Gas & Electricity

On the subject of women they are outrageous when it comes to "wasting" energy. My 19 year old daughter thinks it's OK to wash her work uniform, which is 3 shirts and a couple of pair of trousers, then put the heating on to dry them as I've took the plug off the tumble dryer. So I need to find a way of "child locking" the thermostat.

And my wife still thinks it's OK to leave the television on all day for the dog.

No matter how much I explain without trying to get mad, I just get a blank look.

They might realise next time they ask to go into town for a few drinks and something to eat and the answer is no!

What do you want her to do hang them outside? Tumble dryer better for the house than drying clothes on a rad and filling your house with moisture.
 
What do you want her to do hang them outside? Tumble dryer better for the house than drying clothes on a rad and filling your house with moisture.
It's funny isn't it.
My Mother had 4 sons and my Dad, she never had a tumble dryer or CH. No idea how the dried all that washing, especially in winter. If she was alive I would ask her.
 
It's funny isn't it.
My Mother had 4 sons and my Dad, she never had a tumble dryer or CH. No idea how the dried all that washing, especially in winter. If she was alive I would ask her.
They hung the washing on a line in the garden. Well, that's what my mother did, and she wasn't bothered if it rained as she said it made the clothes smell nice.

If it was winter and the temperature dropped, the clothes froze on the line. I remember that, but I have no recollection of clothes being dried inside because, like you, we had no central heating.

She told me she never used to go to school on Mondays when she was a child because it was washday, and she had to help her mother as it was a real chore that took all day.

As a kid in the 60's I recall being in the cellar at my grandparents home where the washing took place, and from memory there was a large tub with a gas ring underneath to boil the water, another large tub to rinse the clothes in, and a hand powered mangle to squeeze the water out. Packets of Robin starch were in abundance to stiffen up the collars of the shirts, and a clothes line was outside in the back garden.
 
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Is that for gas and electricity combined ?

Even if you had your heating on 24/7 ?

That's the impression that the "2500" cap has given lots of people. It's been communicated terribly. I fear the message that it's 'average' use will not have gotten through to some who will be cracking the heating up all winter.
 
Bollocking the wife for over filling a kettle is fucking ridiculous, as is using torches to light your rooms. Batteries must cost far more than a low value led bulb.
Buy a Breville one cup water heater. Takes less than 40 seconds to boil and only boils for one cup, the rest of the water in the heater is cold. I first bought one for my ageing mum a couple of years ago when she started struggling to hold a kettle when filling and pouring. It's so good i bought one myself and it's a lot more energy efficient than an average electric kettle. Available at 40 quid. A bargain i recommend buying.
 
I'm thinking if buying a 2000W ceramic heater off Amazon to heat the room I'm in and not the rest of the house.

Has anyone got one and are they worth buying? If so what make and price? Thanks.
I don't know about a ceramic heater, but we bought a 2KW oil-filled eco radiator last year and it's brilliant.

Has 3 heat settings and a thermostat so you can set it on a mid temperature and it will keep switching on and off to keep the temperature at a nice level.

By my calculations,that would cost about 70p to run per hour on full pelt, but you'd never need that as it's pretty hot in a medium-sized room after 10 or 15 mins. We also bought a 0.7KW version for my youngest daughter's bedroom and that's really good in a small room.

Still using the heating though - it's just that these are good ways to supplement the central heating without having to use it all the time.

(Note: oil-filled doesn't mean you have to fill it with oil - it's a closed system and is already in there - apologies if this is obvious but worth pointing out).
 
I don't know about a ceramic heater, but we bought a 2KW oil-filled eco radiator last year and it's brilliant.

Has 3 heat settings and a thermostat so you can set it on a mid temperature and it will keep switching on and off to keep the temperature at a nice level.

By my calculations,that would cost about 70p to run per hour on full pelt, but you'd never need that as it's pretty hot in a medium-sized room after 10 or 15 mins. We also bought a 0.7KW version for my youngest daughter's bedroom and that's really good in a small room.

Still using the heating though - it's just that these are good ways to supplement the central heating without having to use it all the time.

(Note: oil-filled doesn't mean you have to fill it with oil - it's a closed system and is already in there - apologies if this is obvious but worth pointing out).
I haven't considered an oil filled heater Rob but I'll have a look at some. Thanks.
 
Is that for gas and electricity combined ?

Even if you had your heating on 24/7 ?
This is the worrying thing there are people out there that think that, it basically means if you are an average user and whatever you you used last year is the same this year you shouldn’t be paying more than £2500 as the units are capped, if you go over your average usage then you pay more, it’s still double what we were paying last year. I’m not poor but even looking at my smart meter I get worried, I can only imagine what it would be like if theyd gone upto £6k a year! Half an hours heating would’ve been about £3!
 
It’s not bollocking it’s a fucking mindset, keep on wasting energy and you are literally burning money these days. If educating her in how to save energy and therefore money can only benefit in the long run, same as not running a tap when brushing your teeth when there’s no need.
We always ensured that the kettle only had enough water for our present needs long before the recent crap show. It's idiotic to do anything else and always has been.
 
They hung the washing on a line in the garden. Well, that's what my mother did, and she wasn't bothered if it rained as she said it made the clothes smell nice.

If it was winter and the temperature dropped, the clothes froze on the line. I remember that, but I have no recollection of clothes being dried inside because, like you, we had no central heating.

She told me she never used to go to school on Mondays when she was a child because it was washday, and she had to help her mother as it was a real chore that took all day.

As a kid in the 60's I recall being in the cellar at my grandparents home where the washing took place, and from memory there was a large tub with a gas ring underneath to boil the water, another large tub to rinse the clothes in, and a hand powered mangle to squeeze the water out. Packets of Robin starch were in abundance to stiffen up the collars of the shirts, and a clothes line was outside in the back garden.
We dry ours on maidens/airers inside without the heating on, if the sun is out it goes on the line. There's only 2 of us so the weekly wash fits on two of them, it takes about a day to dry and job done. Sometimes we just hang our washed clothes on coat hangars on the door frames and they're dry in a day. Bedding takes a bit longer but we wash a set to go into the airing cupboard as a spare and then put the spare one on so it isn't a problem.

I've heard of so many people who do small daily washes and then they just bung stuff in the tumble dryer, it's no wonder that their bills are so high. We're very careful and are down to 5-7 kWh daily usage on the electric, estimated annual usage is 2200 kWh just on the electric and we couldn't get that any lower really as we work from home.

The problem nowadays is people want convenience and then that becomes normalised hence why people have such high bills but some of it is due to choices. Small washes are stupid as is using a tumble dryer where it can be avoided, we've managed 3 years in this house without one so they can't be that important.
 

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