The Great 'Energy & MoneySaving' Hunt

setmefree2

bloomsberg78 wrote: »

Any comments? or thoughts on reducing energy usage of a fridge/freezer?

Hi:hello:,

I've only started monitoring our energy use, we were using two fridges and a freezer and I was quite shocked at how much they cost to run. I currenty I have only one fridge on - the other fridge and freezer are switched off:o I plan to switch them on only when I really need to. I shop everyday so so far hasn't been a great hardship.

Good Luck

Keep us posted with any more tips.

SMF2

almillar

Quite a lot now about fridges/freezers, so here's some more.
Keep both as full as possible (without wasting food of course) since once the food's cold it stays cold much better than the air, which rushes out, is replaced by warm air, and has to be cooled again.
If they're in an enclosed space (as both mine are) they are trying to radiate the heat from inside out into a very small space with no ventilation. Pull them out as far as you are willing to have them, and check that they haven't got knocked back in regularly. The more air is around the pipes at the back, the more efficiently it will run.
Don't cook stuff for the next day, then put it in the fridge to cool! Put it on the windowsill or just leave it out. Once it's down to room temperature then put it into the fridge. This is a really obvious one.
Along the same lines, when you buy frozen stuff, you rush home to get it into the freezer so it doesn't heat up and melt. Good. Next thing to put away is all the chilled stuff into the fridge while it's still cold. The shop has cooled it for you, you just have to keep it ticking over.
Cooling things is not free, it works the same way as heating but in reverse.

puss14

Hi all,
I try to be green in a lot of areas, partly due to my family living with my grandparents and them instilling in me frugal living through the depression ethos and also just realising how everything is interconnected and every persons actions have an effect on the environment.

I have been recycling grey water long before water restrictions were brought into action(Australian) as I love my garden, but realise Australia is such a dry place that I needed to do this. My OH and i rent so recycling grey water means a lot of lugging buckets:rotfl:

One thing I have been meaning to do for ages is look into green power and gas. Today I changed providers and had the added pleasure of saving $236 per year- so I am stoked.:j

I don't know whether any councils in the UK have done this but our council recently had a door knock campaign where they exchanged all light bulbs in our house for low energy ones. How great is that. It actually has made a difference to our power bill:T

Good luck to everyone with their energy saving.
You have all done very well!

A_fiend_for_life

I'm not long back from holiday and have just been checking some of my emails.

Just found an email bulletin from Energy Saving Trust linking to this thread.:D

Well done MSE and money / energy savers.:T

CravingSaving

themiller wrote: »

Keep an eye out for LED light bulbs as they are even lower consumption than compact fluorescents and last much, much longer. At the moment the white bulbs have a blue tint but in some applications they will save loads of electricity and not have the mercury of CFs.

Interestingly enough, I came across these LED lightbulbs today when doing some Eco shopping.

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/LED_lightbulbs.html

And you can get cashback via Quidco too. They seem quite expensive compared to normal low energy bulbs, but if they last that much longer, and have no mercury in them, then they might be worth a go.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has tried these.

nannyogg_2

ooohshiny wrote: »

Okay gents, stop reading now! This will only freak you out!

Ladies, try a Mooncup http://www.mooncup.co.uk/

Less waste in the bin, less money spent each month and actually less chance of TSS...

Okay, the boys can start reading again now!

hi also think they are brilliant !! for all above reasons and you haver it with you when you need it no chance of running out of other things, i am encouraging all my friends and family to consider it. no excessive packaging, no bits left behind and an excellent investment. :T

neet87

My OH has 'eco-ed' up our car by taking out the back seats (they weigh a lot)- I was dubious about this at first but we get about 5mpg extra due to the weight loss. We haven’t really missed the extra seats as the majority of journeys we do are only the two of us anyway. I realise this option isn’t for everyone but if there is only one or two of you then why carry all that unnecessary weight!

MoradoJess

ooohshiny wrote: »

Okay gents, stop reading now! This will only freak you out!

Ladies, try a Mooncup http://www.mooncup.co.uk/

Less waste in the bin, less money spent each month and actually less chance of TSS...

Okay, the boys can start reading again now!

Want to try this but not sure, on another forum a woman said how she lives with all male flatmates, she had to have a very awkward conversation with them when they wanted to know why she kept a pan in her room and only brought it out once a month:rotfl:

cjjohnson

I heard tht it was less expensive to keep the boiler running at a low temperature eg 15c, 24/7 rather than having it on a timer because it uses more energy to heat from scratch rather than to sustain a temperature. Does anyone know if this is true?

clouds21

Cjjohnson - I've heard that, too! Actually, that's going to be my challenge for the next 2 weeks, one week on 24hrs on a low temperature and then timer twice a day at 20!

Bear with me but I was wondering what people thought of the following:

Boris Johnson and a number of government ministers have declared that it's pointless and far too costly investing in preventative measures, ie snow ploughs and grit stocks to be prepared for the eventuality of more snow. Interesting in the land of the founder of the Scout movement...

Anyway, my point is that the whole country is spending a fortune on importing salt and grit. Some councils are even using table salt which scares the hell out of me. :eek:

To save money and the environment would it not be better to issue council sweepers with snow shovels (I've seen foldable ones for sale for less than a tenner) and maybe introduce a requirement for all home owners to clear the pavements outside their homes (this obviously works better in cities!)? People would get more exercise (I remember being handed the snow shovel regularly as a child!), providing the double-whammy of also combatting obesity in adults and in children, furthermore, snow shovels don't damage the environment like salt does and grit could be reserved for the roads. Incidentally, I have a sneaky suspicion we do have enough snow ploughs but they are never in the right place at the right time!
:rotfl:
Anyway, just a thought on the side!

clouds21