Frugal fuel tips

Rosa_Damascena

ccluedo said:

Genuine question to the people without log burners and minimum/no heating and using heated blankets, sleeping bags, hot water bottles etc....

What do you do when friends and family come over....whether expected or not?

Flick the heating on and stick something nice in the oven.

Whilst I wouldn't allow others to freeze, there is no point in heating a large space for just one person when that person is me and I've cracked the code to enduring cosiness (I think).

linz

ccluedo said:

Genuine question to the people without log burners and minimum/no heating and using heated blankets, sleeping bags, hot water bottles etc....

What do you do when friends and family come over....whether expected or not?

I would probably pretend i'd just got in and hadn't yet switched the heating on. Having said that, as things are now I probably would have no shame in saying i was having the heating on less due to the cost.

Cherryfudge

@CCW007 those suggestions are really helpful, thanks! I've never used a pressure cooker so I'm a bit wary but there's a first time for everything and hopefully I'll soon be wondering what I did without it.

Why did I never think of doing baked potatoes etc. using the wood burner?! It generates tremendous heat although it's one of the smallest models. I'm now wondering if we could get a back boiler put in again - we had one years ago and the water would literally boil with the heat from the fire. Had to stop using it because modern plumbing didn't fit with the system.

@ccluedo, I think a lot of people have the heating turned down or off but feel guests might want more. I don't know the answer though I guess offering a hot drink might be a warming gesture. Really, people should accept the host's norms, shouldn't they?

(Alternatively, throw the windows wide open and start talking about the evils of stale air... maybe not? You would find who your friends are, though! )

Rosa_Damascena

linz said:

ccluedo said:

Genuine question to the people without log burners and minimum/no heating and using heated blankets, sleeping bags, hot water bottles etc....

What do you do when friends and family come over....whether expected or not?

I would probably pretend i'd just got in and hadn't yet switched the heating on. Having said that, as things are now I probably would have no shame in saying i was having the heating on less due to the cost.

No shame indeed. The latest predication is that average home's annual fuel bill will be £3.5k by October. Who has that kind of money to burn?!

LadyHarriet

Cherryfudge said:

@CCW007 those suggestions are really helpful, thanks! I've never used a pressure cooker so I'm a bit wary but there's a first time for everything and hopefully I'll soon be wondering what I did without it.

I must admit that I was also wary of using a pressure cooker, but now I really wouldn't be without it. I use it a lot for batch cooking as it is quite big  - and I often use it to cook a gammon joint; once it is cooked, I take it out, remove the skin, score the fat and glaze it, then put it in the oven for 15 minutes, rather than oven-roasting it from start to finish. It also makes short work of stocks, soups (like pea and ham 😋), and pulses like kidney beans which do need to be cooked properly.

newlywed

Does a pressure cooker keep more of the smell in? Stock in the slow cooker when you are wfh means you constantly smell food and want it

Doom_and_Gloom

The greatest thing, other than being safer than the hob for me, is that both the multi-cookers use less energy than the hob.
The one without pressure cooking says 600w and the pressure cooker one says 1,000w.
The hobs are 1,500w or 2,000w depending on what ones you use!
I realise these are maximum outage powers however it is still a good indicator as to how different the cost of usage is likely to be.

Elisheba

ccluedo said:

Genuine question to the people without log burners and minimum/no heating and using heated blankets, sleeping bags, hot water bottles etc....

What do you do when friends and family come over....whether expected or not?

Put the heating on  . It's rare enough I have folk around these days, but I certainly wouldn't expect them to be wrapped in thermals and using a hot water bottle and blankets. 

Cherryfudge

@LadyHarriet, @Doom_and_Gloom, thank you both. I like cooking both gammon and pulses so this is useful to know, and I must admit I don't know what the power consumption of hob is ( ) but long slow cooking on the hob must cost a small fortune. I like that I can start by sautéing an onion in the multicooker and just add the rest of the ingredients of a sauce or casserole without having to swap pans.

@newlywed, I really don't know - cooking smells when working must be quite a distraction!

Pixiekazza

When my log burner was put in, it was to replace an open fire with a back boiler. I decided that keeping a back boiler was a good idea. I did have to have a new insulated hot water tank, radiator for a 'heat dump' in the bathroom to stop it overheating, and new pipes installed so it was expensive altogether. We get a lot of hot water from it so we don't need the immersion heater most days. 

Managed to keep the storage heaters off this week as well :-)