You have to offset costs of alterations against any saving. If savings are outweighed or negligible it’s not worth the investment. The longevity of some alternatives is questionable. Some items are not built for intensive use. Replacing bulbs probably costs more than the saving generated. Best to focus on big ticket items such as gas heating and gas ovens. How often you boil a kettle and how full it is when boiled. Washing clothes at 30c for a shorter time rather than 60c for over an hour. etc. Insulation is key.
Morning, all!
Though I’d jump in on the chat as this is very close to home.
We are opting not to turn on any central heating in our school until the very last minute. That means our rooms are decidedly damp, to say the least. When I have marked books, I have noticed a lithe feel to the paper, almost like a ‘baby wipe’.
The students as well as teachers wear coats, hats and some have already opted to where thin scarfs. We have had several emails to parents stating as such.
The knock-on effect of all this is many more children are coming to school without breakfast, with some stating their parents were ‘running late’, so couldn’t have anything more than a hot drink or a slice of bread, with some having nothing at all. We do food parcels to those in severe dire straits and struggling to simply have a meal. Teachers are now regularly coming to school with snacks to give children, with many having a small stash of breakfast bars, biscuits, fruit and anything they can afford, to tide them over during the long day.
Tough times is an understatement.
I would have been thoroughly ashamed to send my kids to school with no breakfast. We were absolutely skint when our kids were small after paying the bills and I was first in the queue on Monday mornings for family Allowance payment but I never sent them out on empty stomachs. We got not a penny in benefits either and no free nursery places or free school dinners like they do now. We had to pay for everything!
What does it cost to toast a couple of slices of toast and spread some supermarket jam on it? Or boil an egg or do some porridge which literally costs pence.
I think the trouble is now some parents think it is somebody else’s duty to provide for their kids and it absolutely is not!
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A couple of points.
Incandescent bulbs use five times the power that LEDs use. And the longevity is far superior to incandescent units.
Boiling a kettle if it is more than half full is wasteful but it hardly significant for short time it is on.
I thought they used batteries.
Yes, but why would they be more efficient than mains power ?
Thanks for that info re the difference in power usage. I changed all my bulbs to LED .
I have a couple of those floor lamps with a goose neck and overhead lighting …they look like creatures from outer space if
you have a good imagination lol …both say 8w …that’s low isn’t it ?
As for kettle usage I have a 1ltr one.
I only use the oven part of my electric cooker once a week . A hob ,once a day probably as well as the microwave .
I don’t have the tv on standby nor anything else .
Can’t think of any other ways of saving .
That can’t be the right thing to do surely ? If you’re feeling damp as you describe this is bad for health . No one ought to be sitting school hours every day like that !
As for children being sent to school without breakfast I wouldn’t like to decide if that was due to lazy parenting, insufficient income to provide one or simply that the child doesn’t fancy breakfast food .
I think you are doing a good job. We hardly use the cooker at all - we have a Instant Pot. It is a very good energy saver. The kettle uses power for a quite short lime. It is energy you need to be concerned about. A typical residence uses typically 10kWh per day. Of course, that will change if/when electric vehicles become core common.
Is that the average? I guess I’m doing okay then with 3 to 4 kWH per day. Mind you. I’m sitting in an unheated one bedroom flat. It’ll have to be truly bitter before I put any heating on.
For my sins, at the assisted living joint where I live we were all landed with a surcharge to cover the increased energy costs for the communal areas such as residents lounge and laundry.
The management company stuck 80% on the usual annual bill and sent us all a bill to top it up. From £10,000 to £18,000 per annum.
Thank goodness it was split between 40 of us.
Well, we have a four-bedroom house but we have only recently had the heating that that was just the bathroom floor for the shower. Our average energy is 7 kWh per day.
is that a Scottish thing? I mean, who else would know how many kWh per day, and why?
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Doesn’t your energy company tell you how much kWh you use, how much it is etc? genuine question, not being cheeky. I got an email about it from my energy company because I had my amount changed per kWh (to be less)
erm … not that I’d noticed. I just get the bill & pay it.
kWh per day is a bit technical for me.
OMG … is this what it’s come to?! Is this where we are in the evolution of things: reading the small print on our bills?!
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That sounds pretty good then. In fact, very good.
Or mine is plain thievery.
It’s pretty much the same as a unit of leccy so if you know how many units you’ve used just times it by the new unit cost.
Or even simpler … if something is rated as 2KW …it means it would use 2 kilowatts an hour.
I’m an electrical engineer so I ought to know things like that!
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yes d00d, I’m afraid it is. 
Doesn’t your bill give you a little summary of your usage? This is mine for a single person in a four bedroom home.
Being at home with covid restrictions last year made a difference as you can see.
The water bill is even more detailed with info about how much is used on average in a 1,2,3 and 4 person home.
I never wasted energy before all this palava, so I’m not going to start messing about cutting a few bob off here, and a few bob there now. I installed LED lighting a long time ago, realising that a ten watt LED bulb was far more economical than a sixty watt incandescent bulb, they also last longer and don’t get nearly as hot.
The more mature people (like those who frequent this forum) need to be kept warm in the winter especially, so I consider heating a priority as well as good nourishing food. Keep your boiler (stomach) full, and that in itself will help to keep you warm. Heat and food should be more of a priority than Sky subscriptions or even a smartphone.
There are many things that we subscribe to that are not as important than heat and food, they are the basics of human life.
If push comes to pull, I would even take my car off the road before I skimp on food or heating.
Get yer priorities right!
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