Great Ways To Save Money And Turn Green Hunt

robellett

It's a small energy saver - I re'fill' my kettle after making cup(s) of tea, when I know I'll have another soon: this heats the water up, rather than letting all of the heat in the empty kettle being lost to surrounding air, meaning that when the kettle is boiled it needs less power.

As others do, I only part-'fill',with the amount that I need anyway:this is not my tip, just the above.

Good luck all, and thanks for the tips. Rob

penarthian

After my rubber hotty sprung a leak i made myself a wheat cushion using the wheat that is used as animal feed. I made a cotton outer and half filled it with wheat and then heated it in the microwave. Four minutes heating gives 30mins hot and 30 minutes warm comfort!
I also leave my hot cushions on the radiators and they absorb heat so they don't take so long to get hot.
Much safer for elderly and children than traditional hot bottles filled with boiling water. Wheat cushions can be bought commercially often scented with lavendar.
I now make these cushions for my friends and a full sack of wheat costs £5 - bargain.

gb57

Re Economy 7 electricity - BE CAREFUL - all the suppliers I have used for this pull a sneaky one, so I bet they all do it - in summer Economy 7 is from 11.30 pm - 1.30 am, then from 3.30 am to 8.30 am, in winter it is an hour earlier. I think I have got the times right, but in any case, it is not the whole night through. You have to make sure you set your timer so that you do not end up using normal price electricity when you think you are on the cheaper rate. Phone the blighters and double-check the times.

Re grants for insulation, I have not looked lately but last time I checked all of the grants were only available if you were on "benefits" - has this changed?

Solar panels seem very expensive to me, payback seems to be about 20 years.

Save heating costs by CLOSING DOORS - heating a room and leaving the door wide open makes no sense at all. Close the room doors and keep the heat in. The rooms get warmer and you can turn the stat down a notch or two. Saves money for me. Wearing appropriate clothes seems obvious to me, but I do know people who wear tee-shirts (no jumper) in the middle of winter and complain about "living in a cold house":rolleyes:

Cardew

gb57 wrote: »

Re Economy 7 electricity - BE CAREFUL - all the suppliers I have used for this pull a sneaky one, so I bet they all do it - in summer Economy 7 is from 11.30 pm - 1.30 am, then from 3.30 am to 8.30 am, in winter it is an hour earlier. I think I have got the times right, but in any case, it is not the whole night through. You have to make sure you set your timer so that you do not end up using normal price electricity when you think you are on the cheaper rate. Phone the blighters and double-check the times.

I don't believe you are correct.

Economy 7 as the name suggests is for a 7 hour period and this in every case I have known is for 7 hours continuously between the 9 hours of 11:30pm and 8:30 am. It does change an hour when the clocks go forward.

I have never heard of an interupted economy 7 period and the mechanical clocks show this quite clearly. All were on mechanical clocks but some newer meters are changed remotely.

Are you sure you are not thinking of economy 10?

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

I don't believe you are correct.

And you could easily prove it by providing a link to a power company that states Economy 7 is for a Continuous 7 hour period.

Or one that gives the start and end times, not two times that are 9 hours apart.

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

And you could easily prove it by providing a link to a power company that states Economy 7 is for a Continuous 7 hour period.

Or one that gives the start and end times, not two times that are 9 hours apart.

So could you if you had any doubts!

To save you the trouble:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7

http://www.powergen.co.uk/FAQ/Meters/Economy-7-Details.htm


http://www.ukenergy.co.uk/pages/economy7.html

http://www.simplyswitch.com/economy7.html

http://www.nie.co.uk/nieenergy/homeenergy/prices/economy7.htm

http://www.nie.co.uk/nieenergy/homeenergy/advice/publications/Downloads/QSG_Economy_7.pdf

http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/knh/publications/Economy7Llet.pdf

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

So could you if you had any doubts!

To save you the trouble:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7

http://www.powergen.co.uk/FAQ/Meters/Economy-7-Details.htm


http://www.ukenergy.co.uk/pages/economy7.html

http://www.simplyswitch.com/economy7.html

http://www.nie.co.uk/nieenergy/homeenergy/prices/economy7.htm

http://www.nie.co.uk/nieenergy/homeenergy/advice/publications/Downloads/QSG_Economy_7.pdf

http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/knh/publications/Economy7Llet.pdf

Yes but all those links, except one, lead to general information and do not give the information about exact times.

The powergen one has a table of times for a lot of power companies. Two of them are;

Norweb 10.30pm to 12.30am, then 2.30am to 7.30am.

Seeboard 11.30pm to 1.30am, then 3.30am to 8.30am (BST); 10.30pm to 12.30pm, then 2.30am to 7.30am (GMT)

So it looks like the OP has a good point, and was not entirely wrong.

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

Yes but all those links, except one, lead to general information and do not give the information about exact times.

The powergen one has a table of times for a lot of power companies. Two of them are;

Norweb 10.30pm to 12.30am, then 2.30am to 7.30am.

Seeboard 11.30pm to 1.30am, then 3.30am to 8.30am (BST); 10.30pm to 12.30pm, then 2.30am to 7.30am (GMT)

So it looks like the OP has a good point, and was not entirely wrong.

You are quite correct. we live and learn!

For the majority of customers it is a continuous 7 hours but as you point out the majority is not everyone.

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

You are quite correct. we live and learn!

For the majority of customers it is a continuous 7 hours but as you point out the majority is not everyone.

Lets just say "If you are going for Economy 7, it's best to check rather than assume".

If a couple are doing that now others may start too.

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

Lets just say "If you are going for Economy 7, it's best to check rather than assume".

If a couple are doing that now others may start too.

A futher thought on this subject of timing.

Those times presumably only appy to those with remote switching on E7.

Many(the majority?) of Economy 7 customers have the mechanical clock meters which change to/from the low rate meter at a time set on the clock.

So if you have one of these clocks and you decided to get E7 from Seeboard or Norweb it would be a continuous 7 hours unless they contracted with someone to change your mechanical meter or put you on remote switching.