I only use the kettle once a day, but I've already made 6 cups of tea today and of course, they have all the lights on in the room they are working in.
I've been turning my computer off instead of standby and last night used the little built in light on my screen instead of the table lamp _ i figured it might use less power, but I'm not sure.

That's about it. I don't think I am going to get an astonishing result. I was planning on handwashing, but everything is in total chaos due to building work and I don't think I can manage it (mind you, the washing machine isn't plumbed in anyway, so I don't quite know what I am thinking will happen - does the washing faery still exist?).

I'd be really interested to hear what people's average bills (gas, oil, wood, electric etc) are. I was appalled how much mine was when I worked it out. We had used over #16 last week and I felt highly embarassed

We never buy wood though, we always forage that, although we have run out, hence the electric blast this morning............

rambling horribly,
mg x

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 12:56 pm Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

I'll happily swap with you mochyn!!! Ever since I saw your kitchen windowsill pictures I've had to keep muttering to myself "you CANNOT move to Wales, it is totally impractical, can't afford it, miles from friends and family......"

.

Anyway, apart from my naughty fan heater I'm not sure that I will be able to save much either, though. I don't have TV or outside lights and am pretty careful about switching things off anyway. Not hoovering or ironing isn't going to save me much - I rarely do either anyway

.

It'll be interesting to find out just how much the fan heater does use up, assuming everything else stays much the same. I did think about buying some energy efficient light bulbs, but the full-spectrum ones I want cost a fortune, so they remain on the "one day" list......

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 1:10 pm Post subject:

I have decided to only do things I will carry on doing, so I won't be giving up using the washing machine for example.

I am looking at the clothes a bit more to see if they can do another wear, but with three messy children, who knows!

I have hung three loads of washing out on the line (usually use the tumble dryer), got the aga kettle out, so no leccy one.

While I was pulling plugs out I turned down the timer on the central heating (oil) so it isn't on for as long now, and turned down the hot water temp very slightly.

Also turned down / off a couple more radiators.

I am changing some lightbulbs too to energy efficient.

All these should be permenant changes too.

I will add the number of people who stayed on site to my figures at the end of the week, and last weeks too, as obviously I cannot do much about their consumption.

The pc has been set to 1min standby, for pc and screen.

I may try and reduce a freezer down in a minute too, so I can turn one off.

Now I am looking for ideas

Any one else?

Fee

Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 2:26 pm Post subject:

marigold wrote:

...I'll happily swap with you mochyn!!! Ever since I saw your kitchen windowsill pictures I've had to keep muttering to myself "you CANNOT move to Wales, it is totally impractical, can't afford it, miles from friends and family......"

Same here! SO jealous, Mochyn

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 2:28 pm Post subject:
Good suggestion Alison, turning down the thermostat a couple of degrees, turning off radiators. If you have a thermostat on the hot water tank then that can be turned down. Ours is set to give a hot but not scalding bath of water.

Anna-marie

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 980
Location: West Wales

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 06 3:06 pm Post subject:

There's not much that I can do, really!!

Lights are only turned on when the pub is open, and these are a necessary evil, as the customers need to see what is floating in their beer

My only form of heating is the woodburner in the pub, and this also runs the central heating upstairs. But as I am downstairs, anyway, I never turn the pump on!!

I always turn lights off whenever I can, and no appliances are left on standby

My cooker is electric, but I rarely get the chance to cook!!

Crisps and chocolate are the staple diet of a vegetarian, did you know?

Telly is only on when the customers want to watch football or rugby. (Or darts, snooker, indoor bowls, synchronised beer drinking, etc, etc,

) and is switched off immediately anybody turns away from it!!!

Like Mochyn, I'm not sure what else I can do. Oh, I suppose I could always cut down on my coffee intake

But then, I would probably kill someone

Anna-marie

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