Keeping Up the Good Work

As the weather has stayed fine for the last couple of days it has been easy to get everyone outside and turning all the gadgets and appliances off.

We've not just been walking (or running out of shot!) Harry our dog but have been playing in the park and getting bikes and scooters out from their winter breaks.

However, it has started to rain tonight and is meant to get colder so won't be as easy as switching-off and getting outside. Zero power, tumble dryer alternative has arrived but needs fixing-up so will have to wait until the weekend until we reveal all!!!

Following Tom's science experiments for homework and it being National Science Week, Sammy has found it much more exciting to actually get messy than play Science Papa on the Wii console and now wants a full chemistry set! I wonder what other console games we can make hands-on so that the power stays off? Also, still playing loads of board games and cards, especially when the Xbox starts calling Tom so I don't think his missing it too much.

Nearly had the first hiccup yesterday when there was only just enough hot water for our shared (one at a time) bath. Thought we might have to put the timer on for longer (ARGHHH!) but then found out that Toni had bathed Harry earlier in the day (no-way were we keeping his dirty, flea-ridden water to share). At least he is clean and smells nice, making him a great, cuddly alternative to a hot water bottle - I wonder how much energy that saves???

ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
No power games & activities        £10
Less charging (car inverter)          £15
No power lawn mowing                £10
Reduced ironing                            £15
Hall energy saving light                £30
Front door solar light                    £30
Lined bedroom curtains                  £5
Cooking Co-operative                   £25
Dishwasher used only when full   £20
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £310

ACTUAL SPEND (will add items in as we install them and estimate their savings)
Invertor                                          £20
Hall energy saving light                £27
Front door solar light                     £25
Lined bedroom curtains                 £10
Total spend                                    £82
As we've all been more active, we are more tired in the evenings so makes us all keep up the going to bed earlier (and turning everything off earlier - kerching!)

TTFN

Every Little Helps

Continued on with all the ideas we've implemented so far and also started using an in-car invertor purchased from B&Q at the weekend. This plugs into the power/cigarette socket in the car and allows gadgets/appliances to be run or charged from our cars battery from a normal 3-pin plug. So will now be charging mobile phones, tablets etc. whilst driving and not using any home energy! Two tips; firstly we won't be leaving the gadgets in the car to be stolen, and second, we will be checking and, if necessary, charging the car battery from time-to-time.

Also managed to get time to cut the grass today. However, instead of using any power we dug-out our push along cylinder mower. It took a little mower effort than normal but this was eased by the thought that it wasn't plugged-in! Plus Harry (our dog) helped (see pic.). They are the cheapest type of mower to buy and other than a firm push require no energy and only a little maintenance.

As we were outside, thought we would add a photo of our solar panels collecting lots of lovely sunshine (plus free electricity and the feed-in tariff).

Did our, now normal, eating out ("cooking co-operative" - owe a few meals now), shared bath in turns and then a board game (Buzzed Out tonight that ended in a draw - everyone happy!).

ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
Less gadget charging                     £15
No power lawn mowing                £10
Reduced ironing                            £15
Hall energy saving light                £30
Front door solar light                    £30
Lined bedroom curtains                  £5
Cooking Co-operative                   £25
Dishwasher used only when full   £20
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £300

ACTUAL SPEND (will add items in as we install them and estimate their savings)
Invertor                                          £20
Hall energy saving light                £27
Front door solar light                     £25
Lined bedroom curtains                 £10
Total spend                                    £82

Weather meant to change and get showery so ordered our indoor solution to not using the tumble dryer...    will give details when it arrives.

TTFN

Amazing Savings!

Well, we've been tracking our estimated energy savings and this had so far amounted to £260 per year. We have also been taking our meter readings from before the GREAT ENERGY RACE started. As a full week had now passed since the start of the race we decided to see if the meter readings showed anywhere near similar savings. To our amazement, in comparison to the week before the race started we had cut our gas use by 30% (from 4 to under 3 units per day) and electricity use by 35% (from 12 to 8 units per day) equating to a £440 saving per year, WHOOP DEE DO!!! We do have to owe some of this reduction to Mother Nature with the much improved weather but we still really impressed ourselves. So far we have; not been cold, not run out of hot water, kept clean, kept up with the laundry, eaten hot meals, not sat in the dark and (definitely) not been bored! In fact the small changes have been really easy to live with and the kids are even asking if we can keep doing them after the race has finished!

As we go into the second week, Sammy has been busy putting stickers everywhere to remind us to keep energy saving on the ideas we've already put in place.



TUMBLE DRYER

WASHING MACHINE

Toni has almost quit ironing (it wasn't hard to convince her) all for the cause! She is still ironing uniforms and smart stuff but because we aren't using the tumble dryer most things don't need it. A long way from when we first moved-in together, many moons ago, when she used to even iron my boxer shorts!!!

After school Tom played football and Sammy played with her friends so no gadgets turned on by them. We all shared one bath in turn again after dinner and then played another board game, Trivial Pursuit Family Edition, Tom and Sammy won as Sammy was on-fire. Tom's pronunciation of musical composers had us in stitches although his version of Wagner nearly got him a red card and early to bed!!!

ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
Reduced ironing                            £15
Hall energy saving light                £30
Front door solar light                    £30
Lined bedroom curtains                  £5
Cooking Co-operative                   £25
Dishwasher used only when full   £20
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £275

ACTUAL SPEND (will add items in as we install them and estimate their savings)
Hall energy saving light                £27
Front door solar light                     £25
Lined bedroom curtains                 £10
Total spend                                    £62
We haven't changed any of our estimated savings because of the fall in meter readings but we will keep tracking both.

TTFN

A Gorgeous Day

Wow, what a beautiful day and perfect for turning everything off and getting outside. First off the kids went out on their bikes and scooters whilst I changed some inefficient light fittings.

In the hall was a nice looking. energy hungry, 3 mini spot light. I replaced this with an also nice looking, single energy saving bulb fitting bought yesterday from B&Q.

I then took down our wired-in front door light and replaced it with a solar light. We already have solar shed and garden lights and should be making use of the sun's free energy whenever possible, especially now that the technology is no more expensive than wired-in fittings.





We then turned everything off and all went to the park for Tom's football match. It was a fantastic game and ended up a 2-2 draw after Tom's team went 2-0 down. Refereeing, I had to give the other side a blatant penalty but Tom , being the goalie, dived brilliantly to his left to save it and along with some other fine saves, earned himself man-of-the-match!

The kids were now definitely in an outside mood and whilst Sammy played with her friends, Tom did some science experiments for his homework.

So after keeping everything off all day by being mostly outside, we continued by going to Toni's sister's for Sunday Roast and starting our cooking co-operative. Very nice it was too and tasted even better knowing we hadn't used any energy! (Lovely cheesecake Beth).

We got home for baths (one bath of water shared by all 4 of us in turn) and then played Race Track - a Formula 1 based board game. Even though the sun helped, it was a pretty good energy saving day.


ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
Hall energy saving light                £30
Front door solar light                    £30
Lined bedroom curtains                  £5
Cooking Co-operative                   £25
Dishwasher used only when full   £20
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £260

ACTUAL SPEND (will add items in as we install them and estimate their savings)
Hall energy saving light                £27
Front door solar light                     £25
Lined bedroom curtains                 £10
Total spend                                    £62

I was amazed to find out how much the changing of the lights could save but I have got the figures from a good, trustworthy site called www.sust-it.net. I thought it would be 3 - 4 years before the saving covered the cost to buy but it's actually less than one year!

So, one week gone and 4 to go. The savings are looking good and when I look at the meter readings tomorrow they will hopefully prove them - watch this space! Getting late so time for bed said Zebedee, boing (showing my age!).

TTFN

Spend to Save

Great weather today which obviously helps with the energy saving - no heating, kids outside playing rather than using electricity, washing on the line blah, blah, blah. Kids also at clubs and around friends today spreading the energy saving vibe!

Had our visit from a B&Q Energy Adviser this morning (Brad from Southend). He was very thorough and knowledgeable and Sammy liked him because she thought he looked like Joey Essex! He completed a feel assessment and we got a "C" rating (like appliance ratings with "A" being the best) which apparently is pretty good for a property nearly 80 years old!

Made time to visit B&Q this afternoon to spend some of our "allowance" on our energy saving ideas. Had made a list of some of our worst offending items that needed more energy saving alternatives and plans for things we wanted to do. Spent just over £170 but all the items purchased are for long-term energy saving even though I am going to show them against the estimated savings for this year.

Don't want to bore you with a list of everything in one go so will take some pics and estimate our savings when we fit each one. We did manage to put up one of the purchases today, new, fully lined curtains for our bedroom. The kids rooms already have blackout blinds and curtains so their windows are pretty well insulated. Our bedroom window had flimsy, almost see-through curtains - not nice for those living opposite!!! As you can see from the photo, the new curtains on the right block out tons more light and will also be loads more insulating being lined. Plus we found them in the clearance "bin" and they only cost £10!

ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
Lined bedroom curtains                  £5
Cooking Co-operative                   £25
Dishwasher used only when full   £20
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £200

ACTUAL SPEND (will add items in as we install them and estimate their savings)
Lined bedroom curtains                 £10
Total spend                                    £10 

Right, still early to bed as want these plugs off and got all our purchases to put up tomorrow (plus will be running around like a headless chicken with a load of kids at football trying to officiate them!). Oh yes, and the proper start of the "cooking co-operative" with dinner at Toni's sister's (yum, yum).

TTFN

Brilliant Brainwave

No blog post last night because we were at friends for dinner (which had the added bonus of not using our own energy!). This actually got us all thinking and hence the "brilliant brainwave". We decided to start a "cooking co-operative" between local friends and family (best if walking distance otherwise what you save will probably be used up in the cost of petrol). The idea is pretty simple. To cook for more people doesn't cost more in energy - the oven is either on or off. So if 2 or 3 households cook and eat together only one oven is being used. If you rotate the host (use of oven) then you can easily have 2 or 3 nights per week when your not using the oven (or cooking, or using any other energy in your home). Add to this that you are eating out or entertaining and it must be a win, win! Obviously you need to share the cost of the food but that could even give you savings by buying bigger pack sizes. We are fortunate enough to have plenty of friends and family close by so are definitely going to give it a go (Sunday dinner already booked at Toni's sister).

We are now making sure that the dishwasher is totally full before using - as this is more efficient. This has meant instead of daily use it is now only used every other day (and we are not cheating by doing a bit more washing-up by hand - think we have all forgotten how anyway).

ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
Cooking Co-operative                   £25
Dishwasher used only when full   £20
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £195

Loads of plans for the weekend so early to bed.

TTFN

Has the Novelty Worn Off?

Oh no, got in from work to find Sammy watching TV and Tom on his tablet! I was assured that they were just waiting for me as they had decided we should all go for a walk as it was such a lovely evening. So panic over as we turned everything off, got Harry's lead on (harder than it sounds as he goes nuts when its walkies time) and set out for an hour or so.

Got a bit chilly whilst we were out but when we got home no one asked for the heating to be put on instead just all keeping our jumpers and sweatshirts on. All tired from work and school so going to start going to bed half an hour earlier to get some more beauty sleep and turn everything off earlier. Makes loads of sense this time of year when evenings are dark but mornings bright!

ESTIMATED ANNUAL SAVINGS
Bed half an hour earlier                 £25
Washing Machine at 30 deg C      £15
Reduced Heating & Hot Water     £50
Ditch the Tumble Dryer                £50
Still Less TV & Xbox                   £10
Total Annual Savings                  £150
Better sign-off as bed (and all the off switches) are calling.

TTFN