Energy saving works and saves lots of £££££'s

Mstty

So, we have just reached the one year milestone in our home and since April 11th this year we have been embarking on an energy saving exercise and now we can get some really comparisons from last June.

It's frankly quite staggering. Jun 2021 344kWh Jun 2022 under 200 kWh

144 kWh at our fixed rate of 29.24p is a not so insignificant saving of £42.11!!!!!!

To put it another way with Symbio at 14p kWh last year June 2021 would have cost us £48.16. on our new more than double that rate of 29.24p kWh in June 2022 our energy has cost £58.48!!! We are chuffed

This was done with very minor changes.

1) Turn plugs off don't leave anything in standby you don't need

2) Batch cooking, if using the oven full it up and batch cook, this leads to using the microwave more to heat up batch cooked meals which is cheap and finally we got an air fryer and that is really cheap to run. 20% of the running cost of our Neff fan oven.

3) Only heat the hot water you need. We have found a legionaires burn once a week plus 45 mins a day is all we need for showering and sink.

4) Knock the temperature of the washing machine down to 30oC and use an eco programme if you have one.

5) If you have to use a tumble dryer like us (bad pollen allergies) know how long it takes and mid way through rummage. A tumble dryer(ours was a cheapy not a heat pump one) can use as little as 1.5kW an hour and our loads are all done in 50-60mins

6) Get the whole household on board, get them viewing the smart meter and seeing how much things cost. Teach the next generation or educate the current one👍

Northern_Wanderer

I can vouch for the eco setting on washing machine. I didn't even notice it existed prior to April 2022!!! My monthly usage is consistently down 25kwh/ month. Not as much as yours but that's still a saving.

I still use the same temps but use a shorter wash for most stuff as well.

We will keep trying to reduce usage. Ninja Foodi next for air frying.....

Started rinsing dishes and hands in cold water to save on gas.

Alnat1

Dishwashers have the eco setting too.

EssexHebridean

Can't say I'd fancy using cold water for washing up - most washing up liquids seem to rely on hot water to assist with breaking down grease? We've used cold water for handwashing for years though - it's the soap that does the work on just routinely "dirty" hands - only if they're actually greasy (if you've been working on a car or bike for example) are you likely to need hot. The old myth that you should wash hands in hot water "to kill germs" is just that though - a myth - if in doubt, check what temperature the water would need to be to kill germs, then think whether you'd want to stick your hands in water that hot... 

Our DW has an eco setting but the WM doesn't - I can run a shortened cycle but have struggled to find out whether in fact that is actually any cheaper than running the full length cycle which uses soaking rather than agitation to do much of the "cleaning".