The cost of living is going up everywhere and it feels like we are being squeezed from all directions. Residents in the UK are facing electricity increases of 54% with people choosing to heat or eat.
Here are 10 slightly unusual ways you can save a little bit more on your electricity bill
* Cook with lids on your saucepans. If you do this you might not need to use the exhaust fan. I've tried this and it works.
* Ditch the electric clock radio and use a battery operated one. If you need an alarm, use your phone for this function.
* Use solar garden lights as night lights, to light a dinner table or to give enough light to safely move around a room.
* Use a timer to cook rice and pasta. Don't rely on your memory. You might get side tracked with other cooking tasks.
* Wash your clothes on the quick cycle function on the washing machine. Generally this is only for small loads but sometimes you can't wait until the machine is full ( especially if the clothes are wet or smelly ). The quick wash on my machine is 20 minutes. The next quickest cycle is 47 minutes. Some loads go for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
* Use the quick wash cycle on your dishwasher. Mine goes for 30 minutes and washes the dishes really well. If you do have baked on food then either soak before washing or handwash.
* Don't leave your front porch light on automatic ( or on at all if you are not expecting anyone ). It uses power even when it's idle and trees blowing in the wind can also activate it.
* Unplug the drinks fridge. Give your regular fridge a good clean out and store your drinks in there. If you have too many drinks on hand, only refrigerate a few at a time.
* Unplug / turn off your doorbell at night. No one wants to be disturbed when sleeping.
* When going on holidays, turn off everything at the wall except the fridge and freezer. I go around our home and systematically turn everything off in each room.
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| Old school clocks |
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| Use the quick wash cycle |
Hi Wendy. I do all of these things. Also because we have solar panels I only wash and use the dishwasher during the day when we are producing our own power. I always hang clothes on the clothes line to dry or if it’s wet on a clothes airer on our covered deck or in front of the fire in winter.
ReplyDeleteI was reading some of your past blogs and came across your meat and potato pie. I was cooking for my son’s and his family who have Covid so from 1 kg of mince and 4 sheets of puff pastry (rerolling the pieces I cut off) I made 3 pies - one for him , one for us and one for the freezer. They were delicious! Thanks Sharyn
I'm glad you like the pies. They are a family favourite my Mum starting cooking over 50 years ago.
DeleteSomething odd happened this morning. When I opened my email there was a message from you (as expected) but when I opened it I found it was a message from February 5th 2022 - which I got at the time. Is there a glitch somewhere?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea Pat. I don't have anything to do with the emails sent out. I think it's something people subscribe to for themselves.
DeleteOur hot water heater heats the water for the central heating and for general hot water use in the house. It also has a switch to switch off the central heating part, so every late spring we not only turn the thermostat down to 'off', we also change the mode on the heater to 'hot water only'. If we go away for more than a day, we change the mode to 'vacation', where it stops heating the water, but does continue to cycle it through the radiators once a day.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about lowering our hot water system temp but all research says it's dangerous and can encourage bacteria, I have lowered it as far as I can and still be safe.
DeleteI realise I wasn't clear, my apologies. It's the programmable thermostat in the living room that gets turned to 'off', and it's the hot water machine in the garage that gets switched to 'hot tap water only' during summer. The hot tap water is set to the lowest allowable temperature by the technician who comes by for maintenance each year.
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