Selfsufficientish.com

No matter what the price (my bill is lower than yours, MMM, and that includes heating), I'd still like to reduce what I use. Thinking just of what I have to pay and whether I can afford it is a bit, well, ego-centric. (There I go, trying to save the world again! )

Millymollymandy wrote:

Highland Hopeful wrote:I'm the one who said it won't rise!

I suspect we could be in a speculation bubble with oil, the steep rise is too much in a short space of time to be explained by China or India. People are buying it as an investment, just as they were in the housing bubble that just burst.

And bubbles always burst!

hee hee I'm the one who said between 0 and 20%. Because good old EDF seems to be happy enough getting a load of money from its UK customers so it leaves us lot in France with nice low leccy bills.

Our leccy bill which includes hot water (2 tanks) is currently standing at €59 per month. So no I have no current plans to change to solar water heating.

You are the first person I've heard of that is happy with edf......lol.

........

Not good mate!

Have you thought about a hay box cooker?

Nev

Talking of petrol for cars etc I don't mind paying these prices IF I could see all the tax we pay going into finding and producing eco cars that we can all afford to buy...I think it's time to move on from fossil fuels dunno what would be the best to use but with all that tax money they surely can afford to get someone on the case to make something as good as your average car without the running costs and pollution..nothing is impossible!

Stonehead **
The irony is that by using less electricity in the first place, we're not in a position to cut much more without getting genuinely uncomfortable,*** thats the position we are in here.

The main gobblers of electric are water heating & if cooking on electric its an old inefficient stove.I have long thought geniunley tough times are ahead & have wanted to learn to face & deal with them with as much knowledge & sass as possible.
My dad spurs me on by reminding me when he was small,the Winters were FAR harsher than they are now & they had no CH,duvets,computers etc & they coped

We used 6 units of electric a day last week,thats 5 of us living here,hubbys out all day at work but the smalls & dad & I are here,we have no mains gas & dont use the oil f can help it(one tank of oil has lasted 10months so far & theres still a 1/4 left but i have to cook on electric,the shower is electric althought we all whizz thru it at a rate of speed I cold wash most thngs,the odd load gets a 30deg.

I find monitoring weekly usage really useful,some weeks are higher,some are lower,if the weathers fab & we are outside all day & cook out there then its even lower but if the weather is shocking & I have to use the tumble(this cottage is damp at the best of times & I cannot use my overhead airers that I had in the old place~the odd tumbled load is a glum thing but I dont wear a hair shirt over it)then we might rise to 9units ave a day) use the cooker more & it rises again.

Its interesting tho seeing how your usage pans out,I know folks that dont even know where their meter IS let alone check it weekly as I do

Electricity is about three times the price of the UK in Italy and that's proved to be quite an incentive to cut out it's usage.

We're on a 1.5 kw system and we've resisted the temptation of increasing the amount available on the basis that the more you have the more you use. While it occasionally trips when the washing machine is on, in the not too distant future we're fitting a gadget which will allow the washing machine to be filled with hot (40 degrees) water straight from the solar panel, or wood burner. We use a smaller panel to pump water from the solar panel and do most of our cooking over a wood fire or in the wood-fired oven.

CaundleMama wrote:Stonehead **
The irony is that by using less electricity in the first place, we're not in a position to cut much more without getting genuinely uncomfortable,*** thats the position we are in here.

The main gobblers of electric are water heating & if cooking on electric its an old inefficient stove.I have long thought geniunley tough times are ahead & have wanted to learn to face & deal with them with as much knowledge & sass as possible.
My dad spurs me on by reminding me when he was small,the Winters were FAR harsher than they are now & they had no CH,duvets,computers etc & they coped

We used 6 units of electric a day last week,thats 5 of us living here,hubbys out all day at work but the smalls & dad & I are here,we have no mains gas & dont use the oil f can help it(one tank of oil has lasted 10months so far & theres still a 1/4 left but i have to cook on electric,the shower is electric althought we all whizz thru it at a rate of speed I cold wash most thngs,the odd load gets a 30deg.

I find monitoring weekly usage really useful,some weeks are higher,some are lower,if the weathers fab & we are outside all day & cook out there then its even lower but if the weather is shocking & I have to use the tumble(this cottage is damp at the best of times & I cannot use my overhead airers that I had in the old place~the odd tumbled load is a glum thing but I dont wear a hair shirt over it)then we might rise to 9units ave a day) use the cooker more & it rises again.

Its interesting tho seeing how your usage pans out,I know folks that dont even know where their meter IS let alone check it weekly as I do

Being scared of what is happening has made me look at what i'm doing and it is working hence my involvment on this site I now know my fuel bill is nearly £1400 ayear for gas and leccy but I would find it absolutly abismal if I had to live like you CaundleMama. That's not meant to be derogative in any way but I had my fill of extra coats on the bed, 3 sharing a single bed ( top and tailed) outside toilets with newspaper squares ( 1984 in a town) and having to go to the public swimming baths to get our weekly wash on a sunday ready for school on the monday because the immersion heater had broke again and it was only a shilling, sorry 5 p for each of us kids. I'm typing this by the light of the monitor saving putting on the light but what is the future for those on a VERY fixed income of state benefits??

I will try the daily useage monitoring but at present we use about £3 a day gas and 2.80 a day leccy.....

** I would find it absolutly abismal if I had to live like you CaundleMama. That's not meant to be derogative in any way but I had my fill of extra coats on the bed, 3 sharing a single bed ( top and tailed) outside toilets with newspaper squares ( 1984 in a town) and having to go to the public swimming baths to get our weekly wash on a sunday ready for school on the monday because the immersion heater had broke again and it was only a shilling, sorry 5 p for each of us kids***

BigAl I assure you we live in a quite superb way!!what is sounding abysmal? we have a lovely if small cottage,the Clearview woodburner means in Winter we are in tee shirts & bare feet our house here is warmer than most people I know that run CH.

I have counted weekly units(much better to count actual units from your meter rather than cost because everyones on a different tarrif~your £2.80 a day might be using 3 very expenisve units a day or 10 very cheap ones if that makes sense?) for several years now. We keep ours low by sensible & creative cooking & quick showers & to be truthful I am too busy to spend longer in there so am confuddled what sounds abysmal to you? am genuinely interested in what sounds awful

Nothing abysmal about caundlemama's way of life, I can assure you, Big Al. As for me, I try to keep our electricity usage to the minimum - the only electric things I have in the kitchen are the fridge and a blender that is rarely used. Saturday night is electric-free in the sitting room; we have a solid fuel Rayburn that does cooking and hot water (we do have an electric immersion for emergencies and on the very rare occasion that the R goes out), also the largest proportion of the heating. Solid fuel/wood fire in the sitting room, two very small electric heaters upstairs in the childrens' rooms on a strictly controlled thermostat setting thing. No tumble drier here, or central heating of any kind, no toaster, no electric kettle..................but - hot water bottles, lots of crocheted/knitted throws, extra bed blankets, hats, good home made jumpers, hand knitted socks for the winter months. However, I do appreciate we do live in teh balmy south, and it doesn't get that cold, relatively speaking. However, I'm sure I would live the same way wherever I was.

Abysmal? No, not at all - a challenge to live as lightly as possible and within our means, using our nous and resources to the best of our abilities. Our ultimate aim is to off-grid - not necessarily having alternative sources of power, but using no power at all. OH a bit more reticent than me, but I'm sure it's possible. That's just me, though, I realise it's not for everyone.
You'd be welcome to visit me and caundlemama in the deep, dark caundles and see what you think.........

CaundleMama wrote:** I would find it absolutly abismal if I had to live like you CaundleMama. That's not meant to be derogative in any way but I had my fill of extra coats on the bed, 3 sharing a single bed ( top and tailed) outside toilets with newspaper squares ( 1984 in a town) and having to go to the public swimming baths to get our weekly wash on a sunday ready for school on the monday because the immersion heater had broke again and it was only a shilling, sorry 5 p for each of us kids***

BigAl I assure you we live in a quite superb way!!what is sounding abysmal? we have a lovely if small cottage,the Clearview woodburner means in Winter we are in tee shirts & bare feet our house here is warmer than most people I know that run CH.

I have counted weekly units(much better to count actual units from your meter rather than cost because everyones on a different tarrif~your £2.80 a day might be using 3 very expenisve units a day or 10 very cheap ones if that makes sense?) for several years now. We keep ours low by sensible & creative cooking & quick showers & to be truthful I am too busy to spend longer in there so am confuddled what sounds abysmal to you? am genuinely interested in what sounds awful

As I said I didn't wish to offend and maybe the word abysmal was not the right one. I offer 1000 humble appologies to caundlemama's,luath and all who read this. maybe if I say I had a rough upbringing with the cold water washing of clothes and body, patched up hand me downsand funny looks ..... I only had sisters, all huddled round an open fire with fuel made from paper bricketts ( anyone remember them??) because we didn't have the money for coal etc along with the top and tail sleeping etc. I then got a really well paid job and having a good job with lots of money I "bought into" the consumer revolution or whatever it was. We have a nice house and garden etc, lots of radiators and no care whatsoever for anything as we were "living the good life".
The bills were paid by DD and never thought about. For goodness sake we used to hire a helecopter to follow a football team and fly from the likes of teesside to bristol or cardiff or brighton or bournmouth or, or, for a football match so I had left behind the "hard days" of poverty . To me the thought of cold water washing danp rooms etc was part of the "bad old days" and I had left them behind.
Fast forward to 2007 and I lost my business, on the verge of banckruptcy and struck down with major health problems my focus was changed a little shall we say. I didn't get divorced thankfully so priorities change and then I started looking at where the money was going... on electric, on gas waste food chucked out the list goes on so now i'm as frugal as the next. Poverty, real poverty (We had no food in the cupboard, no money at all, not 1 p and the dss crisis line was busy for 4 days so we had 12 cups of tea in 4 days.) came back and bit my arse with big chunks and I had to start over again. We are now looking at solar water, pv electric, rainwater / greywater harvesting, wood burning cooking and growing our own food including wheat..... About six weeks ago I made 1kg of mince into 6 kg of food and that fed 3 of us for 12 meals each so i'm well into the practice of being a good custodian of the earth and money etc, it's just took a bit longer than many on here ro see the light. Again I'm sorry about the use of the wrong word, no harm intended.

Luath, i may take you up on your visit offer in order to learn more,lol.

goodness you have been thru the mill x I didnt take offence just honestly interested in what would make folks in general think urrrrk

I wash up dishes in cold water,its effective,you get cleaner dishes as the grease doesnt melt in the water & cover everything in tiny bit of grease yuk! & its free I am utterly convinced in not too long a time,we will see washing plates in hot water thats cost electric/oil/gas combi to heat as chronically wastefull.
I would rather wash my body in warm water,than my plates is the way I look at it

Our cottage if not ventilated & warmed properly would be damp,with no wet washing steaming on radiators its fine,which is why on occaision I use the tumble,we have a huge 15 odd foot high washing line so even in carp weather its high enough for 15mins of wind & no rain to get mostly dry but then yes I would tumble it for 10mins rather than bring it in here.When we moved in here it was wringing wet the idiots before had acondenser tumble dryer running upstiars in the middle of the room??!?! why??!!!

There is alot you can cut back on & still be comfortable,as Luath said warm clothes,& I would say thick curtains,at our old place i hung summer weight duvets sewed into covers on ribbons off the curtain poles,curtains behind & then swung the thick cover down in front in the evenings,the difference that & a thick door curtain made were incredible.

I do believe over the last 30 odd years folks have gone a bit soft,its not as cold as it was,altho yes it feels awful sometimes but its not, & yet millions of houses the minute they feel *cold* reach for the CH button like I said I am quite sure those days are very quickly coming to an end.

**We are now looking at solar water, pv electric, rainwater / greywater harvesting, wood burning cooking and growing our own food including wheat..... About six weeks ago I made 1kg of mince into 6 kg of food and that fed 3 of us for 12 meals each so i'm well into the practice of being a good custodian of the earth and money etc**

I wish you every luck with forging a new way of living,you knwo what I often think wow folks that dont question things,just plofd along with the crowd,are really missing out,really missing the absolute joys that simple pleasures bring
we all learn from each other no ones got all the asnwers & does it all right,all the time

& apologies for spelling I am bone tired

CaundleMama wrote:goodness you have been thru the mill x I didnt take offence just honestly interested in what would make folks in general think urrrrk
I do believe over the last 30 odd years folks have gone a bit soft,its not as cold as it was,altho yes it feels awful sometimes but its not, & yet millions of houses the minute they feel *cold* reach for the CH button like I said I am quite sure those days are very quickly coming to an end.


I wish you every luck with forging a new way of living,you knwo what I often think wow folks that dont question things,just plofd along with the crowd,are really missing out,really missing the absolute joys that simple pleasures bring
we all learn from each other no ones got all the asnwers & does it all right,all the time

The good time HAVE GONE,lol.

My wifeand I actually spent some time in the garden yesterday weeding ( it was the gardeners year off) and it was thereputic because after we disturbed the soil the birds came down and we spent hours watching them do their thing. 2 years ago gardens were for other people to keep maintained and for me to throw parties....... just where are those "good friends" who enjoyed the parties???

The Riff-Raff Element wrote:It might also start to put the breaks on globalisation, which, again, I don't think would be a bad thing at all.

I don't think globalisation is necessarily a bad thing. I for one, would mind real globalized energy production. A solar energy system is a lot more effective in areas with more (and more intense) sunlight hours.

Think about solar power plants in the sahara generating energy for people in, say, Russia? Africa becoming an important renewable energy exporter?