vRSLen

Just tap into next doors supply

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Current car: Black MKII Octavia vRS Combi
Previous: Black MKI Octavia vRS Combi
Black Fabia Elegance 100 BHP

smstext

or the lamp post outside.

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Oxon Meet Feeler 2009 please add your input, click here

anewman

YouTube - Bottom S1 EP2 "Gas" (1 of 3)

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94 Favorit GLXIe Estate

Briskoda "Banger" social group

soviet

Hi Daiking,

The things that you are doing here are good for making the savings, and I am doing things like this for a long time now. In one of the rooms here, we have the gas fire heater, which we are only using in the winter time occassionally, but the coal effect cover device is containing two red 60 watt lamps, and so I did the modification, of fitting a mains rated bullet diode in series with these, which is cutting off half of the mains cycle when it is reversing, which is making the bulbs not so bright, but saving a bit of the power.
I came to be thing one day, that I am replacing all the house lamps with the low energy ones, yet the gas fire is using 120 watts when we have it working.

When I will have the time here, I will fit a PSU and high brightness LEDS with red covers so as for saving more.

Best of luck for you.

Soviet

flabio

Instead of using the oven ,get one of these ,Remoska Standard Remoska® Electric Cooker - Lakeland, the home of creative kitchenware ,450watts. I bought one a year ago to use in the caravan ,but it gets used every week indoors and it cooks faster than an oven, our cooker is switched off at the plug most of the time. My caravan doesn't have an oven ,most other caravans do have one .

WeirdKerr

charge phones in the car......

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Výhodou prostřednictvím technickými

anewman

Wouldn't that just use slightly more petrol?

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94 Favorit GLXIe Estate

Briskoda "Banger" social group

vRSLen

You could always cook baked beans over a candle.....

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Current car: Black MKII Octavia vRS Combi
Previous: Black MKI Octavia vRS Combi
Black Fabia Elegance 100 BHP

smstext

and the farting to warm the room

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Oxon Meet Feeler 2009 please add your input, click here

gadgetman

How?

Once the battery is charged, the extra power from the alternator is being wasted.

Using it doesnt cause petrol use to increase

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Lick the window of life

Why not join the Briskoda Last.fm group?

heresmo

On cooking, defrost overnight in the fridge (fish, meat and sausages and some microwave packs), rather than in the microwave which takes forever and rarely defrosts evenly, some bits almost certainly having started to cook so go dry

It does mean you've nailed your colours to the mast for the next night's dinner as defrosted food should be cooked preferably asap and in any case within 24 hrs, plus it certainly can't be refrozen.

Incidentally, re sealing gaps around windows and doors, I can't breathe in hermetically sealed flats. It's certainly worth sealing any wide gaps and different products are available, e.g. sticky strips, rubber thingies such as car doors have, or at it's simplest, stick a piece of draughting tape over the gap. "Strips of brushes" are good for gaps at the bottom of external doors as you might find the door has been shaved to slide over a carpet which has subsequently flattened.

I was thinking at the weekend how we've gone full circle re heating. I recall asking mum if we could have the fire on and we were told "No! Put a jumper on!" Then gas central heating gave us "the freedom of our home" so we'd not sit in the room with a nice fire but not want to go to the loo as it meant opening the door... Then we all became familiar with an ambient temp of around 70 and it was normal, even in winter, to be in a t-shirt. Now, we're all back to "Put a jumper on!" and are not that far off from working during daylight hours only now that nights are drawing in.

A bit depressing, but, luckily, I'm a night owl so do little during the day and can't now do much at night either. That said, the amount of paperwork looking at me makes me wonder how much elec shredders use

Mo

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bengie

you still haven't said how your meter is setup so you could well be wasting your time washing/drying at night.

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

heresmo

I can't comment on the OP's setup of course, but I was a bit miffed in one newly built flat when there was supposed to have been an immersion heater that was "duo" re on/off peak and it turned out that my efforts to save money overnight were completely pointless as they hadn't installed a "duo" one - like I would have known how to tell the difference as I didn't know it was a game of two halves. Dunno how such immersion heaters are meant to work these days though.

As you say, bengie, knowing what's what...

Regards
Mo

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bengie

the heaters themselves are identicle and quite often its the same heater that does the normal day work(peak as its known) and the night time(econ 7 stuff) its only the supply that changes

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

daiking

Thanks for the replies so far, not had chance to read them as I'm on hols again and just taking a chance to check my emails and stuff.

will respond when I get back at the weekend/early next week

heresmo

Did you remember to switch everything off

Seriously though, enjoy your holly wolly

Mo

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daiking

Thanks all, there's a lot to respond to there, I don't think I'll be able to address everyone but it looks like I'm odoing the right things so far, just need to pick off the few little extras. Although having got back from 30deg wall to wall sunshine at 5am this morning, for the third time this summer, I'm very tempted to put the heating on as its bloody cold.

Picking out a few comments,

I've used the term "economy7" with a broad brush to describe cheap night electricity, I still need to confirm how it works with my provider. It doesn't say it on the bill.

£1550 isn't a quarterly bill! Took ages to get over a billing problem so its arrears for 18mths+. Done my best to get the correct retrospective elec rates and making the buggers wait in getting it back.

Bengie, I checked the meter when I took my returning meter readings this morning. There are 4 thick grey wires coming out of the base so it looks like it econ7 from your description and also since I've been taking daily readings, the consumption pattern looks like my night usage is low rate.

Flinty, the problem with the Hot Water is that there's a hex socket feature on the right angle above the tundish that appears to be leaking when the system is on. Also it didn't seem like it would hold enough water for all day like it used. Would the air gap problem prevent the tank from holding the full amount of hot water or maybe a pressure problem causing the leak

Most people despise Storage Heaters and in terms of use they are much less convenient and less effective than Gas Central Heating but I think the key is not expecting them to do the same job as GCH. Use them to keep a background heat and use top up heating where required. Also consider the long term low cost and maintenance of the things and they do have their use. I'm pretty sure one was previously taken out of our flat and now I'm not sure if it still needs another in our living space

Cheeze, if those LED spots are similar in light output I'll probably get a few to try - can always swap the halogens back if I were to move

Mo, as ever, thanks to your practical tips. I'm not looking to assess my leccy usage down to the last penny so no fancy gadgets. I think switch things fully off is you're not using them is about the best advice you can get. Antoher week away and the fridge cost less than pound to run.

I know what you mean about the washing. I try to wash at 40deg but I then have to zap my t-shirts and work shirts every couple of weeks on hotter with stain removal.

Here's a question on cooking for you Mo, is it better to heat water in a pan on the stove or boil the kettle? I.e. if you're boiling something - potatoes/veg/rice/pasta - I normally boil the water beforehand in the kettle and then keep it boiling on the hob. Just copying my mother I suppose. Any empirical cost/consumption experience of that? Missus wants a new kettle and I was looking at one of those new Tefal instant hot water things. Looks ok for mugs but not so clever for saucepans full.

edit to add, scratch that, as suspected Amazon.co.uk: Tefal Quick Cup: Kitchen & Home see reviews. Like the water disoensers at work its not hot enough for proper tea

bengie

if you only have 4 wires at your meter(2 in and 2 out) and definitly have econ 7 then yes your whole place will be on the cheap rate at night

most places have a 5 wire meter(2 in, 2 lives and one neutral out) witht eh neutral being split very a henley(large-ish black plastic looking) block


if both the wires coming out are split then game at night for cheap usage

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

Clunkclick

Not exactly on-topic as water and central heating in my place is gas - but the energy saving ideas are transferable.

Biggest energy user in my place is hot-water.

If you have a h/w tank turn the thermostat down 10 degrees C (Usually set at 60c).

Fit a fleece to the tank -my h/w tank came fitted with a spray-on polyeurathane coating, I added an additional wrap around fleece (Priced about £4.50 when I bought it twenty years ago).

Use showers in preference to baths. Reduce the frequency and temperature of both. Turn-off the power-showers (Power hungry) and use gravity powered or mains pressure.

Switch to a white meter and heat the H/W tank and storage rads at night. Connect a rectifier to the white meter circuit to charge lead-acid batteries for day-time discharge ?

Next biggest user is central heating, again, turn the room thermostat down below 20 C (And of course turn the boiler thermostat down to minimum setting).

Reduce the timer durations for C/H and H/W and use fan heaters and modern ceramic plate kettles to fill-in the gaps.

To cut out the draughts and air movement, fit full width polythene sheet and narrow mesh net cutains to the windows (Cheap) and, door and stairway curtains and draft excluders to the doors. Fit atomic strip/foam/felt to ill-fitting windows and doors

In mutiple bulb ceiling illuminators remove 1 bulb in three and fit a lower wattage bulb in every 2nd bulb. Progressively fit energy saving bulbs - as part of a recent campaign British Gas sent me 8 free-of-charge !

Fit timers to common area light fittings i.e. stairways, halls, garages, utilities.

Swap-out radial lighting for directional, where appropriate.

Move deep freeze/fridge into a cool garage or utility. Swap out the fridge/freezer for a smaller one and shop more frequently. Reduce consumption of frozen food, switch to fresh (in season), vacuum packed and canned. Construct an old fashioned naturally cooled larder.

Set the washing machine to a main wash temperature of 30 C. Use the economy button for half loads or hand wash.

Naturally dry all washing on a line or inside on a frame. Stop tumble drying and ironing - use Polyester-cotton, whatever happened to the drip-dry revolution ?

Progressively swap-out all cotton wardrobe for poly-cotton.

Dry your hair with a towel. Stop using hair dryers and shapers/crimpers/curlers.

Avoid using an electric hob and oven where possible -subsitute a micowave dual or tri cooker with fan assitance and ring.

If you're a property owner, with dosh -

Double glaze windows and doors. Fit "K" glass to all elevations so that heating radition cannot escape once it has entered the room. Install a conservatory on south facing elevations to benefit from passive solar radiation.

Install a set of roof/wall -mounted water heating tubes to supply hot water (Payback break even 20 years at current prices).

Swap out a h/w tank for a heat store type - a bit of re-plumbing required.

If you have a garden fit a heat pump (Payback break even about 40 years)

Install a set of PV cells and possibly a turbine for home electricity generation (Payback break even period 50 years) - such systems may even permit you to store mains supplied off-peak electricty in industrail lead-acid batteries for day-time use.

Install an air-conditioning /heat recovery system.


Nick

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Illegitimi Non Carborundum - Comedy And Country

daiking

A lot of good stuff in there but unfortunately I either do the applicable ones or am not looking to make such a significant change at the moment. Certainly not worth investing in anything with a payback period of more than 2-3 yrs.

heresmo

Hi daiking. In response as best I can. Hoping you had a good time and yeah it's a shock to the system as it's colder here just now. Here goes:

First, leave the heating off if it is you that is cold rather than the flat. Meaning that if you go away at Xmas you'd get frostbite from taking a plate out of the cupboard on return. Otherwise, wear two layers, e.g. t-shirt tucked in and a gillet - the keyword is insulation layers to retain body heat. It's a bit early to start digging out thermal undies, but the very thin close-body-fitting sort designed for skiing are good and are virtually invisible.

Re kettle versus hob: My view is that a kettle is the most efficient form of heating water, assuming you'll use all the water you've heated.

Logic? Well, with a hob (assuming we're not talking about ceramic ones), make sure that the pan size fits the ring size for starters. If you want to simmer food, it's only needed to heat it that far (and much bigger element so boil in kettle more efficient).

Re washing "manfolk" clothes (mucky and smelly), an overnight pre-soak in a bucket, or, if lots, can be done in washing machine (with wash powder or pre-soak, e.g. Biotex or Vanish if the material is colourfast) by switching on at 30-40 deg, letting it swish, then switching machine off, leave, then draining and washing properly. That'd depend on what sort of washer and programmes you have. Put another way, the chances of them coming clean and smell-free are a bit slim in a "normal" wash. However, adding bicarbonate of soda (try baking ingredients shelves of a supermarket) (a level dessertspoon) will help remove smells Said from someone regularly presented with a bag full of rugby kit...

I was asked yesterday to hose down a pair of rugby boots without getting the insides wet. That requirement is beyond even me

Regards
Mo

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daiking

Didn't put the heating on, just wore some slippers.

I think the speed with which a kettle works will also help efficiency in its favour but you wonder why they aren't insulated.

Easily done, you put them on, lace them up tight and I'll get the pressure washer out

heresmo

First: Traitor! Burn him! Mo's knitting emporium for bedsocks is the place to go for cold feet I'll let you off though as it's my mum who knits them for moi and haven't got a website up yet

I suppose it must be true in physics terms that a smaller-element kettle will take longer if it's not insulated than a larger element one (heat dissipation), but given that a 3 kW element kettle will boil a litre of water in c.1 minute, I think I'd lose the will to live if asked to put it to the test

Re pressure washer: Luv it Being of slight build, you'd see me rolling down the hill and it'd be like a haggis-chasing Brisky meet. Knowing you lot though, the prize would be who managed to reclaim the shoes... Actually, I have one of those hand-held ickle steam cleaners, thought it does get a bit like a chainsaw massacre when I start pulling the cable behind me and forget to take my thumb off the activator button

Mo

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