Energy saving: what’s really worth it, and what isn’t

bupster

I’ve been doing the calculations and I think these are the things that really make a difference to our bills, and the stuff that just makes you miserable for very little gain. I know for some people even the pennies count - but some ‘tips’ I’ve seen are actually actively unhelpful (like putting your washing machine on the shortest wash, or filling a flask with hot water). 

Caveat: I am absolutely not an expert, I'm only basing this on my life and my house, and your mileage might vary considerably! For this reason I've not even included dishwashers, as I've not got one and haven't a clue! 

What’s worth it:

• Stop using tumble driers. Clothes will dry outside, even on cold days, even when it freezes (obviously not an option if you’ve not got outside space but still better to dry indoors if you have an old, draughty house like mine, or on an airer with a window open). 
• Use fuller loads in washing machine, less often, and read your manual - for my machine the long eco mode uses much less energy than the quick wash I was using before. 
• Use central heating, not electric heaters, and turn it off an hour before you leave the house/go to bed
• Turn the radiators off everywhere and turn them on when you’re going to use a room (12p per hour per radiator [edit - this is the rough saving from turning one off, not the cost of running the heating overall]) 
• Minimise using the oven - only use for batch cooking (and use it to heat the house when you do - e.g. on a particularly cold evening)
• Short showers - if you want to treat yourself to the odd hot bath, fill it halfway 
• Turn your hot water down to just over bath temperature on the boiler

What’s not: 

• Filling a flask in the mornings - just boil the kettle with the amount you’ll use each time, instead of boiling four times that quantity and leaving it to slowly go cold and taste of tin 
• Turning all lights off and using solar lights and candles, especially if you have to buy them - the cost of buying them won’t be recouped by the money you’ll save (especially if you set fire to your curtains or fall down the stairs) 
• Turning off stuff at the plug if you need to buy special adaptors to do so (e.g. plugs are behind furniture)
• Investing £100 on an air fryer if you’re skint already - it could take you six months to a year to recoup the cost in energy saved (slow cooker might be worth it, or cheap air fryer for £30 ish) 
• Spending money on expensive kit to prepare for winter power cuts that may never happen 

Any others?

Makingabobor2

Useful tips. Never knew the 12p per hour per radiator....interesting

arnoldy

DISHWASHERS

Equivalent to running a 1kW electric fire for 1.5 hours (every day usually). Buy a plastic bowl and if possible use gas heated hot water to do the hand washing.

Good list and a prompt for all of us to take control and do what we can/make choices, rather than become helpless/throw hands in air.

bouicca21

Thé trouble with all these tips to save energy is that I already do most of them.

I do have a dishwasher. I normally use it maybe 2 or at most 3 times a month.

Last month I deliberately held off from using it and did most of my washing up by hand in cold water wherever possible.  I used the dishwasher once.  I felt amazingly money saving, and  smugly virtuous.  Bill was hardly any different to usual.  Not feeling smug any more. 

Some of us will cut out other things and manage.  I think I will be one of them. But plenty of people are going to suffer tremendous deprivation.  I hope the tips help them, but I am really worried that no matter how careful they are, some people are going to drown.

[Deleted User]

Does it cost 12p per hour per radiator regardless of the size of the radiator?  I have a smaller radiator in my bedroom which is always off and a bigger radiator in my living room.

The living room temperature (in winter) is set to 22 degrees centigrade and, this winter in view of the cost, I was thinking of having the living room radiator on for about four hours maximum.  Would that cost 12p x 4 and ? plus vat?  I can't avoid the standing charge but I intend to use as little gas as possible.

joedenise

@[Deleted User] - you'll save money by reducing the temperature by just 1 degree.  We've done this over the last couple of years and last winter it was set at 19 degrees for a couple of hours in the morning and then back on again from 5-9pm (we tend to go to bed between 10 and 10.30).  Can always give it a boost for 30 minutes if needed during the day.

Will probably drop it another degree this year to 18 and see how we go.

theoretica

Stopping drafts - generally cheap and (if you had drafts) it makes a decent difference.

For me, ankle warmers make a definite comfort improvement as otherwise I get very cold feet when I am sitting around not moving.

arnoldy

Retired_Saver said:

The living room temperature (in winter) is set to 22 degrees centigrade 

That's very high indeed. try 17-19 C, you will save an absolute fortune. 17-19C is the average summers day in UK.

bupster

Retired_Saver said:

Does it cost 12p per hour per radiator regardless of the size of the radiator?  I have a smaller radiator in my bedroom which is always off and a bigger radiator in my living room.

The living room temperature (in winter) is set to 22 degrees centigrade and, this winter in view of the cost, I was thinking of having the living room radiator on for about four hours maximum.  Would that cost 12p x 4 and ? plus vat?  I can't avoid the standing charge but I intend to use as little gas as possible.

Sorry, I meant it's about 12p saving per radiator turned off and that's a really rough guess! 

It's all dependent on the size of the radiator, the type of radiator, the size of the room, and the house, etc. Basically your boiler heats up water which is pushed through the system. The heat is then deliberately lost through the radiators until your thermostat tells it to stop. The more efficient all of that is, the less it costs to do it, but there's a basic cost to heating up the water to push through the system in the first place. It takes less energy to do that if the system's working efficiently, and it doesn't have to get so hot. 

I'm still wrestling with total boiler costs as calculating gas use is quite complicated, but the more radiators I turn off then the more efficient it will be and the quicker it will be to hit the thermostat level and so it stops having to heat the water and the boiler stops running. I estimate the savings at 12p per hour per radiator that I turn off - but it's guesswork! If you want to check it accurately, then you could measure your meter when the heating's running and nothing else is. 

For what it's worth, I think what you're suggesting is really sensible but I think it will cost you much more than 12p per hour because the boiler will still be doing some work. Is your thermostat in your living room? That's what the heating's trying to heat up. Also, if you can, turn your heating down to 21 or even 20, and bleed the radiators to make it more efficient. Then hopefully the boiler won't have to be on for all that four hours - it'll get up to your desired temperature nice and quickly and turn itself off

[Deleted User]

Thanks for explaining, bupster.  I only plan to have one radiator on and, by trial and error, I'll see how much it costs. 

I have warm clothes and socks etc. to wear as well as a warm throw on the sofa.  I will use as little gas as possible and was too optimistic to think that it would cost 12 per hour for my one living room radiator!  I understand now, thanks bupster.

I'll probably go to bed earlier than usual, pre heat with my electric blanket and watch television in bed when the heating is off.

The whole energy crisis is really awful and no one wants to be cold in their own home. 

bouicca21

Lidl are advertising a Silentnight wearable fleecy blanket.  I think it might be online only, but the same thing for a tiny bit more (so still cheaper than paying  a delivery charge) is available in Wilko.