Helping my children reduce oour energy consumption???

Scared4future

Hi everyone
After having a new electric meter fitted and realising how much electric we are actually using on a daily basis (:eek: ) we decided as a family to take a note of our units used on a daily basis and make it a family project to try and reduce them. We have done all the obvious... changed the light bulbs, made notices near light switches to remind us to switch off etc etc. But we are after the less obvious things??
We have come up with a few things ourselves like using a slow cooker for dinners (and porridge in the morning yum yum) and checking emails on mobiles rather than having the PC on (this actually dropped our units by at least 1 a day!!).
Just wondered if anyone knows of any good sites where I can find everything we can do to save energy around the house?
Or indeed if any of you guys have any little treasures outside the norm? We are determined to reduce our initial consumption by half by the end of the year... we are about 2/3's of the way there so far!!
I have probably missed a whole thread on this forum that describes this in great detail and if so I apologise
Hoping you can help
Best wishes
Tabitha

spiro

Always keep your freezer full even if its with the cheapest bread you can find. Dont leave any phone (etc) charges plugged in. Charge your phone at work - Ryanair banned this to save on their electricity bill. Switch off the washing machine at the plug - read in another thread that someones used power even when not in use. You might also want to post how many units on average you are using per day/week so we will have a better idea of the possible scale of any reduction.

Scared4future

Thanks... Thats a couple more points I need to add to our list. Will have to go food shopping to fill the freezer with the cheap cuts of meat for the slowcooker!! This energy/money saving is a complete life change isnt it??

Good point about posting my energy consumption units.
We live in a 4 bedroom detached and have old style gas boiler and tank in an airing cupboard (I have no idea how this works as I have always had a combi-boiler in previous houses... any suggestions how to make it cost effective to run???? I have heard its cheaper to have on all the time???).
Our electrical units at the beginning of the month were 21 a day!! We now have them down to about 13... sometimes if I have a blitz on the ironing (I have 4 children) it goes up to 15.
We are going to start the Gas this evening, in the hope of finding out how the boiler is most cost effective.
Its really fascinating how just simple things can save the cash :T

spiro

Scared4future wrote: »

Thanks... Thats a couple more points I need to add to our list. Will have to go food shopping to fill the freezer with the cheap cuts of meat for the slowcooker!! This energy/money saving is a complete life change isnt it??

Good point about posting my energy consumption units.
We live in a 4 bedroom detached and have old style gas boiler and tank in an airing cupboard (I have no idea how this works as I have always had a combi-boiler in previous houses... any suggestions how to make it cost effective to run???? I have heard its cheaper to have on all the time???).
Our electrical units at the beginning of the month were 21 a day!! We now have them down to about 13... sometimes if I have a blitz on the ironing (I have 4 children) it goes up to 15.
We are going to start the Gas this evening, in the hope of finding out how the boiler is most cost effective.
Its really fascinating how just simple things can save the cash :T

Make sure the tank is well lagged to keep the water hot. If the hot water is very hot, try turning the thermostat on the boiler down slightly.

KimYeovil

Tell your children you're going to increase their pocket money but then apply a fuel consumption tax proportionate to the weekly use of energy.

Scared4future

Pocket Money??? lol
Thats a damn fine idea, we had set a family treat if we reduced the consumption down to half by xmas. But having a short term incentive will (hopefully) keep the kids interested longer?? They are only 8,7,2 and 12 weeks :j

Magentasue

Scared4future wrote: »

Thanks... Thats a couple more points I need to add to our list. Will have to go food shopping to fill the freezer with the cheap cuts of meat for the slowcooker!!

IMO, that's not really money saving unless you live miles from shops. If you're going to pay to run a freezer, I think it's better to fill it with things you can't pick up from the shops - allotment produce, fishing and hunting produce, 10p loaves reduced in the supermarket etc.

We have the makings of two or three meals, some bulk-cooked sauces, a week's supply of bread, some frozen veg, garden produce and some bargains in ours. Anything else can be bought when it's to be used.

Kez100

We use the EON energy tracker graph to show them how much we have saved over last year. We are about to leave EON and so I will get my daughter to create one on excel to show us use in the future. It helps them visually, I find. Your youngest is 8 so will probably need help but could join in.

You can also join imeasure which is a site where you put in weekly readings and it gives you your carbon output. If you join the moneysaving carbon club you will also get rated each week against the rest of us as to how well you have done compared with others on here trying to cut back.

Try different ways of heating your home and test them for efficiency and cost. For example, by playing with temperature controls and varios heating sources we have found that we are best coming home from school and cooking a hot meal, followed by the gas fire in the lounge if cold until 7. One hour of central heating (we are fully insulated in loft and cavity) then sees us through bedtime comfortably. If it's much colder or we are home all day we have different routine. Last year we had it on constant and we are saving so much compared to then.

Scared4future

Magentasue wrote: »

IMO, that's not really money saving unless you live miles from shops. If you're going to pay to run a freezer, I think it's better to fill it with things you can't pick up from the shops - allotment produce, fishing and hunting produce, 10p loaves reduced in the supermarket etc.

We have the makings of two or three meals, some bulk-cooked sauces, a week's supply of bread, some frozen veg, garden produce and some bargains in ours. Anything else can be bought when it's to be used.

Depends I suppose on how often I go shopping? I personally HATE going to the supermarket, one because taking children shopping is a nightmare and two whenever I go shopping I get suckered into all the BOGOF and other special offers and return with half the shopping that I didnt need/want. Yes I know thats just will-power but I combat that by going shopping only when I absolutly have to! If I had all the meat in the freezer I would only need a trip to the local farm shop for veg and corner shop for bread and milk and my family would be fed for at least a fortnight without the need to go to a supermarket!!

Magentasue

If filling the freezer cuts your shopping trips, it's worth doing. We go through 6pints of milk a day so it's too expensive not to go supermarket shopping once a week, especially as we live in a town.

spiro

Scared4future wrote: »

Depends I suppose on how often I go shopping? I personally HATE going to the supermarket, one because taking children shopping is a nightmare and two whenever I go shopping I get suckered into all the BOGOF and other special offers and return with half the shopping that I didnt need/want. Yes I know thats just will-power but I combat that by going shopping only when I absolutly have to! If I had all the meat in the freezer I would only need a trip to the local farm shop for veg and corner shop for bread and milk and my family would be fed for at least a fortnight without the need to go to a supermarket!!

One way to avoid buying unecessary things in the supermarket (so I have heard) is NEVER to go there when you are hungry always go a little while after you have eaten. The other things is to leave the kids at home with the OH so you are more relaxed and don't have them talking you into buying things lots of which are probably not very healthy for them.