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Mansplaining and domestic energy bills |
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BigJohnD
 
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    Member No: #82
Joined: Jan 22 2007Location: Hoylake |
'Er indoors has been complaining about the rising cost of electricity and gas. I agreed and said I'd marginally reduced the temperature of the hot water, lowered the CH thermostat and reduced the time the CH was on. So hopefully we were using less energy. However: 1. She still turns the thermostat to 30°C telling me it warms the house faster; 2. She refuses to run the dishwasher on ECO despite the fact it uses about 0.8KwH less, say a fiver a month; 3. She insists on having the fireglow bulbs on on the electric fire "for effect", which are 2 × 60W bulbs, tripling the light power consumption - on the ground floor there are 15 × 3W LEDs! 4. She will not lower the water temperature of the washing machine citing the need to kill off viruses. 5. The tumble dryer always seems to be in use, along with the hairdryer and straighteners. 6. We are in dispute over use of the oven re baking bread - she says it is cheaper to make it herself than buying it despite the oven being on for at least 2 hours for a single loaf. Any suggestions how to deal with this? |
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vexorg
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 Member No: #48843
Joined: Jul 06 2017Location: Scotland |
on point 1, these is an argument that modern houses do hold the heat better, more of an argument for keeping the heating continuously on as the surge needed to heat a cold system is more than the it would be if left on. How to fix: 1: modify the thermostat so 30 is really 20 2: modify the dishwasher so eco is always on (but not the eco light) 3: Swap the 60W bults to LED bulbs 4: modify the temp dial on washing machine 5: Have the fuse "blow" then fit it when needed 6: develop a wheat allergy so it cant be in teh house |
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routemaster1
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 Member No: #574
Joined: Jul 08 2007Location: Dorset |
No answer to your problem, but a few comments about my SWMBO. She is the one to lead energy reduction in our house. We have hardly used the oven since cost has become an issue. We have a pressure cooker and have been making much more use of that for essentially one-pot cooking, and the steam output has the side effect of heating the kitchen. My 92 year old MIL decided that, as her friend has one, that she would like to try a slow cooker. So my daughter lent her one and SWIMBO and I took it to her, gave her instruction and shopped for suitable ingredients. All should have been well, apart from her putting the water we told her to add to dissolve the casserole on the outer part, then putting the pot part into the unit, displacing the water all over the kitchen. We had to stop her using it until we had checked it, but it seems to have survived. Ihave a problem with thermostats and my wife, and it's about climate control in the car. When it is hot and we need to use it quickly, she insists on turning it as low as possible to cool the car as quickly as possible. She doesn't understand that if you set it to, say, 18, that it tries to get to 18 by applying full cooling until it reaches the set point. She tells me that I am obscessed with putting in a realistic set point. She doesn't understand that essentially the climate is on or off and it maintains a set point be changing the lenght of time it is on or off, in exactly the same way that a central heating thermostat works. |
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Magistrate
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 Member No: #1731
Joined: Dec 15 2007Location: Walsall West Midlands |
The temperatures are beginning to fall quite rapidly and it will soon be time to unwrap the electric snugglies I bought earlier in the year. My wife is from the Southern States of the US so she feels the cold more than I but we are both being very sensible. Restricting the central heating to the lounge, kitchen and bathroom for an average of 10 hours a day@ 20 keeps the overall costs low. There are only two of us so we never use the dishwasher and restrict laundry to several full loads each week, we never use the oven but Ninja grills/ airfryers. Low energy bulbs throughout the house. Yesterday, we had the heating on for 11 hours, did two full loads of washing (at40) and drying, cooked a full English on the Ninja grill and a roast pork dinner later the total cost according to my smart meter was £8. | ||
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MarkTee
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  Member No: #60030
Joined: Aug 21 2022Location: North Staffordshire |
All you need is a log burner and a 180 vts! | ||
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DeuxChevaux
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 Member No: #16472
Joined: Nov 21 2010Location: North Norfolk UK |
I am going to adopt Vexorgs solution - thank you David | ||
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vexorg
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Member No: #48843
Joined: Jul 06 2017Location: Scotland |
Magistrate wrote ... My wife is from the Southern States of the US so she feels the cold more than I but we are both being very sensible. I used to get funny looks when working in more tropical areas in winter time. Locals all in jumpers and jackets, and me in a t-shirt because it was like a typical scottish summer day. |
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BigJohnD
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Member No: #82
Joined: Jan 22 2007Location: Hoylake |
vexorg wrote ... How to fix: 1: modify the thermostat so 30 is really 20 2: modify the dishwasher so eco is always on (but not the eco light) 3: Swap the 60W bults to LED bulbs 4: modify the temp dial on washing machine 5: Have the fuse "blow" then fit it when needed 6: develop a wheat allergy so it cant be in teh house I like it! Sadly, I'm not sure I can actually do all that, but some tinkering with the tumble dryer is a distinct possibility. The dishwasher defaults to Eco Mode but she knows that and over-rides it to super intensive - totally unnecessary for cutlery and crockery. The thermostat has its own clock so I can partially control it to reset 6(?) times a day to 19°C. The electric fire bulbs' heat turns little fans for a flicker effect - very old hat, I know - but I'm going to check out red LEDs. |
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