Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

catshark88

We've gone slightly nuts turning things off, having spent too long on the OS boards.....

My 3 year old tells me off if I leave anything on that I shouldn't.......

Lois_E

Thanks for posting, Calfuray, Alchemilla, Radish, Pammy and catshark.

I have bought the food tech ingredients. :A

I am pretty pants at switching stuff off apart from lights and phone/laptop chargers, both of which I'm pretty good about. My kids don't ever seem to switch anything off at all, though. Perhaps I should think of some kind of incentive scheme for them.... hmmm... suggestions please??

pammyj74

Oh I am pretty hot on lights, in fact in the evening if we are not doing anything we sit without any on, just the light from the tv (and lappy of course)
Although getting the kids to turn lights off is another matter, I go upstairs to bed and ALL the lights are on in every room grrr

Calfuray

Reporting for duty!

I have done: 2 sets of lecture notes, worked on practical until point I got stuck, did funding applications x 2 and looked at tutorial

Report card: must do better?

Going into uni at 9am tomorrow to work on rest, first class at 1pm.

So report card: progress made?

I'll let teacher decide

Lois_E

Sounds like quite a lot of progress to me Calfuray. But don't rest on your laurels yet!

Tonight I am grateful for
1) Lovely group of friends that I meet with on Wednesdays
2) Amusing book that my brother sent me
3) My favourite cheese on bogof today
4) Normally rowdy Y7s behaved better than usual this morning
5) Meeting this morning went well

Thanks for posting, Calfuray and Pammy. :wave:

jimmybrid

Lois_E wrote: »

Thanks for posting, Calfuray, Alchemilla, Radish, Pammy and catshark.

I have bought the food tech ingredients. :A

I am pretty pants at switching stuff off apart from lights and phone/laptop chargers, both of which I'm pretty good about. My kids don't ever seem to switch anything off at all, though. Perhaps I should think of some kind of incentive scheme for them.... hmmm... suggestions please??

Lois, as a ballpark figure (and this obviously varies with the type of device, make of device, age of device etc) electrical equipment will generally consume around 10% of its in-use power when on standby, so whilst turning the devices off completely when they are not in use is a good idea there are other ways of affecting your electricity consumption which may have more impact:
1. Reduce the usage hours - don't just sit watching rubbish on TV for the sake of it or, like I'm sure many of us do, sit "watching" TV when really you're MSEing on your laptop. One hour of the TV being used is equivalent to 10 hours of standby time.
2. Get higher efficiency products - if you need to replace something try to replace it with a more efficient model. Lightbulbs is a key one, a newer energy efficient bulb could use as little as 20% of the energy of a traditional tungsten filament bulb (or even greater savings for LED bulbs but they are still really expensive). One note of caution, don't buy cheap bulbs as you will end up replacing them more frequently. Particularly avoid the own brand ones from the UK's major DIY store.
3. Fill your freezer - a full freezer retains the cold much better than an empty one, so if your freezer is running low, fill it up. You don't even need to fill it with food, tightly scrunched up newspaper works just as well.

Lois_E

Thanks for the tips, jimmybrid. I've recently got LED bulbs for the kitchen and they're great and take hardly any power.

Today's the day the emergency fund gets its monthly interest, so that's another £9.30 closer to mortgage neutrality.

*wanders off to update sig*

catshark88

Bulbs (like my BT package) seem an unknown world at the mo. We have little spot light things, the installers left us loads of spares & DH puts them in as he's taller. Don't know their efficiency, but they give me lots of bright light (hate that dull, yellowy glow some bulbs give) & we are getting fiendish turner offerers.

Currently sitting lit by iPad, woodburner and 2 (or 4) tiny bulbs in some antique side lights I grew up with. When DH gets home, we will also have an hour of some tripe on tv too.....

Lois_E

Hi catshark. :wave: Must be nice to have somebody tall to change lightbulbs for you. I have to stand on a chair.

To improve energy efficiency, I need to train my kids not to leave the DVD player playing for hours, even if they have switched the TV to standby. Also, I have a builder coming to see me soon to discuss some bits and pieces I want doing, including improving some of the insulation and draught-proofing, so that should help.

Tonight I am grateful for:
1) Friend who was very helpful this afternoon
2) Other friend who was very helpful this evening
3) Interest on my EF
4) Living in such a nice area - so much better than where I used to live
5) 28th of the month without having to pay any council tax

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning Lois, have a Good Friday and I love your happy lists :T

Tilly x