What ideas have you had for reducing Electricity consumption

[johnny]

I thought it might be useful to have a sort of think tank of ideas on how we can become more energy efficient in our homes this Winter.
We have become so energy reliant and wasteful over the past few decades. Back in the early 60's our house was one of the first in our street to have central heating installed. How did we manage back then with so few electrical appliances .
Can we perhaps re-learn something from how our Grand parents coped

 

[redefined_cycles]

We've swapped all the bulbs already and the missus is constantly calling out the kids (and husband) to enaure to turn lights off asap. We're also hoping to wear more layers indoors during winter to have the heating on a lot less and usually. Another big one is energy escaping and if that can be done efficiently its a massive boost- still working on that but am currently doing up the loft.

Had the trusses removed and extra purlins added and news joists going in - I'll be lining it with the volcanic rockwool where appropriate and still wondering whether I want the loft floor lined with insulation or just the rafters (properly). Losing heat upwards is a massive loss to any house I believe so I'm sure it'll save alot in the long run.

We've discussed putting the shower out of action but the missus convinced me that showers are actually cheaper if we were to use it properly. So currently all working on turning it off during soaping/scrubbing and also reducing showering times to as close to mins as poss. At some point in the future I'm also hoping to look at the idea of putting a jacket onto the house but I'm sure it'll be expensive so not explored the idea yet. However, If I were to learn to do it myself it'd save a good few tons of money!

Good thread and thanks for opening. Looking forward to ideas to reduce wastage...

 

[Marcusthehat]

I cannot believe that people do NOT turn the shower off during the soaping and scrubbing phase.
I would however need to insulate the roofspace better, mea culpa, sigh.
And in response to sideways(below), we never owned nor ran a tumble drier, horrible energy guzzling thngs that they are. Nor was the washing machine ever run on a daily basis, full loads only.

 

[Sideways]

Lo tech (cheap to buy) tumble dryers are wasteful and expensive to run.
We've experimented with using a storage cupboard (about the size of our airing cupboard) for drying with a portable dehumidifier. It works well. Clothes are dry in a few hours. You see how many jugs of water you take out. And once they are dry the dh stops, unlike a tumbler which will happily carry on cooking clothes after they are dry.

Litre jug, I remembered to check just in time

 

[Noel]

We've swapped all the bulbs already and the missus is constantly calling out the kids (and husband) to enaure to turn lights off asap. We're also hoping to wear more layers indoors during winter to have the heating on a lot less and usually. Another big one is energy escaping and if that can be done efficiently its a massive boost- still working on that but am currently doing up the loft.

Had the trusses removed and extra purlins added and news joists going in - I'll be lining it with the volcanic rockwool where appropriate and still wondering whether I want the loft floor lined with insulation or just the rafters (properly). Losing heat upwards is a massive loss to any house I believe so I'm sure it'll save alot in the long run.

We've discussed putting the shower out of action but the missus convinced me that showers are actually cheaper if we were to use it properly. So currently all working on turning it off during soaping/scrubbing and also reducing showering times to as close to mins as poss. At some point in the future I'm also hoping to look at the idea of putting a jacket onto the house but I'm sure it'll be expensive so not explored the idea yet. However, If I were to learn to do it myself it'd save a good few tons of money!

Good thread and thanks for opening. Looking forward to ideas to reduce wastage...

Do the rafters AND the loft floor, as you say, worth it in the long run.

Buy a new kettle? : )

 

[sawtooth-9]

Knit a jumper and turn the switch off.
Dress in layers.
But failing all else - shared body warmth does work !

 

[clogs]

we binned all the standard bulbs for LED's.....we actually leave it by the centralised bin's and those that need can take it....
some of the wall lights had high watt halogen strip bulbs.....converted outside halogen flood light to LED's....
Water solar heating was the biggestsingle saver....
as the white goods fail we buy the high eff unit's.....
she's now looking towards one of those air fryer's.....?????
plus on a house clearance we was given a table top oven with 2 hobs.....
she cooks in the smaller oven now even cakes.....can see the big oven going.....
the biggest saving was getting rid of the kids......
plus, all year we collect wood from the bins inc wrecked pallets...this get's mixed with the Olive wood for the heating in winter....
plus we often get useful bits of hard wood from furniture....

 

[Doug71]

I have always been careful with these things so don't really think there is much I can change, I won't be taking the energy saving to the extreme like some people though.

For me there is nothing worse than a cold, dark house in the winter months to get you down. I will still be leaving the odd light on in the hallway etc to make the house feel lived in, a 4w bulb on for an hour or two in the evening won't make that much difference.

I remember ice on the inside of my bedroom windows when I was a child, we don't live like that anymore. I don't expect to sit watching tv in just my pants when it's when it's -10 outside but I won't be walking around a freezing cold house wearing 2 fleeces either.

If I feel an extra few minutes in the shower is needed to help relax and help ease those aching joints I do it.

I agree with @clogs that my biggest saving will be when the kids finally decide to move on

 

[Fitzroy]

We have electric underfloor heating in one part of the house, we used to keep it on toasty warm, found out that was costing £600/yr on old tariffs Tumble drier uses lots (i like the drying cupboard idea with a dehumidifier that is genius). Kids spending hours in the shower, ditto others. Mother-in-law boiling a full kettle 3 times a day for a single cup of tea. Wife preheating the oven for 2hrs to make sure it's at an even temperature, we got a digital oven thermometer and demonstrated 20mins was more than adequate for her macarons. Our house lives at 18degC during the day and 14degC at night so can't go much colder. I'm gradually installing DGUs and draft proofing in the sash windows. Main issue is the house construction in Aberdeen is not conducive to wall insulation.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... still wondering whether I want the loft floor lined with insulation or just the rafters (properly). Losing heat upwards is a massive loss to any house I believe so I'm sure it'll save alot in the long run.

Why would anyone insulate the rafters? The roof space should be ventilated so it would be pointless.

 

[Sideways]

Being interested in this I wrote a spreadsheet to do heatloss calcs for every room of the house.
Mimicking what energy surveyors and heating engineers might do.
When I added a line for ventilation - recommended at 2 air changes an hour for the whole house - the energy consumption increased massively, unaffordably.

My conclusion : yes you need ventilation, but a few strategic draughts might be enough for me !

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Wife preheating the oven for 2hrs to make sure it's at an even temperature, we got a digital oven thermometer and demonstrated 20mins was more than adequate for her macarons.

Has she tried just waiting for the indicator light to go off when it reaches the desired temperature?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Being interested in this I wrote a spreadsheet to do heatloss calcs for every room of the house.
Mimicking what energy surveyors and heating engineers might do.
When I added a line for ventilation - recommended at 2 air changes an hour for the whole house - the energy consumption increased massively, unaffordably.

My conclusion : yes you need ventilation, but a few strategic draughts might be enough for me !

Isn't this the current building regs - seal the building up totally then fit vents?

 

[Fitzroy]

Has she tried just waiting for the indicator light to go off when it reaches the desired temperature?

Apparently in baking circles that is a poor indicator of an even oven temperature. Our experimenting showed you needed about 5mins past the light going out, rather than 1hr and 45mins past it going out.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Buy a Ninja Foodi 15 - 1. Cuts your electricity consumption by miles.

 

[Sideways]

(i like the drying cupboard idea with a dehumidifier that is genius)

Interestingly my daughter has been great about adopting this idea because it doesn't beat up her favorite clothes as much as the tumbler and is quicker than hanging them on a clothes horse and making the house damp.
How to sell the idea to others ....

 

[redefined_cycles]

Why would anyone insulate the rafters? The roof space should be ventilated so it would be pointless.

Thats kinda right Phil. As far as I've read in my construction book, If it's gonna have footfall up there (though it'll be mainly storage but overengineered if you see what I mean) and habitable then the best way is to insulate the roof space and across the partition/sides. But leave the ceiling space uninsulated so the heat can travel up into the loft space.

Obviously the insulation at the roof/rafters will need to have an air gap behind it to ensure airflow to stop condensation. Still working on thsi project but hoping to get it all right. Did ask a couple of structural engineers to pay a visit and draw me some plans but it seems they're either so busy or it's too small a job. Removing the trusses was done with general structural engineer input and by a local builder (to a decent structural standard but as soon as he knew I'll be doing all the flooring/plasterboards/insulation etc myself he was particular in ensuring the added purlings/perlins weren't squared and straightened for the side walls/partitions.

Work in progress but I think if I get it right then I coupd make some insulation/heat savings (ie. energy savings via correct/quality inuslation and techniques).

 

[Fitzroy]

Being interested in this I wrote a spreadsheet to do heatloss calcs for every room of the house.
Mimicking what energy surveyors and heating engineers might do.
When I added a line for ventilation - recommended at 2 air changes an hour for the whole house - the energy consumption increased massively, unaffordably.

My conclusion : yes you need ventilation, but a few strategic draughts might be enough for me !

Any chance of a copy, I was about to build similar but easier to start from someone else's homework rather than a blank sheet! I'd come to a similar conclusion on air changes, I'd got to about 2kW of heating duty to manage said air changes. I think a forced air system with an inlet/outlet exchanger is the way forwards.

 

[Sideways]

I bought a single tabletop induction hob to try one out after getting our solar.
Our kitchen hob is gas.
A pan of water boils about 3x faster on the induction than it does even sitting on the big wok burner.
Food for thought as gas prices rise.

 

[Spectric]

Don't be fooled by smart meters, don't use dishwashers and tumble dryers plus ensure all lighting is LED.