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

donteatthat

Do people who are not heating their homes not have massive issues with condensation and mould?

timbstoke

donteatthat wrote: »

Do people who are not heating their homes not have massive issues with condensation and mould?

I'll tell you after winter :-)

Rabbitx

I'm intending to try out a halogen oven. I also have solid walls, so am going to experiment with large textile hangings to provide some extra insulation. To do this on a budget may be tricky, but with the help of charity shops, free-cycle and maybe some spray paint or collage bits, this will hopefully make a difference. Any other suggestions about insulating solid walls would be welcome.

david_fraser_2

just spent several hours moving boxes in the loft, lifting the boards, adding 4" x 2" beams to raise the rafters, adding extra insulation then replacing the baords!!
is it worth it? well, the 7m rolls of fibre glass were just £3 from Homebase and the extra timbers were cheap off cuts from the timber yard (and I checked with a builder that the floor could cope with the extra weight) so "yes, it was worth it"!
Obsessive- maybe, but its got me round to sorting out what IS in the loft too!!

MartinWickham

Leaving the oven door open after cooking will release the heat more quickly, but the main advantage is that it lets the moisture out, so you are far less likely to have longer-term corrosion damage inside your oven.

Also, cutting vegetables smaller does knock 25% or more off the cooking time, but more of the flavour and nutrients will leach out into the water. My skinflint technique is to cook vegetables (all in one) in the absolute minimum of water, usually half pint or less. Simmer with the minimum of heat, don't keep removing the lid, aim to have nothing to drain at the end of cooking. Don't use a lot of salt, try none to start with. You won't be thanking me if you are prone to forgetting the pan is on, otherwise you will experience the tastiest vegetables possible.

Chipping

bill_the_bus wrote: »

Boil a full kettle and then fill a flask, keeps warm for most of the day, save boiling a kettle several times

But, isn't the energy (& thus cost) used in boiling the kettle in the first place? If you boil more water you use more energy. If you boil less water you use less. So, saving the water in a vacuum flask is only going to help if it was excess boiled water that you were going to allow to go cold or throw away.

Best is to only boil the amount of water you're going to use.

kwyken

rogerblack wrote: »

'The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a family that burned CCA in a wood stove for winter heating. Their hair fell out, all family members suffered severe, recurring nosebleeds, extreme fatigue and debilitating headaches. The parents complained about 'blacking out' for periods of several hours, followed by long periods of extreme disorientation. Both children suffered frequent seizures described as 'grand mal'. The symptoms were finally traced to breathing minute amounts of arsenic laden dust leaking from the furnace as fly ash. The family's houseplants and fish died, too, victims of copper poisoning from the same dust. Peters HA, et al: Seasonal exposure to arsenic from burning CCA wood. JAMA 251:(18)2393-96, 1984)'

The article quoted makes it clear that in Europe Arsenic is not used to preserve wood, Copper may still be an issue though.

MartinWickham

ZenUK wrote: »

Adjust the water temperature in the boiler to 50 degrees.

This one could be a very, very big loss if you have a 'hot water tank' system. Turn down the TANK thermostat if you wish to store and use cooler water; this excellent tip was mentioned earlier, you should never normally require hotter than 60 deg.C. The best accurate test is simply with a thermometer under the hot tap when you run a bath.

If you turn down the BOILER thermostat too much (this is the temperature at which the boiler operates, not the cylinder water temperature), then it is likely that your boiler will NEVER get your hot water cylinder up to temperature; consequently, it will never turn off, it will keep burning gas as it 'cycles' on and off indefinitely.

Is there a MSE willing to advise on efficient setting of HW and CH controls?

Rabbitx

Skoorb wrote: »

We put thermal linings on the back of our curtains and it makes a big difference to the amount of heat loss through windows.

We buy them from http://www.textilesdirect.co.uk/store/Blackout-Curtain-Lining-Pair.html as there is a store in our city, but you can get them elsewhere.

You can even buy ready backed curtains like http://www.textilesdirect.co.uk/store/Simply-Style-Latte-Thermal-Backed-Curtains.html

Thankyou. This looks like a affordable option.

ZenUK

MartinWickham wrote: »

Leaving the oven door open after cooking will release the heat more quickly, but the main advantage is that it lets the moisture out, so you are far less likely to have longer-term corrosion damage inside your oven.

Also, cutting vegetables smaller does knock 25% or more off the cooking time, but more of the flavour and nutrients will leach out into the water. My skinflint technique is to cook vegetables (all in one) in the absolute minimum of water, usually half pint or less. Simmer with the minimum of heat, don't keep removing the lid, aim to have nothing to drain at the end of cooking. Don't use a lot of salt, try none to start with. You won't be thanking me if you are prone to forgetting the pan is on, otherwise you will experience the tastiest vegetables possible.

or cook for a few minutes in microwave and brown off in oven to make it crispy