Phil Pascoe
Established Member
I use the water from cleaning the aquarium filter for that.
What ideas have you had for reducing Electricity consumption
- Thread starter johnny
- Start date
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Since Putin invaded Ukraine and Shell bought a shed load of their gas just before it was banned, I have resented using any unnecessary energy, not just because of increased cost and environmental damage. It inspired me to give up being a heavy tea and coffee drinker. I now keep an used, clean milk container topped up with tap water in the fridge as a regular supply of cold water. I actually like the change to drinking cold water and don't miss tea and coffee. It suits my health too. The extra water in the fridge increases its efficiency. Target reducing use of high energy appliances. The kettle is on that list.
I bought an adjustable 7 day timer switch £30 ish had my lecy fit it to the feed of to the combi boiler turn boiler off each evening at 8 and on at 7 next morning object no hunting through the night. Might have to change the off to later when the winter comes.
Improve an aging fridge. Our fridge had a broken door seal so I replaced it with a non-specific replacement cut to size, from Ebay. It arrived oversize, obviously, but also quite mis-shapen. I fitted it with screws and hybrid silicone, but still would not close tightly. I purchased a set of cheap toggle clamps also from ebay and fitted one of them onto the fridge using a blind-riveter. After 6 months of using the toggle clamp, the seal now has adopted the shape and we don't really need the toggle clamp. The performance of the fridge has reverted from poor to back to new. It comes on very infrequently now and remains very cool.
I did a slow roast shoulder of lamb in the oven yesterday. I took advantage and did a pot of steak and kidney at the same time for later in the week 
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Used the oven for a large joint of pork, a leek gratin and an apple crumble. First time it's been used since buying the Foodi in May.
edit - and a huge tray of roast potatoes.
edit - and a huge tray of roast potatoes.
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Interesting thread, especially reducing oven usage. We have for many years used a Grand Remoska instead of the oven.
Its capacity is 4lt and rated at about 550watt. They have made in the Czech Republic for 60 odd years. Lakeland stock them.
We cook everything from whole chicken to leg of lamb plus all trimmings. Cooking time is the same as a normal oven. No fancy controls or thermostats to go wrong, just plug it in and switch on. And its not made in the far east!!
Its capacity is 4lt and rated at about 550watt. They have made in the Czech Republic for 60 odd years. Lakeland stock them.
We cook everything from whole chicken to leg of lamb plus all trimmings. Cooking time is the same as a normal oven. No fancy controls or thermostats to go wrong, just plug it in and switch on. And its not made in the far east!!
Dibs-h
Established Member
Just changed a couple of 9.5W LED light bulbs for some 3.5W ones (as a sort of test) and whilst I can tell the light output is less - they are far from "stumbling in the dark" - so looking to change all the others over the next few days.
okeydokey
Established Member
How much £ will the lower rated LED;s save compared to the useful brighter environment?
johna.clements
Established Member
It should depend on if the room needs a bright light.
If you are reading, a workshop, kitchen or other room where you are doing close work or could trip over stuff or the like; yes you need a bright light. A hall maybe low, stairs medium or bright, kitchen bright,, room you just watch TV in low.
3.5W is a lot less than 9.5W. If you do not need the light why pay for it. But you also have to buy the bulb but LED bulbs are cheaper than they were and do last a very long time.
A 3.5 W bulb running for 4 hours per day for 365 days will use 3.5 X 4 x 365 X 10% power loss = 5.6 kW or units.
The 9.5W uses 15.3kW per year, a bit more than 10 more units a year. 10 units of electricity costs about as much as a cheap 3.5W light bulb, it would certainly be paid for in the second year if you purchased a cheap bulb.
It would certainly be worth it to move the high use bulbs around to where they are needed and to places where you do not use the light much.
Dibs-h
Established Member
All the bulbs replaced are effectively background lighting. Where task lighting is required - say the kids bedrooms at their desks, they have table lamps (they have 1.5W LED bulbs but throw out a lot of light given the distance they are at).
Combined with almost every wall\ceiling in the house being white - with the 3.5W bulbs, things are far from dark.
As an example: our staircase light is on from dusk till 8am - say 10 hours a day. Based on the new rates of leccy from 1 Oct and the bulbs costing £3(giving out 470 lm or thereabouts) - the payback will be about 6 months.
Obviously folks mileage & preferences may vary but the wife & kids haven't complained (yet).
Combined with almost every wall\ceiling in the house being white - with the 3.5W bulbs, things are far from dark.
As an example: our staircase light is on from dusk till 8am - say 10 hours a day. Based on the new rates of leccy from 1 Oct and the bulbs costing £3(giving out 470 lm or thereabouts) - the payback will be about 6 months.
Obviously folks mileage & preferences may vary but the wife & kids haven't complained (yet).
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It is not all about wattage when it comes to illumination, you also need to think about the temperature of the bulb which makes a big difference in what the light looks like, some areas want a warm light whilst others daylight.
Dibs-h
Established Member
Yep - used a mix of warm ones in some areas\rooms and daylight ones in others.
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
The lamp outside my front door has a 2w bulb in it - it's surprising how much light that gives in the dark. It costs me 10p when I forget and leave it on for a week.
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Just a thought about wood stoves and insulation.
To get max heat from a wood burner of any shape or size you need to treat it like a rocket stove and burn a small amount of dry stuff very quickly with frequent topping up to keep it going.
But if the stove is big enough your fast burn can be quite large, and if the room is insulated this heat will be around for some time after the fire has gone down, less frequent topping up required.
Insulation is top priority whatever system you have.
When not using it I try to keep the stove charged up with fast burning stuff - planer chippings and sawdust best. Then if we come in from the cold we can get the room warmed up very quickly - much faster than the gas CH, which we are trying not to use anyway.
To get max heat from a wood burner of any shape or size you need to treat it like a rocket stove and burn a small amount of dry stuff very quickly with frequent topping up to keep it going.
But if the stove is big enough your fast burn can be quite large, and if the room is insulated this heat will be around for some time after the fire has gone down, less frequent topping up required.
Insulation is top priority whatever system you have.
When not using it I try to keep the stove charged up with fast burning stuff - planer chippings and sawdust best. Then if we come in from the cold we can get the room warmed up very quickly - much faster than the gas CH, which we are trying not to use anyway.
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Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Ours is 4w but a slightly expensive "sign light" which you can leave on for two years (it says).The lamp outside my front door has a 2w bulb in it - it's surprising how much light that gives in the dark. It costs me 10p when I forget and leave it on for a week.
NFav
Established Member
Living in a slightly rambling 1920’s house with solid walls, our insulation options are a bit limited.
I am planning to put some internal insulation on the exterior walls as & when time / redecorating wife allows. The loft is already well insulated. But heating is always going to be our main challenge. The gas fired Aga does a fantastic job of cooking and heating the back part of the house through winter.
I have discovered Honeywells EvoHome heating, so it’s smart radiator valves and a proper easy to use program panel, I can set different zones throughout the house and have different heating programs for each zone. No longer do I have all the heating on because I want to sit in the lounge watching TV. The bedroom comes on shortly before I go to bed and the lounge heating is already off.
Only heating the rooms I want to use when I want to use them can only be a good thing.
I am planning to put some internal insulation on the exterior walls as & when time / redecorating wife allows. The loft is already well insulated. But heating is always going to be our main challenge. The gas fired Aga does a fantastic job of cooking and heating the back part of the house through winter.
I have discovered Honeywells EvoHome heating, so it’s smart radiator valves and a proper easy to use program panel, I can set different zones throughout the house and have different heating programs for each zone. No longer do I have all the heating on because I want to sit in the lounge watching TV. The bedroom comes on shortly before I go to bed and the lounge heating is already off.
Only heating the rooms I want to use when I want to use them can only be a good thing.
Dibs-h
Established Member
I've had it for a few years now and very happy with it.
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I replaced all our bulbs with CEF when we first moved in 16 years ago, since then I've replaced these with LED. However, I've only just discovered that LEDs are energy rated and most are E to G! I then went round feeling each bulb after it had been switched on for a while and was surprised that many were hot! I then bought a load of A rated ones from Amazon and these run much cooler.
