MSE Guide: Energy Saving Tips

4 Posts

Hi all,
We have a new Energy Saving Tips guide, and we'd love to hear your feedback.
If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.
Thanks for your help,
MSE Will
We have a new Energy Saving Tips guide, and we'd love to hear your feedback.
If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.
Thanks for your help,
MSE Will
1
Latest MSE News and Guides
Replies
-When boiling, you don't need to fully cover the contents of your pan with water. The more water you have, the more energy you use bringing it to the boil.
-When boiling on gas, make sure the flames are not coming up the side of the pan, heating the air and not your pan!.Turn the light down. It may take longer to come to the boil but you'll waste far less energy.
-When boiling on electricity, there is the same problem of wasted energy coming up the side of the pan. Select a pan that fits the size of your rings.
-Could you transfer that frozen meal into an oven-proof dish and cook it in the microwave?
-Learn how to use your microwave more.
Only pour into the kettle the amount of water you need for the cups you are making. Perhaps a little more. It's just a waste of energy heating more water than you need. I have seen people 1/2 - 3/4 fill ad 1.5 ltr kettle for one cup of tea - crazy.
Induction hobs - a lot cheaper to run than conventional gas or electric - and they are super quick and easy to clean as they don't bake on spillages or spit residues. You can buy cheap single place induction hobs cheap and they are great for making soups of stews as well as other cooking.
Showering - as previousy mentioned. Don't run the shower the whole time you are in it. Get in wet yourself down and turn off the shower - lather up your head and arms, shoulders - then rinse off lather - Then lather up torso and butt - rinse down and so on to get to your pinkies. So you are having 4 or 5 very short showers in effect in pretty much the same time as on single long shower but you are saving energy whilst the shower is off. I know it's nice having a long shower in piping hot water but it now costs a lot !
Wear a woolly hat indoors. Your head loses more heat per area than any part of your body. So preventing it losing heat by putting a woolly hat is helps you keep body heat. Wear one in bed overnight as well and maybe nice thick woolly socks in bed. You'll be surprised how warm you will get.
Don't heat up rooms you only walk through or use occasionally. Unless you a well off gone are the days when you have the whole house piping hot. Close the doors in bathrooms, kitchens and hallways were possibleand turn the heating off or way down. You don't spend long in them so shy have them warm 24 hours a day ? Kitchens warm up when you are cooking anyway, and same in bathrooms if you are showering. You'll soon get used to it !
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6327425/kettle-on-gas-vs-electric-kettle
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 2.5kw inverter. 28MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
https://www.google.com/search?q=most+heat+lost+through+head+myth
Back to tips though, my favourite today:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/simple-kettle-trick-could-slash-23042976
Another way to save money when using a kettle is to switch it off at the wall.
That will indeed save kettle usage costs....
Some of the tips in this thread however are more useful.
Here's a tip. Before you write out your shopping list (you do use a shopping list, don't you?) take a hard look in your fridge and see just what you have in there that you never used, or could have used up or that didn't even need to be stored chilled in the first place. I did this and ended up buying a smaller fridge and saved 127 kwh a year on running costs.
I currently have 2 small freezers bought at different times. For years I've had one of each packet/box/bag of frozen food open and one spare. That's great from a supply perspective but it means 60% of what I'm paying to freeze is food I don't want yet. I've made a list of alternatives I can buy if the supermarket is out of something as well as a list of high use stuff I don't want to run out of so its worth having a spare. Next week I should be able to turn the older, now empty freezer off. That saves another 210 kwh. My new fridge will be paid for in about 16 months.
Darren
Eat properly
Sleep properly
Save some money
I do layer up but draw the line at wearing a hat indoors.