The Great 'Energy & MoneySaving' Hunt
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If you like a bath instead of a shower, then when as many people have poss have used the water, put your hose pipe in the water, out the window and sucking as hard as possible syphon the water outside and water the garden with it. If you are on a meter, then this will help with your bills as well.
when driving, as well as keeping your speed down, ask you garage to balance and align your wheels. This will cost about £20, but as well as making your car drive more efficiently, it will extend the life of your tyres. Apparantly driving with windows open/ roofboxes fixed etc reduces economy as increases drag on the car.
Keeping your internal doors shut holds the heat in your rooms. Do you need to have a warm hall or landing? heat rises, so keeping the doors shut on ground floor rooms is most effective. It also lets you switch off the radiators in the rooms you don't use, and keeps the cold air in them, reducing the amount of house you have to heat.
Has anyone tried out the new kettle that boils in 3 seconds? Apparantly you keep cold water in a tank on it, press a button and as the water is pumped to the spout, it goes through a heating element. As it only boils water as you use it, it saves energy. I think these are expensive, but not heard how they work.0 -
If you like a bath instead of a shower, then when as many people have poss have used the water, put your hose pipe in the water, out the window and sucking as hard as possible syphon the water outside and water the garden with it. If you are on a meter, then this will help with your bills as well.
when driving, as well as keeping your speed down, ask you garage to balance and align your wheels. This will cost about £20, but as well as making your car drive more efficiently, it will extend the life of your tyres. Apparantly driving with windows open/ roofboxes fixed etc reduces economy as increases drag on the car.
Keeping your internal doors shut holds the heat in your rooms. Do you need to have a warm hall or landing? heat rises, so keeping the doors shut on ground floor rooms is most effective. It also lets you switch off the radiators in the rooms you don't use, and keeps the cold air in them, reducing the amount of house you have to heat.
Has anyone tried out the new kettle that boils in 3 seconds? Apparantly you keep cold water in a tank on it, press a button and as the water is pumped to the spout, it goes through a heating element. As it only boils water as you use it, it saves energy. I think these are expensive, but not heard how they work.0 -
Also I wonder can the engine heat in the car be used to heat up the interior of the car as I think does the heating in the cars are very in-efficient as my understanding is :-
1) the energy gets converted from heat to mechanical by the engine
2) Then mechanical gets converted to electic by the Alternator
3) Then electic gets converted to heat by the heater/blower
Something like an air heater/oven running off engine heat would be great to save fuel (money) and reduce CO2 !!
Imagin putting stuff in your car oven on the journey back from supermarket/work and have hot dinner ready as you arrive, not mentioning those holiday trips !
regards,
RajeevWhen I used to drive a lot I used to cook food in the car engine above the exhaust manifold. Got it down to a fine art judging just how long a journey it took to cook various meals.
Maybe its something car manufactures could add in the future a little oven compartment in the engine. Maybe moneysavers could experiment and pass on recipes, times and where in the engine for different types of cars to cook the food.
I used an aluminium camping pan and wrapped the food up loosely. So for those who commute by car you could arrive home to a nice hot meal.
Don’t know if modern cars would be suitable as space is very limited but worth a try. The Christmas turkey would give a nice power bulge for the bonnet.:rotfl:
kisk0 -
Here's an old-style suggestion: wear more clothes! It sounds like a sublime glimpse of the bleedin' obvious, but when my heating was out of order recently, adding a layer made all the difference. After a while i hardly noticed. I was even a bit more alert because the house wasn't so stifling. It really made me think about how hot we expect our houses to be nowadays - we want to dress like summer all year long. Another good thing is that doing this doesn't require you to invest anything in special equipment - just put your vest on! Mum was right!
'Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin now.' Goethe
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In most cars, the heating runs of the water cooling circuit, which means it does use the heat of the engine. That is also the reason that it takes a few minutes before the heating works.Also I wonder can the engine heat in the car be used to heat up the interior of the car as I think does the heating in the cars are very in-efficient
Some cars also have an electric heater, but what really ruins your mileage is the AC. Now I think ACs are a great invention: they reduce stress and the likelihood of accidents. But you should use it only if necessary. And try to set the fan to low while the AC is on, so that it does not have to cool so much air.0 -
Put a shelf over a radiator in the kitchen.
Add a lip to retain heat.
Drill 4 holes in the top. Put teapot over one, kettle (minus base) over another, then cup/s. Cover with coseys.0 -
After taking a bath in winter, wait untill the water is cold befor emptying the bath. The heat from bath water is transferd to the house.0
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Buy a steamer for cooking - it's a tiered system of saucepans (Robert Dyas for £9.99, also Woollies and other shops).
In the bottom pan you make soup / boil spuds / casserole
In the next pan up you put rice / vegetables etc
In the top pan you put more delicate veggies (beansprouts / pak choi / leafy stuff)
Then you put the lid on.
All three pans of food cook from one hob, more vitamins stay in than when you boil or fry food and you save a lot of energy by not using lots of hob burners.
An even better energy saving idea is move onto a narrowboat (a dream I've been able to fullfil with the help of this great website and forum!). I create my own electricity and hot water from the engine, I have a wind turbine to generate electricity too, I don't need a fridge, I use solar power for some of my lighting, I heat my home with a wood burning stove and only use fallen logs for fuel - and when the stove is lit I also cook on it. And when you depend on battery power for your electricity, you're very aware of every Amp drawn, so I never leave lights on or the tv on standby.0 -
Ladies, try a Mooncup http://www.mooncup.co.uk/
Less waste in the bin, less money spent each month and actually less chance of TSS...
Okay, the boys can start reading again now!
The real worry here is hygiene as reservoirs of menstrual blood are a rich soup for bacteria.
No guarantees that Toxic shock syndrome, vaginal thrush and yeast infections are reduced unless strict hygiene is maintained on the mooncup.
The cash savings are surely not outweighed by the possible complications that may ensue from improper use.
Illnesses from tampon use are rare. There is no statistical body of evidence available to recommend the use of mooncups for long periods. The one size fits all approach seems to be highly unsuitable for women who have very heavy periods or women whose periods are erratic and spotty.
Please dont use this site as a knowledge source. Dont forget BOOts are a business not a medical agency.
Keep trying.........................what else is there to do? 0 -
Invest in a Pressure cooker - it is brilliant for soups, pulses, meat and veg, often saving over half the cooking time, and thus the gas too. I also rediscovered steamed puddings, much to the children's delight.0
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