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Cutting the Cost of Household Bills?
schlumpf_louise asks: "I'm in the UK, and I'm about to move out of university accommodation and live in a house, for the first time. When we move, we will have to pay for water, electricity and gas. We'll still be students renting from a landlord, so we can't make any major physical changes to the property. The house has gas central heating and a gas cooker. Four computers will be running pretty much all the time, in addition to the usual general household appliances. What tips do any of you have for (legally) saving on bills? Are there any technologies that are worth buying for long term savings? What should we not do, or not use?" What other saving tips, and frugal suggestions might you have for a house full of college students?
It is the four computers running all the time that will cost you a significant amount of money. What you should all do is work out when your computers actually need to be running. Although its nice to sit down and instantly start working, or to check your email when you are up at 3am going to the loo, if you are pinching pennies you'll notice that even over the course of a month, shutting down computers when they aren't doing anything will save you a significant number of pounds. Chances are as students you'll be spending a lot of time away from the house anyway at the pub, classes, the pub again, the local curry place, the pub. If you add that to your sleep routine you'll probably find that the number of hours each week that you actually need your computers is only a small fraction of the 168 that they will be on. Set your automated tasks to occur when you are eating dinner or watching the TV rather than having your computer on at 3am just to backup and download updates. Is having a great distributed computing score worth the price of several meals each month? Also consider. If you all already have mobile phones, do you really need a landline?
2nd? I would say try running heat/cooling as little as possible while still keeping it comfortable..
Also, Macaroni and Cheese. Have you considered selling plasma?
Turn off any and all electrical devices not in use.
Pile on the blankets, dont run the heater.
emt 377 emt 4
Only obvious things come to mind. In case they aren't so obvious to you: Use the computers for heat in the winter, try to pipe the heat away in the summer. Wear a sweater. Shower with your girlfriend. Wear your clothes multiple days to save on laundry loads. But of course all these habits you probably picked up in college anyway.
Lightbulbs that use Fluorescent tube technology, but screw right into the sockets of regular bulbs.
- They use ~25% of the power of regular bulbs (for the equivalent light output)
- They tend to last 5 times longer
- The electronic balasts of modern CFB don't cause flicker (and thus avoid headaches...)
- Modern CFBs use better phosphorescents that match the color temperature of typical incandescents.
The only real downside is that they *are* more expensive than regular bulbs, but the energy (money) you save in the first few months allows it to quickly pay for itself.
If you all already have mobile phones, do you really need a landline?
If you don't have landline voice service, you can't get dial-up. If the local telco is unwilling to unbundle the local loop, and you don't have landline voice service, you can't get DSL. If you don't watch a lot of TV, and the local cable company is unwilling to sell Internet access to those who aren't cable TV customers, then you can't get cable Internet access. So yes, you may need to keep landline voice service or give up Internet access altogether.
I would second the bit about turn the computers on ONLY when you need them. Wear COATS in the house, and keep the temperature on the furnace so you don't use so much gas. Limit the time in the shower so you keep the water heating bill down.
All this takes cooperation and discipline!
Good luck.
Have you compiled your kernel today??
and every day when you leave. better yet, get an electonic thermostat if you can, and program it. turn out lights when you are not in the room. don't run water needlessly. if you aren't actually using your computer at night (uploading, compiling, serving, whatever), let the computer go to sleep or turn it off.
i saw the baby, and the baby looked at me
I would second the bit about turn the computers on ONLY when you need them.
Doesn't starting and stopping the hard drives cause more wear and tear on the motor and bearings?
In the winter months, they sell a clear plastic sheet you can tape along the rim of the inside windowsill. It is amazingly effective at preventing heat loss. Use that.
1.) Keep the computers off. I mean, wtf. I turn mine off when I go to sleep, cause I don't want to hear it. And that's even watercooled and very quiet - I just don't want to hear it. Plus it costs money. Are you even home that often? What's your computer even doing, really? If it's that bad, find an old laptop with a dead battery and make it the apartment server so you can leave it downloading your new Lost episodes or whatever. Need space? USB HDD. Laptops use less power. Also, encourage everyone to get an LCD. Nothing like a 19" TV-style computer monitor to use electricity all the time. LCD's pay for themselves in about a year or less these days.
2.) Turn the lights off when not home or not using the apartment.
3.) In the winter, keep the thermostat (or whatever that thing's called in the UK) set lower, so the heat kicks on less. Use blankets, or wear a sweater. I have an afghan that my aunt made me; I commonly curl up on the couch with it to play some Dragon Quest VIII, or read a book.
4.) In the summer, keep the AC temp up a little, and use a good old fashioned box fan, or open a window. I don't know your climate so this may be less practical. It works great in the Appalachian mountains in western Virginia; I don't remember it working so well when I lived in Memphis TN, which is hot and humid all summer. Anyway, box fan = more efficient than hugeass compressor.
5.) Set your refridgerator on "saves energy" rather than "reduces exterior moisture". I'd much rather have the exterior moisture; but then, it's hardly ever above 20% humidity in the winter here.
That's about it. Try not to own anything like a 5 foot iguana (thanks, wife) that constantly needs a full spectrum bulb, a black-lite bulb, a ceramic bulb, a water fountain, 2 heated fake rocks, and a nuculear processing plant to keep it happy.
~Will
sig?
We'll presume you're savvy enough to enable the various power saving options on your machines (remember to also turn your monitors off completely when not in use) so we'll focus on the other easy item - heating! Crank that thermostat down to the 50's and stock up on blankets and sweaters! :)
Turn your hot water heat setting as cool as you are comfortable with. (Experiment a bit so you don't end up shorting the poor SOB who's last into the shower.
Also, since you've probably got surge protectors on everything, make use of that "master power switch" to cut power to all those non-computing vampire appliances that never truly turn off (TV, DVD, CD, VCR, microwave etc).
Finally, even though it's not your place and you can't make changes, check all the door and window seals and if any of them are leaky lean on the landlord to get them fixed.
Carpool...
Instead of using some kind of monster 500+ watt system, you could get a laptop or an Epia or a Mac Mini or this AMD Geode-based desktop* or some other low-power system. Even underclocking and using power management on your current PC can help, too, and switching from CRT to LCD monitor helps a lot.
*which, by the way, is cheaper (~$200) at my local Fry's for some reason
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
You can save on water and power by not showering regularly.... but I think that's a given.
Don't use the A/C and wear a coat; use low power light bulbs (or get those flourescent ones that cost more but use less energy), get used to a not as hot shower, and since you'll be in a house, buy your beer (not sure if it has a different name across the pond) by the keg instead of cases/at the pub. As someone else said, don't get a land-line phone if you all have cell phones. Basic internet access if you're gonna be on campus a lot (I only have a 1.5Mbps connection at my place and I don't even notice it because I'm on campus at least 12 hours a day).
Lower power computers too. Use laptops or desktops with good power settings (Pentium M's speedstep technology, Athlon 64's Cool and Quiet, etc.).
Also, buy generic food and stuff like that. I personally prefer Kroger (the supermarket I shop at) brand to some name brands.
Peace, Chris
make use of that "master power switch" to cut power to all those non-computing vampire appliances that never truly turn off (TV, DVD, CD, VCR, microwave etc).
And endure the lengthy channel search and clock setup every day as the TV and VCR lose their mains-backed memories? (Or is it different in PAL territories?)
I once was a housemate with a guy that got kicked out of a fraternity for being too drunk and rowdy. He had stolen a 1968 vintage kegerator from a carnival, and the thing sucked like 1200 watts or more, and ran continuously with no thermostat. One day, he came home with a keg of Stroh's that he had bought for $20 on special. He came face to face with the resolution that it would cost him more in electricity to cool the beer with the antique device than it cost to buy the keg.
Late that night, I found him outside dressed in all black, carrying a trenching shovel and a long extension cord toward our neighbors' house...
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
If you have a nice gas cooktop and some cooking skills you can make a lot at home. Uni cafeteria can be a huge money drain if you're eating 3 meals a day. For 4 people, you could probably save 50 pounds a month if everyone chips in and does some food work. Nothing fancy, but stay away from prepackaged food also, it's just as expensive and not healthy either.
Frankly, that one will save you more than most of the rest. There are a wide variety of not bad foods that can be made in semi-bulk (so you only have to cook new every couple of days), that can be dressed differently at the table for varied meals. It's how I survived grad school.
Follow that one by shoping for clothes at the local version of Goodwill, turn down the heat, plug the drafts, and unplug appliances not in use. Consider adding an insulating blanket to your hot water heater, if it's not an instant-on type.
And, of course, don't do anything that makes holes in walls. Those are pricey to fix and tend to make landlords a bit touchy. The same comment applies to carpets.
the more accurate the calculations became, the more the concepts tended to vanish into thin air. R. S. Mulliken
1. Insulation. Lots and lots of insulation. Insulation is not sexy, but if you make very thick walls, like three feet thick, and spray in the fiberglass-pink, as well as use tin-foil to reflect infared back into the home. . , you can basically heat a home with minimal effort. A wood stove, or a heat from a compost heap set downhill from the house with circulating pipes to carry heat to the floors, etc., plus use of solar heat collection. . . Kill your heating bills. There are lots of clever ways to heat a place other than the conventional, super-wasteful methods we use today.
2. Build somewhere you can sink your own well. Run the pump with an electric motor driven from a solar panel. Keep a huge water storage tank buried next to your house. Never pay the water company ever again.
3. Solar collectors for power. Get off the grid altogether! Spend $10,000 on good panels, (which can collect even in low-light conditions), and batteries and all the wiring, etc., and you needn't pay another electricity bill ever again.
What's left?
4. Cancel your cable/satellite subscription. TV is for losers. Period. TV is a waste of time and money and brain cells. Simple.
5. Phone bills. . ? This is the only thing I'd keep. I like communication.
6. Food. Food is cheep now. Very cheep. When fuel costs continue to rise, trucking and transport costs will also rise. The cost of goods will have to go up. Bush's fucked up reality means the poor will starve. So buy lots and lots of cans and preserved food stuffs now. The depression is near. Be prepared. You think your food bills are high now? Hm.
-FL
...where it's a lot cheaper to live, and you can make more money.
Landlords generally want the property to look good and clean to attract tenants, they don't spend a lot of time or energy sealing up a house.
A few tubes of caulk to seal up small cracks and some stick-on weather stripping for windows and doors will go a long way toward keeping the temperature more stable. Also there are foam gaskets you can put behind the wall plates of switches and sockets to keep drafts out.
Drapes open on cold days to get in the sun's heat. Closed on warm days to keep it out.
Showers are a huge point of waste. A few dollars/pounds will get you a shower valve you screw in-line with the shower head. You can then reduce the water flow when you're not actually needing it and then turn it up again to rinse off. Showers generally cost you 3x, incoming water, heating water, waste water charge.
If you have access to your water heater and the pipes coming from it, add insulation to them. A water heater wrap and some foam tube insulation will keep the water hotter for longer in the tank and the pipes to the shower.
If you have a smaller shower room, hang your wrinkled clothes in there, it will help remove wrinkles and prevent you turning on the iron (ha ha, I know).
Keep the fridge full. The more "stuff" in the fridge the more efficient it is. Air heats/cools quickly and escapes readily when the door is opened. Stuff in the fridge will help the temperature come back to cold quickly and reduce run-time. Also, keep the door closed as much as possible. Standing in front of the fridge with the door open searching for something to eat is a tremendous waste.
Line-dry your clothes indoors instead of machine drying. On a breezy summer day indoors with open windows the evaporation will cool the air; in the winter the humidity will help make the air feel warmer at lower temperatures.
When cooking, use lower gas settings on the cooker. High-heat spills a lot of heat past the pan in to the air. Medium-low heat will usually get the job done just as well with only a slight increase in pre-heat and cooking time.
Find, and keep clean the filer for the central heat if it's forced air.
Try to cook for the entire house at one time instead of each member cooking their own meals. Economies of scale and all; better to heat the kitchen up once for 20 minutes that 4-5 times 10 minutes each.
Low-cost 1/2 Styrofoam panels can easily be cut to fit in to windows to block out cold nights, or to fit around the outside of a particularly lame fridge.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
There's lots of good suggestions for other areas, so I'll add the odd one:
If you haven't already, learn to cook. It's possible eat better, healthier, and cheaper than most of the restaurants you're probably eating at, if you know where to shop and what to make. Be willing to buy in bulk (things often cost half as much). Make a lot of meals based around rice (rice is cheap).
Just consider this: where I'm at, I can eat filet mignon for the same price as a sandwich from Subway. Now just imagine if you start eating cheap food!
Also, track your expenses in this area. Only when you know what you're spending can you optimize effectively.
While you're at it, learn to bake. Cakes impress the girls.
My brother sold plasma in college. They discovered some strange antibody of some kind in his bloodstream that was desirable for some reason so they started paying him extra to come in... >)
Have fun,
Nathan 'Nato' Uno
http://web.unos.net/
This is the kind of thing that can test friendships.
Several of these have been mentioned before:
Controlling hot water use is often the hardest part.
Another downside: fluorescent bulbs contain mercury and should be disposed of as hazardous waste.
Here's what we did:
* Cancel movie rental subscription (Netflix)
* Get movies and some books from the library
* Cancel old unused website costing a monthly fee
* Scour credit card statements, found another forgotton hosting account, cancelled it
* Called auto insurance company and raised deductible for collision to $1000
* Bought a stovetop espresso maker so we don't need to buy good coffee by the cup now
* Continued living with our old outdated computer monitor
* No cable, no gaming accounts
* No alchohol, no drugs, no lottery tickets
* Pay things on time and avoid late fees
* Remember if taxes take 50%, you have to earn $2 for each $1 you spend.
* Stop buying stuff.
* Get cheaper broadband plan
* Cancel unused text messaging on wife's cell phone ($5/mo)
* Cancel unused roaming plan ($5/mo)
* Cancel unused Canada roaming addon ($3/mo)
* Cancel unused "nights start at 7PM" addon on cell plan ($5/mo)
* Ask nicely and get $10/mo unlimited cell data plan, including modem use (Sprint, Treo 650) instead of faster Cingular $40/mo+ plan
* Refrain from getting car. Get exercise instead.
Lots of little amounts, and some big ones. They add up.
This fatwallet thread "Living frugally without hardship" is a great start.
It is pretty long, but full of valuable information.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
1) disconnect gas and electric
2) cancel phone service and cable TV
3) sell furniture that is not bolted down
4) move into parents basement
5) set up computers at will, plug in extra space heaters/AC as needed, steal your Dad's beer
Plastic over the windows. You can buy the really good kind or just use big cheap sheets. Either way works. Check the windows first to see if they are double-pane, though.
Check around the edges of windows, especially in older buildings. Frequently, cracks will form around the edges where you can clearly feel cold leaking in. Get some silicone sealant from the local hardware, and close those holes.
Put cloth underneath and around any doors that have any space. Taking the doors off and stapling them is ideal, but in a pinch you can use glue or staple the strips to the front and back.
Compact Flourescent bulbs are a lot more energy efficient than regular ones, and last longer. And if you look around, there have been a few batches at dollar stores recently... can't beat more efficient, longer lasting, and cheaper.
Turn off your monitors when not in use. This will save as much as shutting off your computer, and is less of a pain in the arse.
Don't get a house phone. Get high speed 'net access, skype, and use cellphones. But keep the landlines away. While you're at it, halve your costs: go in for high-speed access with the people above or below you, and run your own cable. Just make a no-uploading rule or you'll find your pipe clogged in no time.
No cable: get utorrent and download shows.
Avoid even thinking about World of Warcraft.
Have a parking space you're not using? Sublet it.
No offence, but don't worry so much about the "legally" part. Everyone assumes you sublet despite what your lease says. Everyone assumes you will do things to change the apartment like paint it. People share network access all the time. It's just built in. If you screw things up, it gives them legal right to sue you, but otherwise it is just business as usual.
Don't buy any furnature. Wait until the students are moving out, if you can, to pick some up for free. Of course, you'll probably be moving out then too, so I guess that plan works best for the rest of us.
The ______ Agenda
Get a job.
Save on heat but it is good to stock cheap munchies like 99 cent pretzel bags and swill beer or you can lose it in becoming a bed and breakfast. Asking for tips for making breakfast works when people crash in your pad is standard fare in my household if we don't know you. Bring over a few six packs or some nice wine and you get a free continental.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Too many gause and you will break the meeter. So add wraps to your electromagnet untill it just stops the meeter.
Then hook the magnet up to a timer (so you will still use some electricity and so the meeter will be running when read).
Viola you've just cut your utility bills without any of that tiresome conservation etc.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Fluorescent bulbs, well...two words.
Changed every single one of them in August, cost about $50.
All electric, dryer, stove, hot water and six computers, heat is oil.
100 watt incandescent cost about $9 to run all month, 14 watt fluorescent
costs about a buck and throws similar (if slightly off-color) light.
Bill went from $325/mo to $160/mo (we leave a lot of lights on 24/7).
Best money I spent last year and haven't changed a bulb yet.
loyalty above all, save honor
D'oh. This sounds as funny as that "ultra stable C++" ask slashdot... ;)
;) ).
;) ).
;).
;).
Wouldn't that mean not needing that much heating? Will be just like those bunny rabbits providing heat (in more ways than one perhaps)?
If you really need your computers on all the time and want to cut on bills, each of you should get a tent and set it up in your rooms. In winter put the computer in the tent and run Folding@Home or something similar for heating, that way you can live reasonably comfortably in the tent, and leave the central heating off or on low (if that's possible - I'm sure you'd still need hot running water for showers
If you're in England and not somewhere like Scotland, the weather isn't what I'd call harsh - I used to study in Manchester, and it was ok (drizzly and/or overcast most days though, except for exam season
Seriously though, I think that while bills are important considerations, you need to get other things right first and then the bill issue becomes more manageable. You get the other stuff wrong, and you might end up with half the household leaving without notice.
Anyway some random thoughts:
Set your priorities and just cut down on your expenses- beer, tobacco, "new mobile phone that you really don't need" and you'd probably have quite a bit to live on.
I believe the meters are "self-read", so it might be a good idea to update the companies regularly, so that you don't end up with something really huge at an inconvenient point - not everyone in the household might be able to cope with paying that amount.
Assuming not everyone is competent at managing their money, you may also wish to have a pool of money which everyone pays a fixed sum into each month, and any amount leftover is refunded at end of the lease period. Better pick someone you can trust for that
The idea is to not end up short of some huge amount "by surprise", and then have to go look for money and possibly end up neglecting your studies etc.
Also, you may have to figure out whether things like certain meals/cooking are shared. "Eating out" in the UK isn't what I'd call cheap. But sharing say the evening meal and cooking AND the necessary grocery shopping would require a fair bit of compromises and cooperation. Might be rather difficult if you have a vegan and a "carnivore" in your household, or even a practising muslim/jew (halal/kosher food only).
While in Manchester, a bunch of us used to share one meal and groceries, but one of us opted out of it in the end. Can't remember why. Maybe it was our cooking (we took turns though)
Refrain from getting car. Get exercise instead.
So what do you do when an affordable apartment is 80 km away from employment? Or is this not the case in the UK?
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
100%. Really. Do tell.
If you MUST have 4 computers running - they will eat something like 500-800+ watts - so you need to use or get rid of that amount of energy. (note that CRTs use similar amounts - use LCDs!)
Most refrigerators use something less than 500-800 watts to cool their interiors - but many (most) use motors to compress coolant and dump the heat out to cooling coils on the back (heating the surrounding room). Why not instead use a 'fridge that uses an absorption cycle (like the ones you find in a camper that use either electricity or gas to provide heat but don't use a motor) and run it off the heat of the computers?
Note that you'll have to provide some dump for the heat - so you'll probably want to put the computers (and some part of the fridge) near an outside wall so you can dump heat outside (choose the side away from the sun) - use long monitor cables etc. to bring the video/keyboard/mouse connections to where you want them.
In Summer - open the windows near the computers to let the heat out
In Winter - put a fan there and blow the excess heat into the rest of the house.
Of course you might want to run some copper tubing from the water supply near these heat sources to pre-heat the water prior to running it into the normal water heater too. You can also plumb them into solar panels on the roof in Summer (and even in Winter in some areas) to preheat water. A little bit of electronics might be necessary to ensure you don't overheat the water - I've almost burned my hand off the panels I have on the roof for my pool :)
Lots of ways of (re)using the energy you take into the house before letting it out - and taking advantage of the energy that is freely available from the sun when it shines.
Been there, done that, paid for the T-shirt
and didn't get it
Drop a few bills on an LCD monitor. New LCD's draw far less power than CRT monitors. This is especially true if you're using an old 14" clunker that doesn't do any sort of real power saving. Combine this with a VGA switch (or a KVM switch) to cut down on what you'll need to have plugged in.
Find and eliminate "wall warts", those little black inverters / chargers that are constantly drawing anywhere from 4 to 15 watts. I'd suggest getting a cheap power strip (one that has a switch) and putting it on top of your desk, then taking plugging as many of the warts into that as possible. Phone charger, laptop brick, iPod Charger, PC speaker inverter, and anything you can plug in that has a remote control.
When you're not using those items, turn off the strip. You can cut out anywhere from 20 to 80 watts of useless power. Multiply that by the hours you save (because hey, your PC speakers need to be sucking power when you're fast asleep...) and you can make a decent dent in your bill. (it's also a bit healthier for battery charged items to not be sucking power all the time.)
Aside from that? Compact flourescent bulbs help, and not being a dumbass helps more. Don't heat anything with electricity if you can avoid it, don't leave lights on all the time, enable powersave features on the PC's when you can.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
'nuff said.
Turn off the computers. If it's the porn you want, go buy/borrow the adult magazines.
Blue-flame heaters. Live in a home older than 30-40 yrs? You probably have enough air exchange to use a blue flame heater, which is 100% efficient. Screw the old furnace or even the new 93% unit, blue flame is 100% efficient and uses no electricity! We got one after a week-long ice storm and discovered it lowered our total natural gas bill by 40%.
Ventless heaters, while efficient, also cause moisture problems. Moisture problems cause mold and destruction. Mold causes health problems. If you're going to use them, be sure (1) heat the entire house, (2) maintain a constant temperature, and (3) it helps if the walls are insulated. Moisture from the heaters will condense on any cold surface.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Get a small refrigerator and shop for only one or two days worth of meals. A smaller fridge is going to save on your electrical bill.
Actually, the small "dorm" refrigerators are so horribly built that they use about as much electricity as a normal sized fridge. The thing that will make a difference, though, is having a new fridge versus an older one. Same goes for old A/C units, don't bother with those.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
This doesn't directly apply to the poster, but for home owners, look into geothermal heat pumps.
We don't always purchase items to pay for themselves. Using less energy to start with is just a good idea. Look at hybrid car drivers. We drive them not only for great gas mileage, but because it's the right thing to do - smaller environmental foot print, less pollution, etc.
:-(. The LCD only consumes 2 watts powered off, 4 on standby and 40-something while powered on.
However - on the kill-a-watt topic, I plugged my entire PC system (monitor, speakers, etc) into it, and realized that even idle, it's using 140-150 watts. While gaming, it jumps up over 200 watts. It's also consuming over 25 watts at idle
Even scarier was an old Dell Lattitude laptop I had plugged in but turned off - the power supply drew about 92 watts while plugged into the laptop - even when powered off. Considering I don't use that laptop much, I just unplugged it and put it back into it's case after giving it the tounge lashing of a lifetime.
Another startling observation, on my kids' computer running an older AMD Athlon TBird 1400 w/ Sk2 bus disconnect software (kinda like cpucool), the difference between idle bit on and off is 90 and 140 watts at idle. If you really must leave the PC on, make sure it's idle loop is as efficent as possible. That guy gets turned off when not in use though.
Yet another cost saver (depending on how you look at it) - eat out. Make the resaurant pay the energy bill of cooking and cleaning. By the time they've cooked and prep'd the meal, and considering the dirty dishes and cookware that doesn't need cleaning afterward (hot water and dishwasher electricity), you may just come out ahead, break even, or justify the difference toward sheer laziness. Granted, the health impact of eating out just may counter-act any savings.
$ man woman *
-bash:
Pay everything by direct debit from one (joint?) bank account that everyone pays a standard amount in to every month. Put someone you trust in charge of it all.
Use thick quilts/blankets and turn off the heat at night.
Draught excluders. Rugs (if you have hard floors). Close the curtains or get some if you dont have any and use blinds as well. Get a curtain for the front and back door.
Compacts have another advantage. They don't put out as much heat. That's a real advantage in enclosed fixtures.
It's rare, but you may be able to find a place that includs utilities, specifically electricity in the rental price. I lived in a small studio apartment for over three 1/2 years with all my utilities taken care of (power/water/gas/garbage. . .everything but phone/cable/internet), and not having to worry about power useage was great. You could keep things on all the time and never give it a second thought.
I even used electric space heaters in the winter (the only heat option the apartment had was a fireplace or leaving the gas oven on, which wasn't too safe).
Anyone who draws a lot of power as a matter of habit can benifit from a place like that. In the U.S., an apartment with 'free' utilities is a rarity, and I don't know how common they are in the UK, but it's worth checking out.
The Internet is generally stupid
Heh,
We farted about with a variable frequency AC supply to an electromagnet and actually managed to get the disc turning (slowly) backwards.
I think the Electric company just might have got suspicious about that though :-)
Turning down the thermostat, getting draft excluders (like the sausage type things) for doors and taking showers instead of baths, fitting energy saving bulbs and turning off appliances that aren't in use are simple, effective ways to save money. The shower will also save you time.
My household heating and cooking is something like £30/month for a decent size house. That's cooking, heating, lighting, the lot. How much would turning down the thermostat by a few degrees save me? Far less than what its worth me not having to wear a coat in the house.
Concentrate on other things in your spending. Cut out all sorts of rubbish that you don't need. Don't upgrade your computer that does what you need. Learn how to cook with cheaper cuts of meat (casseroles with them can be very tasty - they just take longer). Cook a decent casserole for everyone. Avoid the high end supermarkets. Try supermarket own brands of products which are mostly better. Shop around the offers - if chicken is on special, buy chicken and cook something using it. Consider online shopping for food - you may pay a delivery charge, but you'll be less tempted to pick up things you don't really need.
Most importantly, brew your own beer. It costs around 10p a pint and can even taste nice if you get a good recipe. Checkout a brewing shop for what you'll need to get to start yourself off.
-- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
Recently I have begun to invest heavily into the use of power saving sytems. I have recently replaced all of my older generation computers with Turion based PCs and new laptops. Using LCD screens. in total I am now saving some serious money off my electricity bill. Minimising your use of gas heating will result in big savings. There have been reports on Television in the UK stating that by cutting the temperature by a few degrees in your house can save well over a £100 for an average family home. Its all the small things that add up to big savings in the long run though.
1. Compact flourescents. Been mentioned all over here, but can't be stressed enough. Modern bulbs work on standard sockets, produce a fairly decent color of light, and no flicker. Also, most large stores carry "value packs," which run $2 US or less (imagine prices can't be that much different there). I know where I live the local utility will rebate you for a certain number of these as well. I saw about 75kWh reduction in my bill over the course of a month by replacing every light I could with these. Note: you generally only want to replace lights that you run for at least an hour at a time with these. These will pay for themselves in six months or less.
2. Programmable thermostats. Run $35 US or less here. Again, many utilities will rebate you, but YMMV. This is also the kind of improvement that landlords generally won't complain about, and it will more than likely pay for itself over a winter.
3. Shorten your showers.
Finally, about those computers. I do not know why you need four running 24/7, but you should reconsider this. Assuming they are desktops, you are drawing a LOT of power this way. I would recommend if you are using any of them for general uploading/downloading of "stuff" you should consider picking up a laptop with a broken screen and run it either headless or through a KVM switch. Attach a large hard drive, your printer, etc. and network it. Then keep all the other computers on standby (or hibernate...I'm assuming you want them to come on as fast as possible, though). The power you save over a year will probably pay for the laptop, hard drive, and any networking accessories you end up needing to buy. Look around, and you can probably find a laptop with more than enough power for fileserving, print serving, and P2P for dirt cheap...and it will draw a fraction of what even one of those desktops draws.
Also, check with local green grocers, butchers, fishmongers, etc. rather than super markets. You may be pleasantly surprised by how cheap they are, how much better quality the food is, how much they'll help you (boning, skinning, etc.), if you're lucky they'll weigh after removing fat, plus you'll get as much meat as you want, rather than having to by ill fitting multipacks that don't divide down properly.
I Was in exactly this situation last year. from my experiences (UK specific some of them) here's what I recommend
Get yourself some decent clothing. I already own a lot of this, I don't mean expensive designer shit, I mean comfortable warm stuff. Wear more than one jumper during the winter.
Turn your computer OFF. Seriously, this will save you shit loads. I used to run mine all day (not during the night - I can't sleep with it on in my room), and it cost me loads over the summer. I realised I wasn't really using it, so now it only comes on when I get back from uni in the afternoon. If you can't cope without a computer running - cut it down to just 1.
Buy energy saving bulbs - they're subsidised in the UK at the moment (as I mentioned in another post - http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/) I got some for about £1 a shot. Which if you're using 100W bulbs in your rooms, will be saved in no time.
Keep the curtains closed when you're not in the house, and turn your bedroom radiators off (I don't actually do this, if you're in a old house, you may find that it takes a long time for the room to heat up each time, so it's worth keeping it relatively warm.
Get a job - seriously, it will make life so much easier.
Turn off (completely off) the heating in your kitchen. You will produce enough heat when cooking that you will only notice for the first 5 mins in the room.
Set the heating to only come on at about 5/6 or roughly about half an hour after it get's dark and turn off around 10pm.
Consider staying in the same house for more than one year. If you do this, then the landlord might even let you have a slightly discounted rate, and will be less concerned if you do a bit of damage to the house (however, avoid this, landlords can be really arsey about it) It also means you don't have to move out.
You don't need a car
Shower every other day - I live with some people who shower twice every day - personally I can't understand it - you don't get dirty that quickly, and it's a real waste.
Don't worry too much about saving energy really stingely (unless you're really broke) or cutting corners everywhere you can - think about how much difference it will actually make to your bills.
.sigs are for losers
Yeah, because that works so well on the modern LCD meters commonly fitted to student housing in the UK...
I've seen several good suggestions in the comments, but many of the commentors do not seem to be taking note of the situation, or are not familiar with the state of most houses rented to students in the UK (e.g. A/C doesnt exist).
Two principles (1) get rid of the things you don't need (2) reduce the things you need/have no choice about.
I'll mention energy-saving devices at the end.
Things you don't need
- any form of internet access, whether dialup, dsl or cable - if you're still a student, use the university-provided facilities. Annoying, but cheap.
- and form of subscription tv, cable, sky, etc. Stick to the terestrial channels.
- you probably don't need a landline phone if *everyone* in the house has a mobile.
Things you can reduce
Heating
- turn the thermostat down to 17C and wear extra clothes. Multiple thin layers are better than fewer thick layers - e.g. tshirt+thin sweater+baggy sweater.
- make sure every window has curtains. Hang a blanket if they don't. Contrary to what someone else suggested, opening curtains in winter to let the sun in will NOT warm the average UK house unless the window is double-glazed and catches direct sunlight (south-east or south-facing) for several hours. And you still need to close the curtains once the sun moves past. In general keeping the curtains closed will keep more heat in than you gain through sunlight. Exactly when to open the curtains during the day (to save on lighting costs) is a judgement call.
- turn off the hall radiator and keep room doors closed. You don't live in the hall. Heat the rooms you use and keep the heat in.
- wear pajamas in bed (!) fleecy ones if necessary.
Cooking
- avoid the oven, whether gas or electric.
- put lids on pans when you cook and turn the heat down once they are at the boil. Even for rice and pasta. Incidentally heating water is energy-expensive, but generally the kettle is more efficient than saucepans, and a gas boiler is more efficient than the kettle. Use hot water from the tap, boil in the kettle, pour into saucepans at the moment you need to use it.
- if you're house-sharing, share meals too. Separate meals waste fuel.
Washing/Cleaning
- dont use a tumble drier if you can reasonably avoid it. Use a clothes line, get a free-standing airer and/or drying racks for radiators.
Lighting
- turns lights OFF! (turn anything off when not used. And that's OFF, not standby).
Energy saving devices.
Generally, on a limited budget (student), there are few energy saving (E-S) devices worth buying because they're initially expensive and they wont have paid for themselves until long after you're a student. E-S light bulbs take around 5 years. On the other hand if you take the long view, they're only expensive compared to plain bulbs (£5 or less) and you can take them with you after.
How about power factor correction. It can help but not much.
I went into private housing with much the same impressions that you did with 6 other people I knew well. Unfortunately, they have no common sense or inkling to save power, and I argued with them for the first 3 months over the fact that they wanted to run the heating at full power 24 hours a day, and left lights (200W) and portable electric heaters running in their rooms.
The bill was massive, but because their parents paid their share, they didn't care. So now the central heating (a 35kW gas combi boiler) runs 24 hours a day continuously at maximum power... while I'm sitting here with the radiator turned off and the window open! AND THEY STILL THINK IT'S COLD! Apparently, for them 23 degrees is "room temperature".
PocketGamer.org - For the gamer on the go!
Lots of good suggestions so far, but one that seems to have been missed is using VOIP. I got all my friends onto Skype (they run different OSs) and everyones mobile phone bills have dropped significantly. ~70% of the time you phone someone they are at home anyway.
I'm in the same situation except I'm living alone. I'm an ok chef and I've been doing to usual stuff such as buying own brand products, less crap (chocolates, biscuits etc). Any suggestions for food recipies for a single person? Most recipies are for multiple people and don't scale down well.
A lot of these posts suggest no cars... It's pretty hard to get around just with a bike(bicycle). One option you could consider is a motorbike/scooter/minibike. Try sticking to bicycles when you can (with petrol at these prices) - you can make up the difference by offering to take people places, buy groceries, pick stuff up etc. They are also fairly easy to park (you could get away with discretely chaining them to a post). You can get a reasonable(ish) motorbike for well under $1000AUD (about 430).
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
Cost of a 60-watt incandescent (1000 hour lifespan): 60 cents.
Power used over 1000 hours: 60 kWh.
Cost of power over 1000 hours: $4.80
Total cost for 1000 hours: $5.40
Cost of 17-watt CF (60-watt equivalent, in 6-pack from Home Depot): $1.75, with tax.
Fraction of lifespan used in 1000 hours: 10%
Total cost of CF for 1000 hours: 17.5 cents
Power used over 1000 hours: 17 kWh
Cost of power over 1000 hours: $1.52
Total outlay for first 1000 hours: $3.27
Value of remaining bulb lifespan: $1.57
Total cost for 1000 hours: $1.70
Appraisal of you: you're much more dogmatic than geekishly analytical. Turn in your geek badge to security on the way out of Slashdot.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
Get yourself a plug-in power meter, Maplin have them (http://www.maplin.co.uk/ product id is L61AQ.
And these people have LED bulbs: http://www.yourwelcome.co.uk/lightbulbs.html
There are a lot of folk on here who don't know a thing about the UK or what a typical student rented house would be like. Advice about A/C is irrelavent.
Anyway. Assuming no structural changes allowed (so you can't touch wall cavities etc) and assuming you don't have UPVC double glazing etc.
1. Draught insulation on all doors and windows. Find every draught and stop it. You can get thses strips in Homebase, Do It All etc. They come in different thicknesses so choose wisely. Be prepared to get dirty cleaning all the spaces in the joints where the spiders live otherwise the strips won't stick.
2. When it's cold, wear more clothes and only heat the rooms you use and keep the doors shut so you don't heat the rooms you're not using.
3. If you want to heat a room quickly (say you're the first one back after being at lectures all day) get a small desk fan and set it blowing across the radiator in the living room. It will cirulate the warm air surprisingly quickly.
4. Cook and eat meals together as a group. This is cheaper, you'll eat better and it's relaxing to have everyone sit down together after they have all been out (hopefully) studying all day . Do the obvious like learn how to skin and quarter a fresh chicken rather than buy expensive chicken pieces (hint: kitchen scissors). You don't need to be a great cook, learn to do one simple meal such as a Chilli Con Carne, expand your repotoir later. We had a complicated looking list (it would be a spreadsheet today) of money spent by each person either for the group or for other individuals so we could work out who owed each other what at the end of the term. It saved any arguments and meant the whole 'cooking for the group' thing did work.
5. Much has been said about computers already. If you can get to a power socket in the library, consider working there. This would obviously require a laptop but you keep warm, have free electricity and hopefully *don't* have a distracting net connection.
6. If you have big windows, consider that platic double glazing stuff you can get. For what ammounts to some double sided tape and a sheet of clear plastic stuck over the window, then shrunk tight with a hair dryer you do get pretty good insulation.
One more thing. University is getting stupidly expensive now in the UK, you are going to get into a lot of debt anyway. But you are not there to get a degree as cheaply as possible. You are there to enjoy yourself, to learn about life and yes; to get a degree. So have some fun along the way and don't sit freezing in a room when being warm isn't going to make much difference to the £20k debt you might well be facing at the end. Which is why I don't suggest not drinking beer. You'll be spending more on beer than on food and possibly utility bills as well.
Try Vonage if it's available to you. My local telco, Bellsouth charges around $75/month for a landline with equivalent features. Since I already pay for broadband, the Vonage is only $27/month. I cancelled my digital cable TV/DVR and HD, because I never have time to watch TV. I also cancelled my two cell phones.
Get out of debt. If you have a credit card balance, you're a slave to the credit card companies. Otherwise you'll be using special kung-fu light bulbs to save 50p a month, then pay 100 pounds to the corporate loan sharks. Talk about penny wise and pound foolish.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
Back when I was in college (and quickly freezing to death in a rattrap trailer) a friend told me about a trick they used to use in the hills of Arkansas: hang blankets on the walls over unwanted windows and seldom used doors. They blocked drafts and acted as drapes. I used old quilts hung from drape poles for that antique look. It was quite nice, and made decorating easy. Just be aware that if anyone in the house smokes, you'll have to launder them to get the smell out.
Quilts (insulation blankets) over the refigerator and water heater help improve their efficiency also!
When you want something built, come see me. If you want correct grammar and spelling, get a F*ing liberal arts student.
- Low energy lightbulbs are great for saving money - Tesco's, Morrison's, B&Q all have them cheap
- If you are not using it, switch it off at the mains, don't leave it on standby
- If your kitchen is big enough, it's often a better social space than any living room, plus the gas cooker will heat the room when you're cooking
- Grub on a Grant, More Grub on a Student or similar publications are great if you want to learn to cook frugally
- Know when your local supermarket starts to reduce end of life items - this can be a good way of making a cheap diet more interesting
- Iceland, FarmFoods, etc. are great for buying frozen food in bulk
- Slow cookers are a great energy and time saver when it comes to cooking
- Cooking by gas is often a lot cheaper than using the microwave
- Keep the heating on low (but don't let the pipes freeze!) and pile on the clothes as well
- Thick curtains can really help to make a room keep the heat in - if you don't have any in the house, check out your local charity shop or scrounge from your parents. (They can also be quite effectived tacked behind drafty doors)
- Find out what shops will give you discount with your NUS card. A student rail card is also very useful
Hope these are of some use, and remember rice and pasta are your friends
Get rid of incandescents! They generate waste heat like hell and are expensive to run. Go flourescent as much as you can. We switched out our outdoor lights too (including former mercury bulb yard lights) with this and have seen a noticable drop in electric rates.
Mercury vapor and (high-pressure sodium and metal halide lights, too) are more efficient than flourescent! The only reason they're not used for indoor residential lighting is because the spectrum is nowhere near that of sunlight. Flourescent lighting is the most efficient type of lighting that also produces a reasonable spectrum. But for sheer photons-per-watt efficiency, HPS, MH and mercury vapor all beat flourescent.
Install florescent bulbs especially in hall lights and less used lamps, place insulating foamboard in unused or less used windows in the winter if it gets cold there (most of the time it is dark when you are home so there is not much to see out the window anyway. Turn down your thermostat in the winter and up in the summer (use wind rather than AC to cool your apartment) if you get hot take a quick tepid shower. Depending on your heater type your PCs are as efficent as baseboard heat. Those are the easy ones.
If you play to stay in the unit for a few years, see if the landlord will split (perhaps not 50:50) the cost of buying efficient appliances rather than the cheaper ones that landlords usually purchase.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
Even the 'smaller' full sized fridges (intended for smaller apartments and the like), tend to have a lower overall efficiency than a full sized fridge.
... a half full freezer might last for only 1/2 of that.).
... if you don't have a high enough usage rate, you can lose any savings in spoilage)
A better trick to keeping a fridge's efficiency up is to keep it full -- if you have a mostly empty fridge, you'll be exchanging all of the cold air for warm every time you open it. Fill up the fridge (and freezer) with jugs of water (leave air space for those going into the freezer), and you can not only save power in the long run, but you're also better protected from spoilage if the power goes out. (a full freezer is generally good for 48hrs
Oh -- and the person who suggested buying in bulk -- yes, it can help, but only if you actually use it all up in time. (keep and eye on things
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Curtains on a tension rod. They cause no damage, you can remove them when (if) it gets warm out. Close the curtains at sunset. Open them at sunrise. If you're in a cold climate, go for heavier fabric. Warmer climates should use lighter fabric. Watch your heating bills drop in the winter. If you really need to save more, don't go in for the fancy shmancy curtains. Buy some discount fabric and make a quick stitch.
Bake your own whole wheat bread. Buy brown rice in bulk. Buy beans in bulk.
Buy cheap produce.
Wear a sweater in the winter. Keep the shades down in the summer. Ride a bike.
Turn the damn computers off (should be easy to program that, eh?). Drink cheap
beer. Don't eat out.
Here in Virginia, people can get food stamps to live on about $2.50 a day,
which sounds awful (and is, if the only food you know is potato chips).
It can be a little harsh in the winter when fruits and vegetables are
expensive (since they come from South Africa or someplace exotically distant
for a fruit). But as for staples, a little math shows that homemade bread
can be had for 2000 Calories/Dollar. Beans around 1500 Calories/Dollar.
Rice, 2500 Caloreis/Dollar. Etc. For a normal person on 2000-2500 Calorie
per day diet, that leaves $1.50 a day for fruit and vegetables.
Diogenese the cynic once said, "If you lived on cabbage, you would not
have to flatter the rich."
The next best part about this is that in the US you can cover 3 windows for $6 USD. You make that back easily in the first WEEK.
In theory that's a good idea, but in practice it's getting harder to find such an area. If you live in or near a city odds are that you will be required to hook up to the municipal water supply.
Because of that many businesses have been quite cavalier about ground water contaminiation and even 'deep' well injection. Decades of this abuse have allowed contaminants, including many unhealthy ones, to percolate through the groundwater and reach residential areas.
Other than that, it's a good idea if the water from the well is clean and likely to stay potable for a decade or more. It's almost a necessity if you are to have a garden. Rain barrels will be an asset if you have a garden.
If you don't have a garden you can still grow a lot on a balcony with good sun. There are all kinds of trick to getting lettuce, tomatos, strawberries, even potatos to grow in very little space.
Once my wife and I had kids, we rediscovered the utility of the public library - plenty of books and DVD's that are already paid for through taxes (excepting late fees, of course). I can't remember the last time we rented a DVD, but now we take the kids to the library almost weekly and constantly have new books or DVD's for ourselves as well.
I'd add another item: eliminate (or reduce to Sunday's only) the newspaper subscription. At least on Sunday's there are usually coupons that can make the paper pay for itself.
And when it comes to gaming accounts, there are free options out there - for example, with online poker, many sites have freerolls which, if you can cash in, can get you started with a modest bankroll. I did that at Hollywood Poker, and ended up cashing out $600 between December and January. Now I'm down to zero again, so it's back to the freerolls....
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Wrong.
.16kWh per day or about 60kWh/year. A kWh costs me about 8 cents, so I would save less than $5/year. So after 80 years, I would have recouped the cost of the new monitor. Yay?
I use my 19 inch CRT about 2 hours a day on average. The monitor uses about 100W. A 19 inch LCD monitor would use perhaps 20W and cost me $400. This saves me 80W*2h =
Or let's assume you use your monitor 12 hours a day and LCDs use no electricity at all. Now you save $35/year. Now the pay back time is only 10 years. Less than the lifetime of most monitors, but perhaps almost kinda worth it.
In summary: No, you will not save money by getting an LCD to replace your CRT, unless electricity is much much more expensive for you than it is for me.
(Of course, if you were going to get a new monitor anyway, you will save money on electricity if you get an LCD. But that's different.)
Buy a programable thermostat. You could then let it lower the temp a few degrees when you are normally away and at night.
No matter where you go, there you are.
It all depends on the house in question, and the relative cost of gas to electricity. Here in Canada, and the US I assume, gas heat was cheaper than electric for many years, but recent rises in gas prices have made this less clear today.
I lived in a house in Ireland for some time. It was built in the 1970s, and was astonishingly inefficient. I remember watching the TV one night and suddenly realizing why the house was so cold -- the drapes in the living room were blowing around, I had left a window open. Actually, the window was closed, the wind was blowing right throught the gaps around it. The whole house was like this, so if the one you end up in is similar, here's some thing:
1) there's a film you can buy that heat-shrinks to form an almost perfectly transparent barrier over your windows. You put it up in late fall and tear it down in the spring. It takes 5 to 10 minutes per window to install. The effect, if you have windows like mine, is astonishing.
2) get a timed thermostat. Set it to lower the temperature at night and during the day when no-one is home. That's 10-15% if you lower it enough.
3) you can get foam gaskets that fit behind the electrical sockets, blocking airflow into the room. Yes, I know, it sounds like this can't possibly make a difference. Wait until you have a windy night then hold your hand over a socket on an outside wall some time.
4) this one is slightly harder: buy a caulking gun, practice up on some cardboard, and then caulk around every baseboard, door and every other crack you can find. I highly recommend using the transparent silicone that you can later peel off. It costs a little more, but it's easy to fix if you blow it during application, and you can get rid of it if anyone complains. Caulking is messy when you first try it, but easy once you get the hang of it.
You can buy proper hot water cylinder 'wraps' that act like a blanket and prevent heat lose, but they are quite expensive. Instead, go to your local op-shop and buy some cheap blankets or towels. Get some duct tape and go to it. You would be amazed the difference it makes.
I'm in the US so my experiences may not translate directly to your situation, but here goes:
Learn how to cook - preparing meals yourself is cheaper than eating out or buying pre-packaged convenience foods from the market. I can do a chicken dinner (roast chicken w/gravy, rice, salad and veg) for 4 for $10 or $2.50 per person (about 1.45 GBP). Learn how to make a few basics - roast chicken, marinara sauce, eggs, soup, etc. You don't need a lot of equipment and most parents would love to help you equip a basic kitchen setup.
Shop the sales and buy in bulk if you have the storage space (if you've got a house, you've got the storage space). Pasta is cheap, usually about $1 per pound here, but it also can be found on sale from time to time for 50-60% off. When that happens, buy 10 pounds. It's not going to go bad, and you will eventually eat it all. Get a warehouse club membership (or use someone else's) to buy basics like paper towels, toilet paper, meat.
Plan your meals and the use of leftovers. Roast two chickens on Friday night, eat one, and on Saturday make chicken salad or chicken soup with the other. If you're tired of chicken, put it in the freezer, thaw the marinara sauce and make spagetti.
Turn the computers off. I have a computer that's on most of the day, but when I started making sure it was turned off at bedtime I noticed the difference on my electric bill immediately. I have a tiny Linksys NSLU2 file server that's on all the time, but it only draws 5 watts or so, and it's suitable for my 3 computer home network.
Use compact flourescents. My kitchen lights are on most of the day, as is the floor lamp in the living room. Before I swapped out the bulbs, I figured I was drawing over 600 watts per hour. Now that the flourescents are in, I'm drawing 150 watts per hour. Between making sure the computer was powered off at night, using the compact flourescents, and just trying to make sure lights are off if no one is in the room, my electric usage has dropped by 20% per month (which is good because rates went up significantly recently).
By shopping sales and bulk buying, doing some basic meal planning and cutting down on waste, I cut my grocery bill by 30% (I tracked it for a few months). And we are pretty much eating exactly the same stuff as before - we're just being smarter about when we buy and how we use it.
DD
"Can I finish? Can I finish?
Most modern water heaters are well-insulated by construction, and do not need the insulation wrap. The best way to determine if you need the wrap is to put your hand on the side of the water heater. If it feels warm, then the heater is not well insulated. Use the wrap; or better yet, replace it with a modern one, which will probably work better and be better insulated.
In my second year off-campus, I shared an apartment with two others, and we split the electric bill evenly. December came and was uncommonly cold. The electric bill was a budget-buster -- more than the first 4 months combined! So we turned the heat off to save money.
January was colder. We had ice forming on the inside of the windows. As the end of the month approached, I went out and read the meter, so I could get an idea of how much money we were going to have to cough up when the next bill came. You can imagine my surprise and irritation when I discovered that the meter hadn't yet caught up to the previous month's final reading.
I think we finally caught up with the December reading in early March, and I learned to always check the meter if a bill seems out of sorts.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
Even when you can't make physical changes to the house (if you're renting, no ripping up walls to add insulation), there are a number of ways you can insulate better. Home Depot (or your country's equivalent) sells plastic sheeting that you can put over windows, which eliminates drafts and adds a lot to the insulation of the windows, which are often the worst offender for heat leakage.
Moving bookshelves to outside walls can help as well; you might be surprised at the insulation factor of six inches of paper.
Checking outside doors for drafts and eliminating them helps too.
Find yourself a quite cafe or pub, preferably with wireless hotspot (some of them may be quieter than a house full of students), and plug your laptop. You spend some money on a drink or coffee (I guess you would anyway), but save energy on your hungry computer :).
Silly British and their infrastructure-investing public utilities. Enlightened private firms realize that spending money on more efficient and tamper-proof monitoring of existing customers hurts the quarterly profit-line.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Anyway, if the intent is to cut running expenses to the bone, then a surplus PV panel, a car battery, a protoboard, and some raw LEDs from Jameco would mean not paying *anything* for light.
A lot of those smaller type refridgerators are pigs when it comes to electricity. Throw down the cash and buy an efficient modern refridgerator and KEEP IT FULL. Keep it full either with food stuffs, or keep your plastic gallon milk jugs and fill them with water. (Or in a pinch ziplock bags filled with water.) The more full the fridge (the freezer especially) the more the stuff inside keeps everything cold. Less work for the fridge itself. If you need extra freezer space, get a floor model that opens from the top. Cold air stays at the bottom. The refridgerator is probably one of the worst offenders in your home. Major savings can be had when you use it smartly. (Ohh and NEVER stand in front of it and keep it open for too long. Major waste)
Anything plugged into an electrical outlet will pull a small amount of electricity for its "standby" mode. This may not seem like much, but consider that's ~300 hours per month, and it's probably a lot of devices. Anything with a transformer on it probably heats up, too, which likely doesn't help you.
Best advice? Read Alan Zelicoff's book "Saving Energy Without Derision" (look further down in this page ). It's about simple ways to save energy, before going to extremes like installing a $20,000 solar installation. You can purchase it for $10 (US) or you might find a PDF of it somewhere out there. It's got loads of advice about watching your usage and carefully managing it.
The other thing you can do is check the wall switches and outlets. If you feel a draft a spray can of electrical outlet safe foam will go a long way toward sealing the draft. But you're not done yet, put caps on any outlet that isn't in use, all those slots in the house can equal a quater inch or one half centimeter open window.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Those meters may still be using a mechanical device to measure the power. The magnets might still work. If they ever did. I would think that gumming up the main rotor would be a better option. Blow in some cornstarch and wait for a humid day. Meter still runs but slowly. That's just a theory though. I haven't tried it.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
In other words, pool all the groceries regularly needed by the group into one big list, and carefully plan shopping trips.
Clip coupons and match them with specials at various stores. (note: I have no idea if there's such a thing as coupons in the UK)
Stick to the group-approved list, and don't stray from it.
Set a hard budget for the shopping trip, and drop unnecessary items that don't fit within the budget.
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
P2P - (Ok, 2 letters and a number...)
File sharing is probably the biggest reason why people leave their PCs on 24/7 these days. Of course you can cut electricity costs if you use a low end PC with no monitor for BitTorrent, Emule, etc.
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
If you try to dim a compact fluorescent bulb, it'll go off and never come back on again and you'll lose any potential savings from the electricity. Don't even think about trying it!
While you are paying for the electricity delivered to the inside of your apartment, hopefully for you there are outlets in the common areas (hallways, outside patio, etc) that the landlord provides! So go get a space heater and an extension cord. Or anything and an extension cord. Plug it into the hallway outlet, and your landlord is heating your apartment. I knew guys that did this their last year in school here in the US and they got away with it.
Laptops rock, but be aware of your posture... laptops reinforce poor posture that can lead to carpal tunnel & back problems.
I've gone through back surgery, its expensive, painful and not something that you want to go through to save $4 on your power bill.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Your hardware store sells kits that let you put a layer of clear plastic over your windows. Very helpful for the coldest winter months.
All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
Ahem. Engineer here. (it's fun to be pompous!)
Resistive electric heat is, as you say, pretty much interchangeable with heat produced by anything else running on electricity in your house-- as long as you're in the season where you heat the house.
An electric heat pump, however, can move 3 or 4 watts of heat into the house for each watt of energy consumed. Much more efficient than incandescent lights or your PC for warming up the house.
That's just a nitpick, though, and he probably meant resistive heating. The real clincher, as you point out, is that it only works this way when you're having to heat your house. You might as well reduce the amount of waste heat you produce anyway, since you're going to have to deal with it in the summer if you're trying to save energy. On the other hand, making 200W worth of heat by doing useful computations during the winter is a better use of the power than warming up the element in your resistive heater.
>The only reason most LEDs use so little power is that they emit so little light.
9 ,294,p2.htmlc y-led-lights-to.html
Your facts are WAYY wrong. If you want to refute something, at least do a lazy Google search and you could have saved yourself a bad post.
1) LEDs approach 100% efficiency.
2) Florescent lights are about 50% efficient (and varies.. compact Edison style bulbs are less efficient... LED doesn't care about the form factor)
3) Incandescent lights (including halogen) are about 5-10% efficient. That is NOT a typo they are 90% heat waste.
Not sure where the heck you live, but in most US cities they have begin using TWENTY WATT LED lights to replace TWO HUNDRED WATT traffic bulbs. The LED lamp uses 90% less power but has 100% the same brightness.
The LED bulbs longer and does not burn out all at once -- lowers the accident rate and requires less maintenance.
cite:
MIT Technology Review: http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/wtr_1317
http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2005/04/energy-efficien
etc.
> Not only that, but white LEDs cost so damned much that even if they were more efficient it would be a REALLY LONG TIME before you ever saw return on your investment.
I'll concede that point.
It also takes a REALLY LONG TIME to recover the investment in a hybrid.
It's gonna get cheaper now that China is in the manufacturing game. Their government has "selfishly" decided they don't want to export their newfound wealth to Saudi Arabia they want to keep those energy costs at home (something a lot of Americans would shrug off unfortunately).
I'd expect something competitive with CF bulbs in 4 years tops.
>There's a reason you can't by LED lightbulbs for your home lamps.
Good thing I did not ask you before I bought one. And yes, I only bought one they ARE expensive.. like $35 when I got one and down to like $25 now. The nice thing about it is there's no heat waste. When the cost goes down, I expect air conditioning to be cheaper since you're not fighting waste heat generation.
The early adopter applications will drive this down... think of all the bulbs running in car lights and RV's and motorcycles. LED replacements for those are just as bright and not much more. Bright LED brakelights are already standard on many commercial trucks.
Panic now, beat the rush!
As for traffic lights, those are a special case, not white, and must be heavy-duty. But, that's beside the point:
LED lights for sale today are still less efficient than the average compact fluorescent, and nowhere near as efficient as fluorescent tubes, but these guys claim to have made a breakthrough. Perhaps LEDs that replace fluorescents could come soon after all.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
8 litres of water ;-)
500 grams of sugar
500 grams of brown sugar
2 lemons
1 dl syrup
ginger (optional)
1/4th teaspoon of yeast
raisins
Boil the water, pour it over the other ingredients. Cool until temperate, stir the yeast in a little water and add it.
Leave for 24 hours, then pour it through a sieve and bottle it.
Add 1/2 to 1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1 raisin per bottle before corking them.
Store bottles for 1 week... Then have a party.
Mead generally gets to something like 20% alcohol, tastes good (might take a bottle or so before you get used to it)... And you drink it pretty much like beer...
Which is another advantage, as most of the party will pass out before getting to expensive stuff like going out
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
One thing that will save energy over time is the fluorescent light bulbs. You can get 60 watt types that only use 15 or so watts. Or if you need more light, you can get 100 watt light that only use 24 or so watts. This wont be major savings but they will be constant.
Of course, this is an option for the landlord, not the renter. So turn your thermostat down as far as you can stand, get an automatic set-back thermostat if you don't have one, and learn to love warm clothes and thick blankets.
No, I'm not from the UK, but I read an official website on this issue. For those of you that are wondering, I'm from the USA. First limit yourself to one TV if you can, this means on VCR DVR or anything else that has an antenna input. If you can, get a black and white TV as these are cheaper. You may also qualify for a university student discount for your license. DON'T skip the license as this could cost you 1,000 POUNDS for a fine. The TV license website is http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/index.jsp. I'm going off to a different type of college soon, I will spare you the details to keep this post on topic.
sudo mod me up
There's a common fallacy when it comes to saving energy: that shutting things off will reduce your home's total energy consumption.
This is only true when the outside ambient temperature is greater than the inside ambient temperature, and you are wish to maintain the inside temperature.
Let's consider the light bulb in the stairway that the kids left on. It's probably a 60 watt bulb, maybe there are two of them. So that's 120 watts, but to make the math easier let's assume it's 100 watts. We all agree that incandescent light bulbs are mighty inefficient, maybe 1% light and 99% heat. So really, only 1 watt of electricity is going to provide light, and the other 99% are wasted.
But wait! Those other 99 watts aren't wasted after all. They are providing heat to your home, meaning your furnace need provide 99 watts less power to maintain the temperature of your home. Because the light is on, the furnace runs less often. The fact that the light bulb is on has ZERO impact on the total energy consumption of the household during the heating season.
(As a side note, we are really getting 100 watts of heat out of the 100 watt light bulb, because that other 1 watt of visible light decays to infrared energy and therefore becomes heat.)
Now, it just may be that one watt of heat energy is a lot cheaper to buy in gas form than electric form. If that's the case, then by all means turn stuff off. You won't be saving energy, but you might be saving money. And if it's the summer season, turn stuff off so the house stays cooler and the AC doesn't have to work as hard.
TURNING STUFF OFF ONLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN THE SUMMER.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
Just as good as double-glazing. No-one wants to see your mess anyway, and you will only be up and about during the hours of darkness.
You can do far more good for the world (either for the environment or for human health and welfare) with the $3000 you blew on having a fancy badge for your goodness.
You just gave me mod points for still having 21" CRTs on all my PCs. Even at work, I found some 21" CRTs that had failed white (the Sony tube w/ the resistor that fails). A quick Google search found details on which resistor failed, and what to replace it with. I actually did the replacement while on the phone with a customer, helping them restore a very, very "down" system.
:)
Now it works great, takes up lots of room (less room for papers and crap), and I *know* I am more efficient than my counterparts that got stuck with ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H handed 19" LCDs. My 21" CRT will easily do 1600x1200 @100Hz, but the LCDs will only do 1280x1024 @72Hz.
I win.
Since you're in the UK, get some Eco-Balls. 1000 loads of wash for 35 GBP -- that would last me 10 or 20 years.
:-(
Sadly, I'm in the USA, and they don't ship overseas, so I still have to use old-fashioned soap.
I just thought of this. They should add artificial intelligent to water heater thermostats. It would require a clock, and probably have it adjust for daylight savings time, but have it learn what times of day the hot water is needed, and have it heat accordingly to be most efficient.
Also, if possible, use natural sunlight to heat the water heater as much as possible when possible because it's essentially free energy, if you know what I mean. This way it would cut down on electricity.
Find a better paying job that is closer to where you live.
As soon as you find a red apple that is green, or explain how what you ask is not a contradiction in practice.