4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Guest]

This whole fuel poverty thing is getting me thinking, and trying to act in a more fuel frugal manner. And it's not just the money is it, there's the damage to the planet too.

 

I drive a 2 litre family car that gets less about 28mpg (it has a computer that calculates it!) AND costs over £70 to fill. So I've been driving a lot more steadily, using my cruise control more and on some trips I've even taken Mums smaller, more economical (and less comfortable!) car. I've been taking all the heavy stuff straight out of the boot too rather than driving it about for days. I am now getting 31mpg. I'm also determined I WILL NOT be trying the system to programme the heater to come on half hour before you use the car in the morning - it says you it will only operate if you have at least 1/4 of a tank of fuel!!!

 

My house is heated by an oil fired warm air system. Its a large 4 bedroomed house and in the evening I'm sitting in the lounge on my own. I've turned the thermostat right down so the heating doesn't come on and I'm using the fire (wood) when its really cold. If its a little nippy I'm going for fleecy dressing gown, satin (thick with a sort of cottony inner) jammies and fluffy bedsocks - if thats not enough I add a quilt! James is in bed so snug - Mum has a seperate heating system. Our other option (which I appreciate not many people have) is the hot tub - 1/2 hour in there, when its set at 38 degrees raises your body temperature sufficiently to keep you warm for the evening - allegedly it costs £5 a week to run.

 

The hot water is tied in with the heating - the boiler controls can't be set to operate independantly, hence the reason I have the thermostat turned down. I bath every morning so I have it heating the water for the 40 mins before my alarm goes off - in the evening I have it coming on for 20 mins to warm it up for any needs we have - that hour a day really seems to do the trick.

 

The electricity is my real bugbear. Mum has storage heaters so we are on a package where economy 7 is extra cheap but daytime rates are extortionate. NOTHING is on standby, ALL bulbs are energy savers and the washing and dishwasher are all programmed to happen on Econ 7 - but still our DD has just been increased from £150 to £205 A MONTH!!! I don't think they understand yet just how much our consumption goes down in the summer, when those storage heaters are turned off. They are turned right down now and being supplimented with Calor Gas heaters. If anyone has any ideas what else we can do with electricity saving I'd be grateful. I've been looking at Solar PV panels but its ever such a high initial outlay and a long time before they have saved you any money.

 

What ideas/tips etc does everyone else have? What do you all do to use less fuel?

[chocchick]

I have a 1L car that is about 50-60mpg (second hand Yaris) and costs around £38 to fill. I drive 26+ miles a day and fill up every 1-1.5 weeks.

[Guest]

Mums little car is very economical but we need a family car too - one of us has to drive it! I also buy a lot of secondhand furniture which won't fit in a small car - basically I've furnished most of my house from Ebay at a fraction of the price of buying new. We even talked about buying a van to use for "pick ups"

 

When I bought this car I looked at getting a diesel but I don't do enough miles for it to be a financial benefit. I also looked at the "flexifuel" option but the bioethanol is not actually available in Essex! TBH Ford only list about 20 place where you can get it. Given that I change my car every 2 years its perhaps something to think about on the next one.

[Charlottechicken]

I am borderline fuel poverty most of the time (get the violins out folks ). My DD has just gone up to £61 per month, so the heating is off for now until I can bear it no more (hopefully end of September ) Fortunately, my boiler will operate water heating separately to house heating

 

I am considering getting a couple of bags of solid fuel in now to supplement the heating in the winter. I have an open fire, not very sustainable, but it's the same stuff they burn to produce my electricity, just a more direct method of me getting the energy

 

I know I need a more efficient boiler as mine struggles to get the main living room above 17 degrees in the winter. I hope to have a nice Vaillant or Worcester one in my new, fully insulated and cavity walled, kitchen extension.

 

Anyone with a big car should be aware of the new road tax pricing coming in by 2010. A car with emissions over 226 CO2 g/km will pay over £400 for a years road tax I'm a bit miffed as the Rover is very noticibly more fuel efficient than the Metro was, but I will be paying £65 a year more tax on it Go figure.

[bronze]

Well

Erm we dont turn the heating on much cos we can't afford the oil so its extra jumpers and a fire for us in winter and the heating is only used for the very coldest weather and just getting used to the cold helps. I dont thik its been on since end of feb now.

I don't drive so I can't really help on that bit.

[bronze]

Oh and though we have some coal for our fire I tend to pick up firewood in the local woods with the kids and dh picks up bigger logs where he comes across them.

[Charlottechicken]

Oh and though we have some coal for our fire I tend to pick up firewood in the local woods

 

Wish I could burn wood A cleanburn woodburner is currently out of the question, unfortunately

[Guest]

Can you not burn wood in your fire? I've got a lot of wood for free/very little this year. Skips are rather good and decking burns very well (mind you it also makes a good chicken run structure!).

 

Oh and don't get me started on the car tax - mines not in the £400 bracket but it will rise by £50 next year. When we were looking at buying a van we were ASTONISHED to find they have cheaper tax!

[bronze]

Ours is an open fire

I would love a stove as I think it would be more efficient but thats just a (stove)pipe dream

[Guest]

ROFL your (stove) pipe dream!

 

I forgot to say - its a bit embarassing when my mate Gary pops in on his way home from work and I'm in my jammies and fleecy dressing gown at 6pm!!!

[Charlottechicken]

I can't burn wood as Birmingham is smokeless (since early 70's, except Cadburys ) , and speaking to a rep from one of the stove manufacturers at the building and renovating show, it may be a false economy to buy a woodburner which isn't cleanburn as we may all be smokeless in the future.

[Guest]

clean burn is the least of some worries. Our neighbors have a wind turbine and solar panels and oil heating. We always know when they have the heating on - there is a smell of oil! They had it on yesterday - when we sat in the hot tub to save putting ours on. (it came with the house).

 

When they have lit a fire it smells much nicer!

[Charlottechicken]

Pity they can't use old chip oil then

[Cinnamon]

My Hubby runs his diesel works van on veggie oil.

We bought & fitted a kit about 5 years ago, & it now just literally costs us the very occasional diesel fill up, plus oil which is way cheaper.

We have also just secured a massive tank of the stuff to be stored for us locally,so he can fill up when he wants.It wors out at another third less in cost,although the initial outlay is hig!

 

He used to collect used oil from the local chippys & chinese,then filter it for use,but the smell of cooking food when the van was running was awful

[Jules.]

I think I will be investing in extra jumpers this winter- my mum knits really well

Bron I love the photo of your little ones! Great truck too!

I was thinking about my carbon footprint last night after reading information from Tearfund in bed. I know it's not quite the same as fuel poverty, but there is a link between the two.

 

http://www.tearfund.org/Climatenew/My+Global+Impact/

 

Over time I have got lazy- using the car more, turning up the heating/putting it on for an hour because the house is chilly ( but leaving the windows open still)

This must change.

[Lesley]

We installed a cleanburn Woodburner in January. It wasn't possible to link it into the (bulk gas) boiler which provides the underfloor heating but it will heat half the house anyway, once it is going.

 

Carl needs his LR Defender for all the usual farm type jobs but it was new last year and had a carbon offset applied to it - I think trees are planted and also, money is put into eco projects......

 

My car is a Mini One D - the diesel option - which will do 60mpg and which we use for short journeys. We have no transport systems available so we have to have two vehicles....... which we hate but try to use carefully.

 

Changing all light bulbs to energy saver now that they are bringing out more versions for all the different light fittings.

 

.....and we're fortunate enough to have very few food miles for most of our food now, since we grow all our own.

[buffie]

We're going to install a clean burn wood burner later this year, what did you get Lesley? we've decided to get the house warmed up for winter instead of our usual week away in November.

 

We stopped going away /abroad when we had daisie and the chooks. We both enjoy the uk and with our wood burner we'll get hours of enjoyment

 

winter must be the dull morning sending me to thoughts of the end of the year

 

BBx

[Lesley]

We bought a Scan 55.

 

We needed something big to fill the monstrous double aspect fireplace which was built in the middle of our lounge ( not our choice!) - and were disappointed to find that although there are some lovely woodburners made by British manufacturers, there are no large ones yet

 

Ours is a Multifuel stove so will burn smokeless fuel as well if we wanted to - and without having to change the base of the firebed. Some fires require you to take a part out and change it for a different one, ours is just a lever.

 

Best way to find a fire which suits you is to see if there are any showrooms near to you so that you can have a demonstration. We were amazed at how quickly the new stoves light and heat the room. Do the research through the summer as as soon as the weather turns colder ( ) the orders flood in and installation diaries fill up. We couldn't have ours installed before Christmas for that reason..... and we started in October.

 

Scan is now part of the Jotul group - they provide lovely brochures but prefer to be paperless so don't provide a manual I have the attention span of a goldfish these days and asked for something in writing - we were provided with a photocopy of the instructions.

[Christian]

Cavity wall insulation does make a difference to heating bills too.

Most councils offer a discount. I think we paid £180ish for our 3 bed semi, (which is quite large)

 

We had it done 12 months ago and our fuel bill was less this year (apart from the 30p increase per litre in oil )

 

We have double glazed windows throughout, but the kitchen (stable) door and front door (wooden) are draughty. We are hoping to change them/fix them this year.

 

Love my open fire and have thought about changing it for a wood burner, but the natural flames/small is so nice, I'm loathed to do it (plus the cost)!

 

It cost us an extra £300 in oil for 1000 litres this year (have I mentioned that before)?? We have to do something as oil is just too expensive at the moment. I don't see the price coming down either.

[Tina C]

We have just had the results of a survey thingie back showing us where we can save energy (and money!)

 

Bear in mind that we live in a 50s house that needs everything doing.

 

Cavity wall insulation is top of the list and could save us £230 per year

 

As its subsidised at the moment (as Christian has said) its definitely going to happen ASAP - we were trying to save our dosh for a new boiler (second best saving at an estimated £170 per year) but a much smaller investment will save us more money.

 

I was surprised that double glazing will only save us £44 (although I suspect it could save us more as they won't have taken into account the size of our windows)

 

We are very very fortunate in that OH has a company car and I work at home and very rarely drive anywhere so the cost of fuel has not really affected us (other than choosing to camp for our holiday last week rather than go in my VW camper which we do have to put fuel in ourselves).

 

I was staggered when I saw the price of diesel/petrol (I don't normally notice ). Mind you, when I worked in oil trading it was panic stations if the price of oil hit $20 a barrel and now its something like $120 so its not surprising.

 

But its not just fuel is it - its all feeding through to the weekly shop. And its scary.

[Mel (& Paul)]

Jumpers and thick socks are def. the answer. We used to have to have our heating on first thing in the morning as Paul got up at 4.30 - and its really cold at that time.

But we now only have our heating on in the evening - probably for about an hour to take the chill off the house - with cavity wall insulation and double glazing the house then keeps warm until we go to bed (another good way to keep warm )

[BeckyBoo]

Re the car thing, I get really cross about this. We're broke, always are, but we are a family of 5 (I know, it was our choice) however, because of the fact that all three of ours require car seats we can't fit in a standard family car (you can't get three in a row in the back with seatbelts - doesn't work) SO we had to buy a bigger car. Then of course we have two children from the Cher"Ooops, word censored!"yl Childrens Lifeline for a month every year, so we need a car with 7 seats, never mind the rest of the year we might also have childrens friends, dog, tents etc etc. Because we're broke we had to buy an old (M reg) Toyota Previa which is, (by definitiion) never mind the fact that it's donkeys years old, fuel inefficient. Therefore every time I fill up with fuel (currently £75 a time) the government gets a SHED load of tax from me already. Now I'm going to be penalised for not being able to afford to buy a more fuel efficient car. How does that work? That's like when you're overdrawn and you've got no money and the bank charges you £30 to tell you you've got no cash.

I would LOVE to drive a hybrid car, or even a newer more efficient car, but I can't afford it as most of them cost as much as my house did 16 years ago.

 

The fire thing isn't appropriate in our house as we're in a 60s semi with GFCH, we need a new boiler so we HAVE NO HEATING anyway.

 

Mrs Bertie

[The Dogmother]

My Victorian house is still draughty despite being well insulated, but I haven't had the heating on for months now, I just light the stove instead (free wood and very little coal). I have all energy efficient light bulbs and nothing is left on standby. We don't have many electrical appliances, to no probelms with overuse there and I'm out at work all day so no extra useage there, in fact Eon reduced my monthly payments a few months ago.

 

I don't have cavity walls to insulate, the boiler is a combi model, so only come on to heat water as and when it is needed.

 

We just lag up with extra clothing to keep warm.

 

Research shows that PV solar panels aren't particularly economical, but if I could afford it, I'd get some water heating ones on the flat roof at the back.

[buffie]

You can do a lot can't you. We've saved water with the old flush on 3 for a wee Not with company but just us

 

It's worked, no standby and no heating at all now, I just put jumpers on as often feel cold Visit my mum and dad once a week, collect my veg box from them and go to Waitrose and walk daisie. One journey.

 

It's good to feel in control I think

 

BBx

Edited June 3, 2008 by Guest

[The Dogmother]

It's good to feel in control I think

 

BBx

 

I agree Buffie.

 

My Van does 35-40 mpg depending on the load and I hardly use it at all, so that's not a great expense either. We tend to walk if we can.