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Hacks to reduce energy costs

It's all too much sometimes.just worreing about everything. And yet can remember years ago living on this
farm, miles from the main road.No electricity, gas, no
ma ins water untill I was about 10(nearly 65 yrs ago)Yet we survived. paraffin lamps and candle light
And bringing these cold little abadoned lambs in to get the warmth from the coal fire.We managed.
.They were happy times So really in the end we will all manage.
 
Just had my October statement, and (taking the .Gov discount into account0 I still managed to add to my credit balance. I hsve not managed to do any Smart Tariff work because my energy provider has stopped their smart tariff offer, and the gate shut just as my horse bolted, so I am remaining on the SVT. They have not invited me to join the Gov new scheme for 12 days of abstinence and there is no mention of it on their website, even though the papers trumpeted the start of that initiative in their name.

My attmpts to get Alexa to do anything useful is at a standstill too. I am using my daughters old android phone, and she has set it up to control the heating (which is gas and not part of rhe smart technology drive) but beggar all else. It is locked down like Fort Knox, and I cannot download anything to it. Until she can find time to help me sort it, I am unable to play with Alexa and her IFTTT scripts. I can run them on my PC however, as I can also run Alexa under Wndows, but these are stripped down versions and do not actually connect to bluetooth so cannot interact with any smart technology. Head meets brick wall time.

Of course I could have purchased my own android phone and set up a playpen on it, but that is an outlay of £400+ and a contract for data running at £10 per month for two years,. But my purpose is to save myself money so that defeats the point.

So I remain the Smart Controller in my empire (at least I think I am) and I do things manually. I have so far only switched the heating on for one day when the family visited for the fireworks display and a meal. I have used the heated jacket and it kept me warm while at the fireworks, and also on my shopping excursions. It does not protect hands or nose tips, so still neeg mufflers and scarves, not to mention greatcoats/ raincoats hoodies etc.
 
Comparing this October to last year I used less gas (544 vs 868 kwh) and less electric (245 vs 328 kwh) so my efficiency drive has had some help from the warm weather and a following wind. (must have been the beans!) My total bill last year for this last month was £106 and this year the capped bill was £97.76.
 
I think a lot of younger people won’t remember that a lot of the older generation were brought up without central heating and were well used to waking up with ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, no duvets just blankets we regularly slept with jumpers on and if we were cold during the day we’re just told to put extra clothing on. Usually only one room had any heating
Unfortunately times are going backwards and we’re going to have to get used to layering up . One thing I have found is a heated fleece that only cost pennies per day to run and I tend to use that during the day to keep warm. But I am dreading when it gets to the middle of winter and is really cold
 
My heated jerkin uses an USB battery bank which fits in a pocket so it is truly portable and can be used during power outages, It only warms the upper torso, back and front, but it is very good when I am out on my mobility scooter. For the cost it is good value for my money.

Yes, frozen windows with hoar frost, sink taps frozen solid, baths with half an inch of ice, and a single cast iron radiator in the recreation hall which we used to unfreeze the 1/3 pint milk bottles that we had to drink every day. Gym lessons in gym slips and shorts with no heating at all. Daily runs round the town in running gear whatever the weather if you were not playing footie. cross country runs too.
 
Remember it all. So got this ski jacket from Millets. Half price (not to go s keying really, could not afford it)
Just so I will be warm enough to fetch my grandaughter from school.
 
We must still try. Feel to cold to go out otherwise. But her father once in a blue moon says he will fetch her
from school, but last minute can't be bothered and does not turn up.Hope she remembers that I still
tried.
 
Last Winter we had our heating set at 17°C all season. This year we have just switched it on and have set it at 16°C. We switched it on a couple of weeks ago because the house felt damp with no heating at all. It feels fine at the moment.
 
zand said:
Last Winter we had our heating set at 17°C all season. This year we have just switched it on and have set it at 16°C. We switched it on a couple of weeks ago because the house felt damp with no heating at all. It feels fine at the moment.
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My heating has gone on now. My controller has an ECO button, that lowers all radiators by 3 degrees so I can use rhat to give frost protection, and manually turn everything back up when I feel chilled. Although I still use the microwave for my mutiple cups of coffee, I do use the kett;e when I fill my HW bottle and make it stretch to a cuppa while I am at it.

I did get a helpful email from my bank. It has a link to the MSE website tips for saving money on energy advice. They say much of what we have covered here in this thread, so I was surprised to see that Martin Lewis is advising people to set their hoit water tank to 50C. I sent him a snottogram to warn him about legionella, and that his advice should be changed. [ sending a snottogram is easy when sitting in a cold house with the heating off!]
 
Here's a pix you can send to that Lewis fella, this sticker was stuck on my hot water heater when I had a new thermostat installed in it.

It need adjusting back as the water is at 65°C near flays the skin off if yur not carefull.

 
Riva_Roxaban said:
Here's a pix you can send to that Lewis fella, this sticker was stuck on my hot water heater when I had a new thermostat installed in it.

It need adjusting back as the water is at 65°C near flays the skin off if yur not carefull.

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Thank you. The regulations that cover UK building regs are explicit about this and all installers of hot water systems here are required to adhere to the regs, The UK regs stipulate 70C minimum for the thermostat sertting for all stored water systems. Of course, modern boilers are generally direct feed and do not use water tanls, and theese can be adjusted at will by the consumer, and the regs do not apply to direct feed. So, Ascot heaters and geysers and electric showers are exempt. I would think the Qooker will need to comply since that is a storage system under the counter top. I am sure that if Martin is looking at my email, he will chack the regs himself, since it is a simple g**gle search. I too made the same mistake in this thread, and have retuned my own system back to 70C.
 
Update at the end of November. I have managed to sort out my energy supplier taking half hourly readings from my Smart Meter which is needed for the smart tariff (which is no longer available). I can get my readings back as a graph, and can see how my daily consumption varies during the day. The first thing i notice is my bedtime routine. i can measure my electric blanket consumption, and can see that it is generally in the range 0,06 to 0,08 units per half hour. from this I can estimate that my electric blanket which is on for 8 hours a night costs me 48p per night worst case (at capped unit rate of 37.6 p per unit). It is a reasonable price to pay for snuggle warmth, and worth considering during the day instead of putting the heating on.

i am considering applying for the government Energy savings Scheme where I reduce consumption during assigned abstinence hours set by HM Gov. I am ready, but theres a snag. I need to build up 20 days of half hourly readings prior to application so they get a baseline consumption figure. Then they pay me for electricity I do NOT use on those abstinence days. But if I am already avoiding those hours (4pm-7pm) then I will not show any drop in normal consumption, so they will not pay me. Ergo I have to build up 20 days of high use during those hours, so I can play the game to win. Typical gov manoeuvre that. I am doing a lot of washing and dishwashing in that time period.
 
Update in early December. I have just applied for the Smart Tariff, and also in parallel the Government Energy Saving Sessions. Still awaiting confirmation from my supplier, but I have taken the plunge. I have reprogrammed my daughter to not use high energy devices during peak periods, and we eat later than we used to. The cat is also likewise being re programmed, but that is not an easy task. I am trying to teach him to use the manual can opener, not the electric one. LoL

A small hack for anyone using hot water bottles. Instead of emptying the warmish water down the sink, do you have a spare kettle around that could be used for reheating it without compromising ths cups of coffee with a rubbery flavour. Alternatively, have you got a slow cooker not being used at the moment. then use it to gently heat the water for your next bottle in advance.

I am turning the heating off overnight at the moment. I have a remote controlled power socket that I can command from my bed to switch on a fan heater when I want to get up, so I only warm the room while i get dressesd. i have not yet got Alexa working this magic, but then I am not very talkative first thing in the morning anyway, so maybe I won't need to bother her.
 
I’m all electric with a smart meter, last year a normal winter day with all heating on, using the oven every day, washer & dryer on at peak times at least once usually twice, 2 showers every day, 1 hour heating water, usual 2 TVs fridges, freezers etc and charging devices. A normal day would be about £7 - £9 depending. We had a really cold snap I remember cost average £12 for about 3 days.

Fast forward 12 months to now, I’m washing and drying clothes in the middle of the night, getting up to swap them over etc (not getting up specifically I’m usually up for some part of the very early morning) water on every other day, not used my oven in 4 weeks since I got the air fryer. Only heating the rooms we are using and then just enough to take the chill off. Layering clothing and using throws and even hot water bottles. Not showering every day. My average day is now £17 - £19 depending and one day when I didn’t do the washing until the day time I hit £25!

I’m doing everything possible and can’t do much more so not sweating about it (scuse the pun) but my god it’s scary- I feel so sorry for those who have to watch every penny, I worry about people I don’t even know every day. I’m very lucky that we can weather the storm and I thank god every day for that blessing
 
Oldvatr said:
I can estimate that my electric blanket which is on for 8 hours a night
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Unless it is one designed to be left on when you are in the bed and is relatively new and undamaged please don’t do this. They are designed to warm up the bed before you get into it. I could have died in an electric blanket fire in my early 20’s living alone. My feet burning are the only thing that stopped the smoke inhalation being far worse than it was. The mattress didn’t survive and it was a while before I wore shoes again. A firefighter friend at the time estimated I probably came close to never waking up
 
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