Great idea Mars. 

Energy conservation has to be at the top, considering low financial barriers.

1. Buy an Amazon plug-in energy monitor, measurement is critical to ascertain cost vs benefit.

2. A lot of modern appliances especially large tvs have an eco mode, energy saving can be c30% with marginal degradation in performance. 

3. Any appliance that heats (kettle, oven, washing machine, dishwasher etc) uses a large amount of energy. Ensure low temp options, eco mode or just filling a kettle for what need is great way to use less. 

4. Bleed radiators and check return temperature of your boiler. If you have a gas condensing boiler anything above c54deg doesn’t condense so you’re using more energy. 

5. Turn down your flow temp. Most heat sources are set to upper limits. Experiment with gradual reductions or use weather compensation if you’re willing to upgrade controls. 

Posted by: @editor

I've been seeing a lot of "top tip" articles in the newspapers and online recently giving homeowners ideas on how to save money this winter on their energy bills. Unfortunately, some of the advice is horribly misleading because much of the public don't fully comprehend what a watt or kW is and how that impacts their energy usage. 

For example, one article's top tip was to buy a charger for your bicycle so that you could charge your phone while cycling to work and not charge it at home to save money. The sad thing about that is that many people will think brilliant, I'll save a small fortune charging my phone at work and not at home, which it isn't. 

So I wanted to start a thread where we can share real ideas about genuine energy reduction practices. Feel free to contribute by sharing what you're thinking of doing this winter to reduce your electricity consumption.

 

The simplest, and most cost effective method that I employed last Winter, was to turn down the indoor temperature slightly. I calculated that this could reduce our energy consumption by up to 10%. It may be necessary to add an extra layer of clothing if one feels too cold.

For quite a number of years we have been improving our level of insulation, which is probably the next most cost effective method to reduce energy consumption. Here are a few tips that may be useful.

On the next particularly windy day, go around each window and door and use a thermometer, or just the back of your hand, to check for drafts. Also check for any gaps in walls and floors/ceilings. Check and seal around any loft hatches if possible.

Check the sealing strips on windows and doors for any damage and replace if possible if damage is found. On windows that are not normally opened, putting masking tape over any gaps could be a cheap and effective method to reduce heat loss. Whilst it may not look aesthetically pleasing to the eye, it may significantly reduce energy consumption during the Winter months, and can be easily removed when warmer weather returns.

For those who cannot afford double or triple glazing, there is much cheaper secondary glazing film which can be fitted during the colder months, to once more help reduce energy consumption.

If possible increase loft insulation to the recommended minimum. Also consider cavity wall insulation if at all possible. For those who don't have cavity walls then consider internal or external wall insulation if at all possible.

In the kitchen only fill the kettle with the amount of water required to be heated. To boil one cup of water requires approximately 50Wh of energy.

If one has a solar PV system then consider a slow cooker, crockpot or similar, and prepare meals during the day.

Try to plan meal preparation to fully utilise one's oven, and prepare several meals at the same time. These can be reheated later using a microwave oven. During the evening peak demand use a microwave in preference to the oven and hobs if possible.

If possible install a solar PV system, preferably with battery storage, which can dramatically reduce electrical energy consumption for much of the year.

Check, or have someone check, that your heating system is operating correctly, and in the most efficient manner.

My “top tip” would be that you can’t fix what you don’t know is wrong. Before running round the house turning stuff off or down, or spending on energy-saving things, I’d recommend trying to identify where your money is actually going and how much that equates to. After that, you can target your cost-saving research on the biggest culprits first.

I know full well this advice isn’t exactly innovative, but it really worries me when I see people being advised to spend significant amounts on various home improvements without checking to see if what they’re changing is inadequate in the first place.

Posted by: @mattengineer

3. Any appliance that heats (kettle, oven, washing machine, dishwasher etc) uses a large amount of energy. Ensure low temp options, eco mode or just filling a kettle for what need is great way to use less. 

That's definitely a great tip. We actually purchased a single cup kettle from Breville a few years ago that only boils the water you need, which means we're not boiling loads of water for just one cup.

I think it's saved us a small fortune over the years. This is the lates model: https://amzn.to/3Dyjczj

In addition to what's been posted:

Get LED light bulbs everywhere.  They use a tiny amount of energy.

Unless you use so much HW that you have to mix it with cold, you don't need it hotter than 50 degrees. (yes I know about legionella)

• At 60°C, it takes one second for hot water to cause third-degree burns.
• At 55°C, it takes 10 seconds for hot water to cause third-degree burns.
• At 50°C, it takes five minutes for hot water to cause third-degree burns.

Old fridges/freezers can use a lot of energy

Some desktop PCs (especially high end gaming/data mining) can use a lot of energy.

but

Before you do anything about anything else, do something about your heating and HW energy use.  The rest is usually small change in comparison.

@kev-m, that’s an excellent point about HW.

We’ve run our hot water at 44C for a few years now. We had our iBoost set to 60C for a while and it was dangerous just how hot the water would get. 44C is our personal sweet spot in terms of comfort and heating efficiency.

The ASHP does a mandatory weekly legionella cycle to do away with any nasties.

the amazon one cup is nearly the same as mine i got about 5 years ago but its costly,the one cup ones are from 40 so shop around.

During a period away in the summer I switched off the ASHP to find out what our base electricity use was for everything else. Turned out it was about 8kWh per day, which I thought was quite a lot. I used a plug in power meter to measure the usage on our two fridges and two freezers and also to see what typical dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier cycles would use.

The surprise one was our waste treatment unit ( we are not on mains drainage) which off course is running 24/7. After subtracting everything else this turned out to use about 4kWh - something I can't avoid however careful we are elsewhere. The only other big user is of course the oven. On a cooking day, electricity consumption goes through the roof.

I agree with other comments on here that most of the other potential savings, once you are well insulated and have LED lights are generally pretty marginal. The convenience of leaving equipment in standby mode is sometimes worth the small additional cost.

Mike

@mike-patrick, so interesting you mentioned this. I only really looked at our pump for our home sewage treatment plant a month ago, and it has a 100 watt pump that has to run 24/7. Ours uses 2.4kWh per day (so half of yours), but that still adds up to around £300/year on the new tariff. Crazy.

@editor

Does the pump actually need to run continuously?

@derek-m, unfortunately yes. The aeration is what breaks the solids down in the tank and rotates the sludge. If we turn it off for just two days (in the event that we’re waiting for a replacement diaphragm or replacement manifold that cracked recently) we start to get unpleasant odours coming back into the house.

To keep the bacteria doing their thing and keeping the tank in optimal equilibrium, the pump must run 24/7/365. 

These are just things that come to the fore when energy tariffs are so expensive.