Energy saving tips

[Bedfordblue]

If you have multiple LED spot lights in a room, remove all of bulbs and replace with a single high output halogen one. Just done this in my kitchen and am getting the same light out of one bulb as I was out of 6.
Like wise in my bathroom with the added benefit of re-instating the halogen bulb above the toilet so it’s nice and warm on my bonce when have a slash too.

 

[Bilko]

Switcher.ie , is the site to go to if you haven't changed your Gas and Electricity supplier in the last 12 months
You can save between 400-500 euro by simply changing every year. You can do it very easily on your phone using this site. I did it in 10 minutes.
With bills expected to be 3-4 grand per year it's a no brainer

 

[scratchnsurf]

If you have multiple LED spot lights in a room, remove all of bulbs and replace with a single high output halogen one. Just done this in my kitchen and am getting the same light out of one bulb as I was out of 6.
Like wise in my bathroom with the added benefit of re-instating the halogen bulb above the toilet so it’s nice and warm on my bonce when have a slash too.

Not sure if this is serious but LED bulbs use far less energy (80-90 %) and last about ten times longer than halogen. That heat they produce will cost you.

 

[woomy]

We had a new boiler put in last year. 1 thing the engineer said was have your heating on for 30 mins then off for 30 mins. Said you wouldn't notice the difference In heat, but save a bit on the bills. Just get the room up to the temp you want then 30 on 30 off.
We did actually try it and to be fair he was right. We just didn't notice any difference in temp.
Then in the night, have it off for a few hours. Put it back on an hour or so before you are supposed to get up.
Not seen it mentioned. But get a high tog duvet for downstairs. Especially for the autumn. For those days/evenings that are a bit chilly. But you could do without the heating.

If you don't need the heating on, don't put it on. 16oc in the house. Put a jumper/hoody on. You would have one on outside and still be perfectly fine, so why not indoors?
Get a fleece jacket, stick it on.

Bleed your radiator's. Also, do you need every radiator on? Are there rooms where you can just close the door on them and forget all about them? Really need the one in the bathroom on?

The biggest one for us this year especially since spring, has been shutting off the boiler and only turning it on when needed. We shower most of the time at the gym. Not a member? Become one. Plenty of cheap gyms around. We pay £15 a month each. Yeah we use the gym, but £30 a month between us to not have to heat water, is an investment.

Doing the above has meant in the last year we have run up a £1400 current surplus. We have no intention of changing anything. Reckon we can come through this ok with continuing the above and using that surplus.

Other stuff
Don't put lights on when going to the bathroom. Use your phone screen to see where you are going. A bit Boris kettle that one, but seriously, you only need to see where you are going, you don't need the house illuminated to do business. Most likely your taking the phone with you anyway, so point the screen where you are going. You will see just fine.

Batch cook. Do a ton of rice, portion and freeze it. Same for Mash. Jacket spuds. Cook a load off in one go, freeze those bad boys.
Chilli, curry, bolognaise, sheaprds pies, etc. Maybe have 1 night where you cook a ton, freeze it. Your good for the week.
One thing that has helped with food wastage, is a pie maker.
Little bit left over, but not enough for a meal. Stick it in the pie. We have chucked everything in the pie. Curry, chilli, Chinese curry, sausage and beans

 

[Rita_Poon]

Dig for victory
Waste not want not
Loose lips sink ships

ok, maybe not that last one, but this is a war footing.

 

[Charlie Sweet]

We had a new boiler put in last year. 1 thing the engineer said was have your heating on for 30 mins then off for 30 mins. Said you wouldn't notice the difference In heat, but save a bit on the bills. Just get the room up to the temp you want then 30 on 30 off.
We did actually try it and to be fair he was right. We just didn't notice any difference in temp.
Then in the night, have it off for a few hours. Put it back on an hour or so before you are supposed to get up.
Not seen it mentioned. But get a high tog duvet for downstairs. Especially for the autumn. For those days/evenings that are a bit chilly. But you could do without the heating.

If you don't need the heating on, don't put it on. 16oc in the house. Put a jumper/hoody on. You would have one on outside and still be perfectly fine, so why not indoors?
Get a fleece jacket, stick it on.

Bleed your radiator's. Also, do you need every radiator on? Are there rooms where you can just close the door on them and forget all about them? Really need the one in the bathroom on?

The biggest one for us this year especially since spring, has been shutting off the boiler and only turning it on when needed. We shower most of the time at the gym. Not a member? Become one. Plenty of cheap gyms around. We pay £15 a month each. Yeah we use the gym, but £30 a month between us to not have to heat water, is an investment.

Doing the above has meant in the last year we have run up a £1400 current surplus. We have no intention of changing anything. Reckon we can come through this ok with continuing the above and using that surplus.

Other stuff
Don't put lights on when going to the bathroom. Use your phone screen to see where you are going. A bit Boris kettle that one, but seriously, you only need to see where you are going, you don't need the house illuminated to do business. Most likely your taking the phone with you anyway, so point the screen where you are going. You will see just fine.

Batch cook. Do a ton of rice, portion and freeze it. Same for Mash. Jacket spuds. Cook a load off in one go, freeze those bad boys.
Chilli, curry, bolognaise, sheaprds pies, etc. Maybe have 1 night where you cook a ton, freeze it. Your good for the week.
One thing that has helped with food wastage, is a pie maker.
Little bit left over, but not enough for a meal. Stick it in the pie. We have chucked everything in the pie. Curry, chilli, Chinese curry, sausage and beans

Not knocking you mate and some sound advice in here but hey what a time to be alive - wear coats indoors, shower at the gym and eat mush as much as possible.

And still this country votes Tory...

 

[woomy]

Not knocking you mate and some sound advice in here but hey what a time to be alive - wear coats indoors, shower at the gym and eat mush as much as possible.

And still this country votes Tory...

Yep, it's poor. Really poor.
Not sure where you got the mush thing from though. You can batch cook whatever the hell you like to eat. Just make a ton of whatever in one go.

But yeah, for one of the world's richest countries to have your leaders basically says tough, you will suffer this winter, is bad.

 

[Tramps_mate]

If you have multiple LED spot lights in a room, remove all of bulbs and replace with a single high output halogen one. Just done this in my kitchen and am getting the same light out of one bulb as I was out of 6.
Like wise in my bathroom with the added benefit of re-instating the halogen bulb above the toilet so it’s nice and warm on my bonce when have a slash too.

How much difference in power usage is there? We have LED ceiling spots in every room and as far as I thought, they use sod all electricity! Each room has split switches so instead of all 12 being on at once in the kitchen we use them in 3's. Don't think I can make that any cheaper! lol

 

[ToffeeDan]

Smokeless Fuel (if you can get your fire going in the lounge) - I don't have one now but it could be worth checking the price vs gas/electric

The cheapest option (with the least degree of comfort) is to get locked up.

 

[Tree13]

We had a new boiler put in last year. 1 thing the engineer said was have your heating on for 30 mins then off for 30 mins. Said you wouldn't notice the difference In heat, but save a bit on the bills. Just get the room up to the temp you want then 30 on 30 off.
We did actually try it and to be fair he was right. We just didn't notice any difference in temp.
Then in the night, have it off for a few hours. Put it back on an hour or so before you are supposed to get up.
Not seen it mentioned. But get a high tog duvet for downstairs. Especially for the autumn. For those days/evenings that are a bit chilly. But you could do without the heating.

If you don't need the heating on, don't put it on. 16oc in the house. Put a jumper/hoody on. You would have one on outside and still be perfectly fine, so why not indoors?
Get a fleece jacket, stick it on.

Bleed your radiator's. Also, do you need every radiator on? Are there rooms where you can just close the door on them and forget all about them? Really need the one in the bathroom on?

The biggest one for us this year especially since spring, has been shutting off the boiler and only turning it on when needed. We shower most of the time at the gym. Not a member? Become one. Plenty of cheap gyms around. We pay £15 a month each. Yeah we use the gym, but £30 a month between us to not have to heat water, is an investment.

Doing the above has meant in the last year we have run up a £1400 current surplus. We have no intention of changing anything. Reckon we can come through this ok with continuing the above and using that surplus.

Other stuff
Don't put lights on when going to the bathroom. Use your phone screen to see where you are going. A bit Boris kettle that one, but seriously, you only need to see where you are going, you don't need the house illuminated to do business. Most likely your taking the phone with you anyway, so point the screen where you are going. You will see just fine.

Batch cook. Do a ton of rice, portion and freeze it. Same for Mash. Jacket spuds. Cook a load off in one go, freeze those bad boys.
Chilli, curry, bolognaise, sheaprds pies, etc. Maybe have 1 night where you cook a ton, freeze it. Your good for the week.
One thing that has helped with food wastage, is a pie maker.
Little bit left over, but not enough for a meal. Stick it in the pie. We have chucked everything in the pie. Curry, chilli, Chinese curry, sausage and beans

Lots of very sensible stuff there, some of which I already do.

The whole thing about showering at the gym - it's exactly what I used to do at uni. We had a gym on campus and I was on a limited budget... Absolute no-brainer to save on unnecessary water use in the house. My new job has a gym next door and we get a subsidised rate for membership... If showering there 5 days a week saves £100 per month on bills, and membership only cost £25 per month, why on earth would anyone NOT take that option? And that's before you consider the health benefits of regular exercise, and the impact that has on the extent to which you "feel" the cold.

We have a blanket box in our lounge. Anyone feeling a chill, whilst watching TV or whatever, just grabs one. Particularly lovely to get the large one out and settle down with Mrs. Tree to watch a movie.

And the heating thing - absolutely spot on. 16c is perfectly warm enough with a jumper on. If the inside of my house was 24c I'd be opening windows and taking my shirt off.

The one tip I struggle with is LED lights. I hate them. I really don't like the colour or tone of light they give out, find it visually uncomfortable. Also find that if you get too close to them the heat they give off is brutal. I'll do a lot of other things to the house before I'll adopt LEDs as standard.

 

[Bluesaint]

Switch. Everything. Off. Everything.

On a more serious note, how sad that we have to have a thread like this when the energy companies are making huge profits.

 

[verreauxi]

I think already was mentioned but switch out light bulbs to LED. I made the switch (even old flourescent bulbs can be replaced with LED tubes) and it made a big difference.

 

[cooperman]

We installed a smart Central heating system called Drayton Wiser a couple of years ago... It's saved us loads. The idea is you can set certain radiators on/off to a range of temperatures throughout the day

My wife works from home so in the day just one room is being heated.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Got to use what you have got to use, however, this may be of some general use-

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Switch. Everything. Off. Everything.

On a more serious note, how sad that we have to have a thread like this when the energy companies are making huge profits.

Our Government did it self no favours when they tell us to get things into perspective about our energy bills and war in Ukraine, in fact the first lady of Ukraine did herself no favours telling us we are counting pennies while they count body's. And the backdrop to all this energy companies are counting £billions in profit from all this.