Spill the beans... on your extreme energy saving tricks

Rambosmum

Katie-Kat-Kins wrote: »

I have tried doing this but it sets our smoke alarms off. I hate to waste the heat from the hob or oven once I have left the room by shutting the door behind me but in winter it seems to set of the smoke detector.

Yes the terribly bright builders thought the ideal place for a smoke detector would be outside the kitchen door....

It is soooo over sensitive that even though I have covered it in cling flim it still goes off when I open the kitchen door or if I cook with the door open. It isn't that the oven needs cleaning the electric hob and the toaster also manage to set it off on a cold day. I think it is the warm air moving that does it.

Any suggestions for temporarily disabling the thing? It is wired into the mains so I can't just take the battery out......

Oh and before I get a fire safety lecture I have another on the upstairs landing that is in full working order and is not tampered with. But this one is driving me potty! It must drive the neighbours nuts too as it goes of pretty much daily.

Cut the main wires (make sure you turn the electricity off at the mains first!) then but a smoke alarm NOT a fire alarm- smoke alarms work by detecting smoke, fire alarms by detecting rapid changes in air temperature, which it sounds like yours does. You can pick up smoke detectors for a pound or two in a £ shop. You can then ask the local fire brigade to install it to the mains (say the old one was cut by the decorator or you moved in and it was like that) or, juts pop it next to the old one and use batteries.

Rambosmum

Katie-kat-kins: It also sounds like your oven leaks a lot of heat whilst in use- does it take longer to cook things than the recipe or instructions say? You may need to check the seal and glass.

Suzkin

luxor4t wrote: »

After bathing we leave the water in the bath until it's cold - well, we paid to heat the water in the first place so we're getting our money's worth from the heat

Just curious: What do you do with the water - once it's cold?

Ken68

Not so much an extreme saver, more of an alternative.

RADIO not T.V.

aurongrande_2

luxor4t wrote: »

After bathing we leave the water in the bath until it's cold - well, we paid to heat the water in the first place so we're getting our money's worth from the heat

I can't use my bath. It's one my local council housing fitted. They call it a watersaving bath. I call it a wide sink. It's too shallow to use as a bath, so I'm forced to stick with using my shower.

grahamc2003

So, to summerise the energy saving ideas up to now, we put all empty boxes in the loft for extra insulation, put any old unironed knickers and socks on the walls to help with insulation, turn the thermostat down to -18C so it doesn’t come on unnecessarliy, stick soggy newspaper into the electricity sockets to block that source of draughts, give the wife a cuddle under a couple of electric blankes and various eiderdowns during the 5 minute per day radio (not TV!) allowance, capture the warm smoke from smokers outside pubs and bring it inside to warm the room, burn arsenic on the stove but wear a gas mask to clean the fumes, drink warm bacteria solution from the hot water system, chop value sausages into tiny cubes so they fry quicker, spend October to April in the Bahamas, install a proximity system to detect when anyone enters or leaves the house and automatically swtiches off all electrical devices, limit yourself to one hot drink a day at 03:00 to use cheap electricity, ask neighbours if you can bathe in their bathwater before they pull the plug, only iron clothes for people under 3 months old, ensure all clothes are either silk or cashmere, look upon mould as an attractive wall covering, use night vision goggles if you want to read after dark, have 2 pairs of thermal lined curtains at each window, turn laser printers off 24/7 and dot matrix printers on 24/7, or vice versa, ensure all appliances are AAAA rated, and even then don’t use them, cook food in the same pan - with a large pan you can cook soup, eggs, tarte tartin, dumplings and soufle (but not Maris Piper potatoes) all together just by adding hot water, wash clothes in mouthwash and dry them in the greenhouse, make a nice carpet from used bathtowels, and last but not least and my favorite, ensure your bath is physically too small to get into!

Phew, better get to it.

chirpychick

grahamc2003 wrote: »

So, to summerise the energy saving ideas up to now, we put all empty boxes in the loft for extra insulation, put any old unironed knickers and socks on the walls to help with insulation, turn the thermostat down to -18C so it doesn’t come on unnecessarliy, stick soggy newspaper into the electricity sockets to block that source of draughts, give the wife a cuddle under a couple of electric blankes and various eiderdowns during the 5 minute per day radio (not TV!) allowance, capture the warm smoke from smokers outside pubs and bring it inside to warm the room, burn arsenic on the stove but wear a gas mask to clean the fumes, drink warm bacteria solution from the hot water system, chop value sausages into tiny cubes so they fry quicker, spend October to April in the Bahamas, install a proximity system to detect when anyone enters or leaves the house and automatically swtiches off all electrical devices, limit yourself to one hot drink a day at 03:00 to use cheap electricity, ask neighbours if you can bathe in their bathwater before they pull the plug, only iron clothes for people under 3 months old, ensure all clothes are either silk or cashmere, look upon mould as an attractive wall covering, use night vision goggles if you want to read after dark, have 2 pairs of thermal lined curtains at each window, turn laser printers off 24/7 and dot matrix printers on 24/7, or vice versa, ensure all appliances are AAAA rated, and even then don’t use them, cook food in the same pan - with a large pan you can cook soup, eggs, tarte tartin, dumplings and soufle (but not Maris Piper potatoes) all together just by adding hot water, wash clothes in mouthwash and dry them in the greenhouse, make a nice carpet from used bathtowels, and last but not least and my favorite, ensure your bath is physically too small to get into!

Phew, better get to it.

that had me in absolute stitches thanks for the laugh! :T

ListysDad

Graham you've cornered the market!
A great belly laugh not only generates more heat than the slow burning effigy of a thieving ex wife on the fire but makes one realise that life is entirely about perspective.
Thank you.






All together now, :whistle: "Always look on the bright side of life..." :whistle:

vixen1500

spinningsheep wrote: »

We have a multifuel stove which ticks over nicely for 6 hrs on a shovel of smokeless coal and heats the lounge and kitchen areas easily to 20 degrees or more and the heat gets into the hallway too, keeps the fabric of the building warm so seems to warm up alot faster, and we set the central heating to come on an hour in the morning and 2 hrs in the evening on a low setting, and the house seems to stay aired all the time. We have a thick thermal door curtain over our old draughty wooden front door as well.

hiya - just wondering if you ever use those homemade brickettes from newspaper :beer:

DadsTaxi

If you have an integral garage, and like mine, it's more of a storage and utility room, then the main door is hardly ever opened. There is no heating in it, and it's very draughty.
You can draught proof it by cutting long wedge shaped lengths out of foam insulation of the type used on water pipes. Insert the foam wedges into the gap from the outside, around the edges, top, and bottom. With care, it can look really neat, and is easily removed should the door ever need to be opened.
Also, glueing polystyrene insulation sheets onto the metal panels will help prevent heat escaping through the door. They may be shaped to fit neatly between the metal cross members. I've also clad mine in foil bubble wrap loft insulation. It helps to keep the heat in and looks good.
The door can still be easliy opened, and quickly in an emergency.
Putting carpet down helps prevent losing heat through the concrete floor.
Overall, less heat will be lost from the main house via the garage, and it's a much more useable space in the depths of winter.