Great Ways To Save Money And Turn Green Hunt

Cardew

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Get rid of your electric guzzling tumble dryer.

Ive been without mine for a year now and have noticed the difference in my bills.

Admittedly its more difficult through the winter but my cupboard under the stairs has a boiler in it so i put clothes on an airer over night and by morning they are dry.

Good for the environment and good for my pocket. Win win situation :T

Just a word of warning.

When you have been doing it for a while have a look at the inevitable mould that will be at the top of the cupboard - almost impossible to get rid of on the type of wood stairs are made from.

Not all win/win I suggest.

sambamamba

I think all of the main bits I do have been covered but just wanted to add a couple of little extras:

If you're not sure when your Economy 7 is set for listen out for a big clunk from the meter, if you hear it in the morning count back 8 hours & if you are a night owl & hear one, count forward 8. Hope that makes sense (not sure if this works for v new meters though).

Use any junk mail with a plain back as printer paper for anything that isn't official i.e. directions etc.
Then when finished with cut off any name & address bits & use as a label when you enter competitions, address for SAE's etc. Invest in a cheap glue stick for this - Wilkinsons do 8 for about 75p.

Reuse any free envelopes you get by covering over the return address with
scrap paper or bits from ripped open envelopes using already purchased glue stick.

Of course keep & recycle any padded envelopes, giftbags, boxes etc. And don't be embarrased to give unwanted presents a more deserving home, just be careful.

On a paper vibe as you can tell!

Quasar

Collect rainwater to use in the steam iron (no limescale in it anymore), for rinsing delicate clothers and even for rinsing your hair soft and lush.

Saves de-scaler for the iron, even if it's cheap vinegar, and it's a free beauty treatment for your hair.

schoolfundraiser

Invest in a separate old fashioned type spin dryer eg Creda Debonair and hand wash as much as you can, spin it and then dry on the washing line. It spins better than a washing machine on quick wash for instance so clothes are drier. You will need to put them out immediately after shaking them to remove creases etc. You could do this to remove as much water as possible before putting in a tumble dryer as well in the winter.

I also found that Ecover is the best hand washing liquid to use.

I actually went the whole hog and got rid of my washing machine completely a year ago when it broke down and would cost a lot to repair. Sheets and towels were a bit of a pain to handle so I have just bought a large capacity 8kg machine to do big loads in. But I did find that clothes were cleaner and felt softer without fabric conditioner when hand washed probably because the water is changed when it gets dirty and they get rinsed better. What I also found is that the 14% price hike was in effect cancelled out on my account as I refused to let them put the monthly payments up and they just gave me back an £134 overpayment over the year. I reckon the washing machine was about 20% of my electricity bill. The Creda Debonair cost £110 by the way so I am in profit for this year and next year it will all be savings. (no I don't count the cost of the new washing machine because it would have been purchased anyway and it did not cost any more than a 6kg capacity one. Also it won't get used as much so will last longer)

The other point is that if you hand wash just a few items they can be washed spun and on the line within 15 minutes so if the sun is shining you can take advantage of it immediately.

And it exercises the upper body. lol :cool:

Bungarm2001

What I'd really like to do is find some workable low-tech way of using rainwater to at least flush loo & if possible use for washing machine too, but that may be too ambitious. There are patented rain harvesting systems with underground tanks but they are extremely expensive - there must be simpler ways. It just seems daft to me to use expensive treated water to flush down the loo. Any ideas anyone? :think:

I've been thinking the exact same thing for months now.

I'm thinking about recycling the washing machine water to flush.

We are soon going to put a downstairs loo in the utility room just feet away from the washing machine. It seems completely daft not to use this waste water..it surely can be done somehow.

We thought of a collecting tank on the wall outside a couple of feet off the ground to give the water a 'fall' to fill the loo cistern. This way we wouldn't need a pump hopefully, but if we did, we reckon a tiny pond pump would do it, one controlled by water pressure loss or something similar to trigger it as the loo was flushed.

The inflow valve (?) on the loo cistern would more than likely have to be adjusted to allow water in at such low pressure, but I can't see it being a problem. It'll just take longer to fill, thaats all!

The washer inlet would have to be worked out properly to prevent any backflow into the machine, probably a non-return valve. The pressure from the machines pump should fill the tak without any extra help.

We would also plumb the loo to the mains as usual, just in case there wasn't enough water in the holding tank (can't see that happening somehow!) and fit if with a non-return valve so the powers that be wouldn't object.

It certainly looks like a possibility..I'll post again when we get it all worked out and running...hopefully soon!

Any DIYers or plumbers out there see any pitfalls? Let me know if you do..would be much appreciated

We already recycle the water from our condensing drier..it either goes back in the washing machine, or I water the houseplants with it.

harryhound

From experience of replacing my washing machine's pump twice in 15 years, I would be a little careful of the "head" you are expecting to achieve using the washing machine's pump. In my case I have the washer in the bathroom and it is discharging into the drain from the basin. The force of the pump is sufficient for the waste water to well up in the basin. Both pumps started to fail as water pushed its way past the "O" ring seals and dripped onto the floor - mind you in fairness to the AEG washer and its French made pump, finding a 10p inside the pump on one occasion, could not have helped matters.
(I now have a Bosch, it takes ages to do the washing (overnight) but is much more "measured" in its performance and uses less water).
Four other thoughts - shut the lid when you flush, an aerosol of dirty water escaping into the room might be a germ hazard. Similarly, if you are going away on holiday, leave clean water in the header tank. Protect the header tank from freezing. You might have trouble with a standard ball valve gumming up with slimy deposit from the washer (the trap of my basin needs a dose of drain cleaner, and then plunging, about once a year) a better technique could be to have the header tank and the loo's tank on the same level and a thin pipe connecting them. As long as the flush in the down pipe is greater than the refill along the connecting pipe, at the bottom of the tank, the syphon will still be broken and you wont have to wait for ages while a refill trickles in.

Ken68

There are rules against foul water backtracking into the mains.Something about a non return valve.

Sosh

Make sure nothing is left on standby. This saves me around £30 per quarter.

Also, don't waste money on lots of cleaning products. A damp cloth is a perfect duster, 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water makes an excellent glass / mirror cleaner, you can put a couple of drops of essential oil in to mask the vinegar smell. Once a week, flush some washing soda down plug holes with boiling water. Clears away grease and nasty smells. Not only is it cheaper, it also rids your home of nasty chemicals.

Cardew

Sosh wrote: »

Make sure nothing is left on standby. This saves me around £30 per quarter.

Welcome to the forum.

Perhaps you would care to explain how you reach the figure of £30 a quarter?(£120 a year)

Bear in mind that 1 watt of standby power for an appliance left on standby 24/7(i.e. permanently on standby and never used) will cost approx 70 pence a year.

So you would need to have a permanent standby load of 170 watts. In practice, as you will use some appliances, this will probably be closer to 300 watts.

So my 3 TVs have a total standby wattage of less than 2.5 watts(0.9 + 0.6 + 1.0) DVD < 2 w, etc etc.

I have all the usual suspects and I doubt if my standby consumption costs me £10 a year - and I leave one TV on most of the time.

Even if I left everything on 24/7 when not using it, I doubt if it would cost £20 a year.

I would be really interested in why you feel your standby savings are so much more than mine? and virtually everyone else in the country.

There really is a lot of hype about standby costs.

Disclaimer.
Please don't tell us how it 'saves the world from climate change' it is a huge fire risk etc etc. If somebody wants to switch everything off at the mains, every time, that is totally their prerogative.

However lets get costs into perspective and not 'pluck' silly figures out of the air and imply they are representative.

harryhound

Ken68 wrote: »

There are rules against foul water backtracking into the mains.Something about a non return valve.

The basic rule is that should the mains start sucking rather than blowing, it should not be able to suck water back into itself.
Given a large "header" tank normally full of water from the washer, but incorporating a ball valve for emergencies, provided the overflow to the foul drain is lower than the fresh water valve, I don't see a problem.

Harry.