[Tommysgirl]

Now we're in the winter, and with no EBSS from the government this year, we should perhaps recall our top ten energy saving tips, which most of us are probably doing anyway, but there may be some new ones you would like to share in your Top 10 Tips. Mine are:

1. Turn your room thermostat down by 1 degree C, and your thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) even lower in rooms you are not using regularly

2. Only boil enough water in the kettle or pans when cooking to cover what you need

3. Fit draught excluder to front and back doors and windows

4. Use a slow cooker or microwave rather than a larger oven

5. Wash your laundry at slightly lower temperatures. and do one full load rather than two half loads, and keep tumble dryer use to the minimum if possible

6. Have your boiler serviced once a year to make sure it's running efficiently

7. Close all curtains and blinds at night

8. Make sure you have good loft insulation, there are various help schemes available, (try contacting your local council or maybe Citizens Advice to see what help there is in your area)

9. Clean any dust which may have gathered down the backs of radiators (while they're off) with the narrow vacuum cleaner hose attachment. You can buy manual radiator brushes from the likes of Amazon, but I don't know if they work

10. Let the winter sun into your rooms, (if we get any😂), by opening curtains and blinds fully, to add a little bit of warmth

[retrotecchie]

@PeterT_EONNext

The motor in a washing machine or tumble drier is only a fraction of the energy consumption compared to that used by the heater element.

Two top tips (for which I have actually taken consumption readings and calculated the savings):

If you have a separate spin and drain cycle on your washing machine, always give the laundry an extra spin to remove as much water as possible.

My Candy does a lovely 59 minute 'quick wash' which is suitable for everything except towels. The default temperature is 40°C but I can set it to 30°C with a single button press. That saves almost 300Wh, or nearly 10p, compared to washing at 40°C.

A ten minute 1600rpm spin cycle takes about 100Wh of energy. That saves almost half an hour in the tumble drier for a 10kg full load.

If your drier has a low, or half-heat setting, use that rather than the full heat. It will take about 30% longer to dry the load, which you've already spun a second time, but the element will only be using about 50% of the energy. That can save 0.5kWh or more per session, or around 15p.

And if your drier has the last 20 minutes just tumbling without the heat, then just give the clothes another 30 minutes if they are not quite dry enough. The residual heat in the drum, plus only needing another 10 minutes of actual heat is usually enough to finish them off, rather than put the tumble dryer on again for another longer duration.

If you want to be really tight (like me) and are doing multiple laundry loads, I even take the condensate drawer out of the drier and tip it into the soap drawer of the washing machine as it's filling. That can save me almost two litres of my very expensive metered water. And the water in the condensate drawer will be warmer than that from the cold feed, so needs less heating in the machine to boot.

It sounds like a work-up and a faff, but every little helps when you're a Scrooge like me!!

[PeterT_EONNext]

Great tips @Tommysgirl!

I've personally found electricity usage to be far lower by washing bedding/towels at 30° with a laundry cleanser that kills bacteria. It's the same as washing at 60° or above but uses far less electricity, as the cleanser in the conditioner drawer achieves the same!

Would love to hear more if anyone has any tips!

[Tommysgirl]

@PeterT_EONNext

I do the same with towels now. I used to always wash them at 60C as per all the advice about killing bacteria, but now washing them at 30C with Dettol laundry cleanser does the job just as well.

@retrotecchie

That's a great idea about using the warm water from the tumble dryer condenser drawer.👍

[wizzo227]

I do 9. with a cleanish shoe polishing rag poked onto any straight stick such as a garden bamboo cut to 3 foot length.
10. is in the heating plan and so is "while > 16C outdoors and sunny, open the patio door. Avoid using room heat prior to that".
At this time of year, seeing 8C and sunny, the air con heat pump is on while there is some free electricity from the solar panels.

I've just checked that the function of the gas inlet throttle dc solenoid in a combi gas goiler is to more than double gas consumption during hot water demand for less than double useful heat collected. As in, it lowers efficiency and blows warm steamy flue gas to outside, which you can spot by looking outside while someone is using hot water. I've disabled mine expecting 30% better gas to hot water efficiency at loss of 30% of hot water peak power. That is, it takes longer to run a hot bath but uses measurably less gas to do so than the combi gas boiler as designed, which might have been intended for colder climates than South England in 2024. A marginally useful side effect of so decreasing the circulating temperature during hot water demand should be to precipitate less limescale near to the heat exchanger, so improving the service interval before a chemical descale or part replacement is going to be needed.

My kitchen is too small to fit a tumble dryer, so washing day usually waits until the washing line can be used, at this time of year usually needing finishing off indoors. A guaranteed way to save tumble dryer costs is to have a very small kitchen.

I considered making a preheat and tank for all of the water for the washing machine to use, perhaps as warm as 40C, and only on washing day. The space around the washing machine has 12cm to spare, and I've never seen any sort of hot water tank which could fit there.

[JohnT]

I believe that when it comes to saving energy 'every little helps'.
So in my kitchen I have turned the control of my pop-up toaster down from 5 to 4.
Every little helps. 🤣😂😅

[WizzyWigg]

Originally Posted by JohnT

I believe that when it comes to saving energy 'every little helps'.
So in my kitchen I have turned the control of my pop-up toaster down from 5 to 4.
Every little helps. 🤣😂😅

4!!!!!!! 😯 Are you starting a side line producing barbeque charcoal 😂😂😂.

[retrotecchie]

@WizzyWigg

Anything above 3 on my toaster and I need to scrape the carbon off! The control goes up to 10🥵

[WizzyWigg]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@WizzyWigg

Anything above 3 on my toaster and I need to scrape the carbon off! The control goes up to 10🥵

Precisely. 2 slices of Warburton's Toastie on regulo 2. Perfect. 4 would be ashes. 🔥

[retrotecchie]

@WizzyWigg

I suspect, as I just do toast or the occasional hot cross bun, I'm not utilising half the capabilities of the appliance. I'm sure the 5 or 6 setting is possibly for defrosting steak but, as I can't afford steak, I'll never get to find out 🤣🤣🤣🥩. 10 must surely be for autoclaving surgical instruments?!