Has anyone heard of 'energy free days'?

mandragora_2

Bed, do what comes naturally, get up late, walk, eat something lovely that you batch-baked earlier in the week, read the paper/book/gossip, snooze, another walk, run or whatever, listen to the (wind-up) radio, drink a nip of home-made booze, back to bed. What could be nicer? Especially if you have a wood-burner - I think it's amazing the hours you can while away sitting in front of one! And, to be honest, if you switch on a light in the evening, or, God forbid, the telly for an hour, no-one's going to die of shock.

Gin_and_Milk

HappyMJ wrote: »

You need to define what energy is. Burning wood or coal in a log burner is still consuming energy similar to the burning of coal to create electricity. Also, the fridge must be kept running so it could be exempt. As for saving money I don't think it would save much. You would be moving energy usage to another day such as the washing, ironing and hot water heating would be still have to be done maybe on Saturday evening and Monday morning so over the week the energy usage will be about the same anyway.

When I say energy I mainly gas and electric. We get a lot of firewood from Freecycle/Freegle and although we have to pay for coal, it's 'pay as you go' heating if you like. I only wondered if anyone had heard of it and what they thought of it. I could kick myself for not contacting the 'Freegler' at the time, but there you go! As mandragora says, you can spend ages just staring at a woodburner. I just don't want another jaw dropping quarterly bill like before and we refuse to go back to paying by monthly direct debit due to excessive !!!! ups on their part. We intend to cut back on general usage anyway, as we live in a 3 storey house, which can be harder to heat. Even if over a period of 3 months we only save a couple of quid, I'd rather it be in my pocket than theirs!

broodylass_2

ME! I came across it on a green parent website, but I think it was called 'off the grid Sundays'. It's not about money saving it's about being 'green' by not using gas and electric, and to connect with your family without modern day distractions.

Pips_Mum

We have done Earth Hour every year, rather than just turn off the lights though we turn everything off, TV, lights, as much as possible basically. This has led us to try and have a "low electric" night once a month, where we do the same. We play board games by candlelight, open a bottle of wine and just all talk together. Its really nice actually :-)

Ben84

Pips_Mum wrote: »

We have done Earth Hour every year, rather than just turn off the lights though we turn everything off, TV, lights, as much as possible basically. This has led us to try and have a "low electric" night once a month, where we do the same. We play board games by candlelight, open a bottle of wine and just all talk together. Its really nice actually :-)

Although they're certainly low electric, candles tend to be expensive to use. I worked out a while back that the cheapest ones I could find cost more per hour (each!) to use than a regular 60 watt bulb, while energy saver bulbs were even cheaper still. All of these electric options emit a lot more light too.

Anyway, candles are great for atmosphere and during blackouts, but unfortunately they're not much use for saving money.

Pips_Mum

Ben84 wrote: »

Although they're certainly low electric, candles tend to be expensive to use. I worked out a while back that the cheapest ones I could find cost more per hour (each!) to use than a regular 60 watt bulb, while energy saver bulbs were even cheaper still. All of these electric options emit a lot more light too.

Anyway, candles are great for atmosphere and during blackouts, but unfortunately they're not much use for saving money.

I buy a bag of about 200 tealights form Ikea for about £2 and only really use 10 at most on a low electric night so I guess it probably breaks even, its more to do with just chilling out and not being bombarded by laptop, Xbox and TV!

ljones36

I think compare4us.com they have some free energy day deals. Compare Energy Prices per unit at compare4us.com.

Cheapskate

When my older children were young, during the school holidays (any time of year) we had at least one day a week without electric entertainment. This meant no tv, computer, playstation, xbox or whatever (also meant no radio for me, though!), and they had to resort to old-school entertainment, be it board games, drawing, playing with toys, playing out with friends, etc. I caught out eldest DS once when he was about 14 - he'd gone to a mate's house, but the mate later let it slip that they'd been on playstation and not out on bikes like I'd planned! Worked pretty well, most of the time!

A xo

adelight

Just going without electric entertainment and being conscious of consumption sounds more doable to me. As you have the log burner you could use that for heat and cooking, have a wash with warm water heated by it and just use one light.