What cut backs have you made recently?

[royalmike]

James6112 said:

Fact, well most households do!

“ Nearly three out of five households in the United Kingdom (UK) own a tumble dryer, with figures from the UK's Office for National Statistics showing that 58 percent of UK households own such a machine.10 Jun 2022”

Anyway mines being used a lot less now, an easy win in my house..

We have a gas tumble dryer so much less to run bigger drum and quicker Whitenight British make unfortunately out business now cant understand why they never caught on more fitted loads for customers 20/30 years ago everyone was same opinion best white good appliance they ever purchased.
Lived in North America for 15 years majority of tumble dryers are gas over there

[mike9009]

Couple more things doing recently....

1. Our water pressure is really high, so running the shower on half throttle.
2. Filling washing up bowl half full for when we only have a few things to wash like at breakfast and lunch.

[billbring]

All our hot water is via an immersion heater, I turned it off altogether a couple of months ago and enjoying cold showers over the summer months.
We have no gas or oil so heating is electric as well, we were averaging 68kwh per day during the depths of winter and I've got it down to 3kwh per day now.

The electric heating is a killer so I'm looking at getting a heat pump installed before next winter and I'm sorting out the loft insulation myself which was patchy at best.

[hedges88]

I de-iced my freezer as apparently that helps to save energy and of course give more space inside. I turned it down slightly as well so that it keeps things cold, but not quite as icy cold as it once was. Fish tanks have gone from being 27° C all the way down to 24° And it hasn't been a problem for any of the species I keep.

Had my storage heaters ripped out (goodbye, Thatcher's Britain) and replaced with gas, central heating and boiler. Along with a Google nest thermostat to optimise my energy usage.

I still refuse to use 95 octane 10% ethanol fuel though. Despite having a car that only needs 95 octane, I still use nothing but premium and always have in every motor I've owned. Have definitely changed my driving style up though. Looking forward even further, being a lot more careful with my gear changes. Spending much much less time idling, I don't have a start stop model anymore like I used to but if I know I'm going to be stuck somewhere for a while the engine is going off!

And as for all the fans and stuff sucking juice. That thing I saw on top gear about wrapping a wet towel round your head honestly works so well. I just run a tea towel under cold water and use a rubber band to tie it at the back. Lasts ages as well!

[Shnozz]

billbring said:

All our hot water is via an immersion heater, I turned it off altogether a couple of months ago and enjoying cold showers over the summer months.
We have no gas or oil so heating is electric as well, we were averaging 68kwh per day during the depths of winter and I've got it down to 3kwh per day now.

The electric heating is a killer so I'm looking at getting a heat pump installed before next winter and I'm sorting out the loft insulation myself which was patchy at best.

68 kWh a day would be painful after the anticipated price cap rise this winter.

How do you wash your dishes without any hot water?

[billbring]

Shnozz said:

How do you wash your dishes without any hot water?

We still have the dishwasher on every 3 or 4 days, but for a lot of things I just use the cold water with some washing-up liquid and it's no bother at all. If there's something a bit more stubborn then we'll boil the kettle.

[Mr Whippy]

valiant said:

We had our installed a few weeks back and had the same issue with our leccy meter. Usage is now well down on same time last year. I know these things makes you much more aware of what you’re using (it’s better than watching telly!) and finally my family see what leaving stuff on or putting machines on unnecessarily is costing but there must have been an issue with our old ancient meter.

Even the guy who fitted the smart meter mentioned he hadn’t seen one this old for a while…

Out of interest, we have a smart meter abut apart from seeing daily usage readings on British Gas’ website I’m not sure how I can see the fine grained readouts?
Do you just pair some kind of plug in box with it and a smart phone app or something?

[emicen]

Mr Whippy said:

valiant said:

We had our installed a few weeks back and had the same issue with our leccy meter. Usage is now well down on same time last year. I know these things makes you much more aware of what you’re using (it’s better than watching telly!) and finally my family see what leaving stuff on or putting machines on unnecessarily is costing but there must have been an issue with our old ancient meter.

Even the guy who fitted the smart meter mentioned he hadn’t seen one this old for a while…

Out of interest, we have a smart meter abut apart from seeing daily usage readings on British Gas’ website I’m not sure how I can see the fine grained readouts?
Do you just pair some kind of plug in box with it and a smart phone app or something?

“Smart meter” is a tremendous marketing stretch.

Smart meters are more like when gsm phones gave way to Nokia 6210s and you could get email and basic WAP websites. They try and sell them as being like an iPhone for your power metering and they really aren’t.

Actually really grinds my gears the way they run those ads constantly about how much energy we could save as a country if everyone got a smart meter. We could save the same amount if people just started paying attention to what their non-smart meter says.

[James6112]

emicen said:

Mr Whippy said:

valiant said:

We had our installed a few weeks back and had the same issue with our leccy meter. Usage is now well down on same time last year. I know these things makes you much more aware of what you’re using (it’s better than watching telly!) and finally my family see what leaving stuff on or putting machines on unnecessarily is costing but there must have been an issue with our old ancient meter.

Even the guy who fitted the smart meter mentioned he hadn’t seen one this old for a while…

Out of interest, we have a smart meter abut apart from seeing daily usage readings on British Gas’ website I’m not sure how I can see the fine grained readouts?
Do you just pair some kind of plug in box with it and a smart phone app or something?

“Smart meter” is a tremendous marketing stretch.

Smart meters are more like when gsm phones gave way to Nokia 6210s and you could get email and basic WAP websites. They try and sell them as being like an iPhone for your power metering and they really aren’t.

Actually really grinds my gears the way they run those ads constantly about how much energy we could save as a country if everyone got a smart meter. We could save the same amount if people just started paying attention to what their non-smart meter says.

Nearly 2 weeks in, my EDF smart display isn’t working yet. Various excuses, all debunked, complaint in progress !
However the actual meter parts are a lot clearer than the old meters they replaced. Last years average, 15kwh, have halved that now. Incl cooking electric now, gas before.
I could have driven down usage anyway as you say, but it bought focus.
Hopefully they will pull their finger out & get the display working!

[oldaudi]

Father in Law came over to look after my daughters whilst I had a few beers with the neighbours last Monday night.

Asks me when I get home why my boiler kept coming on every 30 or so minutes…. No heating. No hot water being used.

I had no idea, it’s always done that.

Spent some time looking online to check it wasn’t faulty and it turns out it’s a pre-heat for hot water burning through gas just in case I want hot water immediately. So I’ve now pressed the Eco button to stop it…. I had no idea.

But the tumble dryer is on several times a week even in this weather and I have two dyson hot/cold fans on full blast

Edited by oldaudi on Sunday 17th July 19:41

[loskie]

Tumble drier on in this weather! Unless you CANNOT hang it out you must be mad

[r3g]

oldaudi said:

Father in Law came over to look after my daughters whilst I had a few beers with the neighbours last Monday night.

Asks me when I get home why my boiler kept coming on every 30 or so minutes…. No heating. No hot water being used.

I had no idea, it’s always done that.

Spent some time looking online to check it wasn’t faulty and it turns out it’s a pre-heat for hot water burning through gas just in case I want hot water immediately. So I’ve now pressed the Eco button to stop it…. I had no idea.

But the tumble dryer is on several times a week even in this weather and I have two dyson hot/cold fans on full blast

Edited by oldaudi on Sunday 17th July 19:41

Isn't that normal for all boilers that do DHW duties ? Otherwise you'd have to wait for a minute or so for the boiler to heat the tank up every time you turned on a hot tap.

Mine does it but I turn it off when the GCH isn't being used. I only turn it on at this time of the year when I'm about to take a shower or do the dishes. Even in the winter it gets turned off at night to stop it pointlessly heating up the DHW tank every 30 mins.

Edited by r3g on Sunday 17th July 20:50

[loskie]

combi boiler eco setting will fire up when it detects the hot tap being opened. So open the hot tap. Close it wait a few secs then open it again

[James6112]

Cheers
Just found ‘comfort mode’ on my new Vaillant boiler, which pre/heats I gather.
Just switched it off, can wait a couple of seconds longer for hot water.
Will see if the boss notices..

[ARHarh]

When I moved in here the boiler was set to pre heat mode. No point as the boiler is 10 meters from the nearest tap and 35 meters from the furthest tap. So it takes ages to get hot water anyhow. No point saving a few seconds.

[lrdisco]

billbring said:

All our hot water is via an immersion heater, I turned it off altogether a couple of months ago and enjoying cold showers over the summer months.
We have no gas or oil so heating is electric as well, we were averaging 68kwh per day during the depths of winter and I've got it down to 3kwh per day now.

The electric heating is a killer so I'm looking at getting a heat pump installed before next winter and I'm sorting out the loft insulation myself which was patchy at best.

What on earth are you doing this for? What does your partner think. Sounds grim at your place.

[lrdisco]

Is this the place where miser’s meet to see how miserable they can make their lives?
Some of the stuff on here is ridiculous. Wet tea towel on head? Surely a wind up.

[Philvrs]

I wish my combi boiler had the option to turn off the preheat, looking at my gas usage, one shower was all i used, the rest is preheat, it used about 2kw at 6p/kw a day. If i replaced the boiler i think it would take over 15 years to break even on the savings!

Edited by Philvrs on Monday 18th July 18:04

[Puzzles]

lrdisco said:

Is this the place where miser’s meet to see how miserable they can make their lives?
Some of the stuff on here is ridiculous. Wet tea towel on head? Surely a wind up.

and very accepting wives

[CloudStuff]

Puzzles said:

lrdisco said:

Is this the place where miser’s meet to see how miserable they can make their lives?
Some of the stuff on here is ridiculous. Wet tea towel on head? Surely a wind up.

and very accepting inflatable wives