2014 Frugal Living Challenge

alja

Frugaldom wrote: »

ALJA Good luck with your job interview result.

Thank you!

Mrs_Cheshire

keeping my fingers crossed for you ALJA

alja

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

keeping my fingers crossed for you ALJA

Thank you! Apparently I will find out next week, so fingers crossed!


I hope everyone has a lovely frugal day

Frugaldom

Frugal kitchen makeover progressing well here, it's amazing what a difference some old wood and cup hooks can make. No heating in kitchen, so I now have my 250w infra red lamp hanging over the dining corner. Trouble is, the cat loves it!

sparrer

I'm having my bedroom redecorated and have chosen completely different colours (from red and gold to green and white). I bought small gold coloured chandelier from the cs for £4 with the intention of painting it white, but it didn't cover well and looked hand painted, so today I bought a can of green spray paint for £9, hung the chandelier on the washing line and sprayed it. It's looks perfect, exactly the colour of the feature wall, so am really pleased with my £13 bargain. A very similar chandelier in the shops is £69.99

Frugalsod

cw18 wrote: »

I reckon most of the wasted electricity here is down to DS1. He leaves loads of the electricals in his room on standby, and is a royal pain for leaving lights on - I have to turn the stairs/landing one off after him almost daily, and he regularly leaves his bedroom and/or the family bathroom on when he goes out :mad:

I use a motion sensor light bulb for my hall lights. It means that they will turn themselves off automatically and even if on standby they use very little energy.

Something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Presence-Motion-Sensor-Detector-Light/dp/B00LENG8ZI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1414377924&sr=8-4&keywords=motion+sensor+light+bulb

cw18

I thought about something like that, but it's actually the one that covers the landing and stairs. Motion is fine for landing and coming down, but I'm not convinced it would work for going up.

Even looked at switches you push in to turn on which activates a timer, and yes they're available for 2-way switches - but if he's in the bathroom for more than the set time he's going to be crossing the landing in the dark to get back to his room (and his room's at the top of the stairs). Plus they're £15-£20 each.

I used to have a sound activated unit between the ceiling rose and the bulb which only stayed on for a few minutes, so you turned it on by clapping or coughing. But it wasn't hugely reliable from downstairs and the noise could annoy someone trying to get to sleep if you were turning it on from upstairs. Got rid when I changed to an energy efficient bulb as they weren't compatible.

quidsy

I'm still in energy investigation mode but the results are interesting, the biggest "empty house" output does seem to be the TV area. I have a TV, xbox one, sky box, signal booster, internet router & phone all plugged into one multi adapter & need to get OH (as he is the connector of tv wires, to change the adapters to 2 smaller ones. We want to keep the phone & router on 24/7 but the rest to be switch off-able. Once he has done that I can see if the readings change as significantly as I think they will.

But basically turning off just all non essentials every night at the plug reduced output from 3 units a night to 2. So I think the TV area is sucking the other at least 1-1.5 units.

Once I have finished with this I will post readings.

Also I am now resolved to replace all lightbulbs with LED's, at least in the highest traffic areas, hallways , downstairs toilet, bathroom & 3 lamps , does anyone have any recommendations?

cw18

With regard to LEDs, I guess it depends on the type of light fitting and how bright you want. My kitchen has 7 recessed spotlight fittings, and when I moved in they had 100w R80 bulbs (though I could never remember the R80 when out and about). Those kept blowing - at least one a week if I ran more than 4 at a time - so I kept trying different types. In Mr T one day I saw what I thought was a 60w equivalent energy efficient of the right type in a B1G1F offer, so got 4 and brought them home - only to discover I'd actually picked up R63's which fitted with a space around them.

Having taken advice (from the electricial hubby of a forum friend) I was given to understand they'd work fine - and that the originals probably kept blowing because of the heat they generated given the house is new build so the ceiling space is probably well insulated, so the lower energy style was less likely to do that and the extra airspace reduced the risk even further.

So I went and bought more so I could run all 7.

7 years on 2 have just given out on me. Looking around it's nigh on impossible to get anything but the original R80s (which I don't want) or LEDs with the right fitting but none of the same shape/size of either those or the R63s I've been using.

The closest I found were like these ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brightest-Incandescent-Bulbs-Equivalent-Medium/dp/B00H8M6V06/ref=sr_1_2?s=lighting&ie=UTF8&qid=1414407200&sr=1-2&keywords=led+e27 ), but I wasn't keen on the price (£7 each in Mr A for their own brand)- then Costc0 got almost identical in at £11.39 incl vat for a twinpack. Got OH to look at them, and he reckoned they'd be fine. So I now have 4 of those in place in the key areas of the room, with 3 of the older ones in the other spaces (and 2 I've taken out as spares so I have time to find more when the others start to go).

They're a LOT brighter than the Mr T ones - I reckon at least as bright as the original 100w bulbs - but they still only claim to be 60w equivalent.

OH picked some up for general areas in his house and has reported back that they're a lot brighter than anything else he's used in those fittings, but also a lower use which will bring down costs. He's already made me promise that if/when I change to LED in my cloakroom and/or en-suite I'll go for a much lower equivalent, as the current bulbs (possibly only 40w) are plenty bright enough when fully awake and almost too bright when half asleep

quidsy

Ohh, going to Costco on Thursday night so will keep an eye out. many thanks