Energy Saving

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I know of someone who drank a lot, he didn’t know he had diabetes until it was too late. Just saying (lol).
They discovered I had the dreaded type 2 while they treated me for osteomyelitis in the summer. Apparently my pancreas had packed in due to the massive liver damage caused by my hemochromatosis and had been that way for a couple of years. Also explained why I keep needing to have a massive pee every time I get to the wksp due to the temp change when you go in.
 
Thanks, Jacob, I knew that, but always believed it to be a constant. I guess it's close enough to a constant for most practical purposes.
Yes, until you hit "phase changes" of ice at 0º to water at 0º, or water at 100º to steam at 100º, and a very large amount of heat is required, known as "latent heat". x 79.7 for ice to water and x 533 for water to vapour. Latent Heat of Water
 
Opening the window was indeed a tongue in cheek comment on reducing condensation if leaving the bath water in until it dropped to room temperature. But that is the reality because it makes the bathroom too moist IMHO. But I was just thinking if I cut something like a bin bag to the water surface outline then the heat could escape but condensation wouldn't while the plastic floated on the surface? I'll try that next month.

We currently have a cheap, lightweight plastic kettle so combined with the £30 flask is not expensive compared to an insulated kettle. The biggest benefit that still makes me smile to realise it is I'm not waiting for the kettle every time I make a brew. A full kettle is two brews in the flask for later and one mug full now.

But it seems I've been making tea wrong all this time from Chris152 so I need to buy a temperature varying kettle immediately! How long will another £50 on a kettle that does that take to pay for itself if I only heat water to 80 dgrees C instead of boiling?

Another thing I do is always have a super strong filter coffee in the morning plus a tea. I make them both at the same time, the coffee using an MSR mugmate or the equivalent cheaper knock off filter in the mug. That goes in an insulated mug so that by the time I've finished the tea the coffee has cooled to just right :) I did buy a Melita coffee maker with an insulated pot which works well but doesn't make as nice a drink. I also discovered that I shouldn't have that coffee before going to the Drs because otherwise he thinks my blood pressure requires medication!
 
Tea is amazing stuff, I have to drink it as I eat as it's tannin content reduces my absorbtion of iron by as much as 30%, it has been used as a preservative for specimens in glass jars and according to a very interesting documentary I saw years ago is basically responsible for Britain leading the industrial revolution and not any other european power. Down to the fact they all drank coffee and we drank tea, which meant we were boiling our drinking water and they weren't. This then actually allowed us to create much denser conurbations with less risk of disease and that meant we had a more concentrated industrial workforce/base in much larger cities. Apparently by the time of the Franco-Prussian war London was 4 times the size and Birmingham twice as large as any other cities and all down to drinking tea.

I really wish I could find that programme again.

OOH OOH found it

http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/tea.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013f88k
 
Opening the window was indeed a tongue in cheek comment on reducing condensation if leaving the bath water in until it dropped to room temperature. But that is the reality because it makes the bathroom too moist IMHO. But I was just thinking if I cut something like a bin bag to the water surface outline then the heat could escape but condensation wouldn't while the plastic floated on the surface? I'll try that next month.

We currently have a cheap, lightweight plastic kettle so combined with the £30 flask is not expensive compared to an insulated kettle. The biggest benefit that still makes me smile to realise it is I'm not waiting for the kettle every time I make a brew. A full kettle is two brews in the flask for later and one mug full now.

But it seems I've been making tea wrong all this time from Chris152 so I need to buy a temperature varying kettle immediately! How long will another £50 on a kettle that does that take to pay for itself if I only heat water to 80 dgrees C instead of boiling?

Another thing I do is always have a super strong filter coffee in the morning plus a tea. I make them both at the same time, the coffee using an MSR mugmate or the equivalent cheaper knock off filter in the mug. That goes in an insulated mug so that by the time I've finished the tea the coffee has cooled to just right :) I did buy a Melita coffee maker with an insulated pot which works well but doesn't make as nice a drink. I also discovered that I shouldn't have that coffee before going to the Drs because otherwise he thinks my blood pressure requires medication!

But it seems I've been making tea wrong all this time from Chris152 so I need to buy a temperature varying kettle immediately! How long will another £50 on a kettle that does that take to pay for itself if I only heat water to 80 dgrees C instead of boiling?
Lidls plastic kettle with temp selection, were very pleased with it and it was £19.99 with a 3 yrs g/tee,,,
Steve.
 
I have a system boiler with a 30L tank and the pump runs all the time.
I assume you are talking about hot water recirculation where due to long pipe runs there is a noticable delay from opening the tap to getting hot water with an associated waste of water. Running a pump constant is not ideal, have you thought about adding some control like a temperature sensor so the pump only runs when the pipe temperature falls below a threshold or a pressure sensor that detects when the tap is opened.
 
That's right.

The pump uses 5W, so it's not a problem compared to the waste in water and heat. It might even be on a timer which switches it off between 11pm and comes on at 5:30 am, but I can't remember if it is or not.

If it's on a pressure sensor, we'd still be wasting the water and heat. A temperature sensor would be a good option, but it's not something I've thought about and as the run is long it'd probably be on all the time anyway.

We were wasting about 2.5L of hot water every time we ran the hot kitchen and bathroom tap, now we waste none. That worked out to be a saving of about 50L of hot water, which was just thrown away per day for our family of 4.
 
Last edited:
That's right.

The pump uses 5W, so it's not a problem compared to the waste in water and heat. It might even be on a timer which switches it off between 11pm and comes on at 5:30 am, but I can't remember if it is or not.

If it's on a pressure sensor, we'd still be wasting the water and heat. A temperature sensor would be a good option, but it's not something I've thought about and as the run is long it'd probably be on all the time anyway.

We were wasting about 2.5L of hot water every time we ran the hot kitchen and bathroom tap, now we waste none. That worked out to be a saving of about 50L of hot water, which was just thrown away per day for our family of 4.
While we are worrying about the third decimal place of a penny it's worth noting that some of the 5W goes to heat the water so not all is lost;)
 
Let's also take into account that water and gas prices are much higher in DK than they are in the UK.

Infact, gas is twice the price and DK has one of the highest water prices in the world.

I reckon I save £250 or more per year, including the running of the pump but my maths might be off a bit.
Re worked it a bit.
 
Last edited:
Tea is amazing stuff, I have to drink it as I eat as it's tannin content reduces my absorbtion of iron by as much as 30%, it has been used as a preservative for specimens in glass jars and according to a very interesting documentary I saw years ago is basically responsible for Britain leading the industrial revolution and not any other european power. Down to the fact they all drank coffee and we drank tea, which meant we were boiling our drinking water and they weren't. This then actually allowed us to create much denser conurbations with less risk of disease and that meant we had a more concentrated industrial workforce/base in much larger cities. Apparently by the time of the Franco-Prussian war London was 4 times the size and Birmingham twice as large as any other cities and all down to drinking tea.

I really wish I could find that programme again.

OOH OOH found it

http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/tea.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013f88k
William Cobbett thought that tea drinking ushered in an age of reduced productivity, since people sat round waiting for the kettle to boil, instead of just drinking beer, as they had hitherto done.
 
Yes, until you hit "phase changes" of ice at 0º to water at 0º, or water at 100º to steam at 100º, and a very large amount of heat is required, known as "latent heat". x 79.7 for ice to water and x 533 for water to vapour. Latent Heat of Water
Thanks, Jacob, that has been mentioned before, although I also remembered it from skool. It was the graph showing the specific heat variation with respect to temperature that surprised me.
 
I still have the original gas pipe work for some of the gas lighting in my house, but I'm not going back to gas lighting ;)
Yes, I had the pipe work in my last house. I wouldn't go back to it either. I honestly have no idea as to the relative efficiency/economy of gas lantel lighting versus incandescent electric. Obviously the gas is more dangerous and a giant hassle. Dimmable though...
 
I honestly have no idea as to the relative efficiency/economy of gas lantel lighting versus incandescent electric.
apparently, about 2 lumens/W for a gas mantle lamp and 1 lumen/W for an open flame gas lamp. A candle is about 12.5 lumens.
 
It just seemed like common sense to me that incandescent lamps are just heaters which give off some light, 10% light and 90% heat, so if you change to LED, 60% light 40% heat (that's overall efficiency) you are reducing the amount of heat produced. If the house temperature is controlled and remains the same, the CH will have to supply the difference, so savings will be minimal.

True but if you install underfloor heating you are heating the area you inhabit and not the ceiling.
 
if you install underfloor heating you are heating the area you inhabit and not the ceiling.
But, if you have a room upstairs, the ceiling lights act as underfloor heating ;).
I always considered heat from lighting units to go into the fabric of the house, so not a bad thing, but generally, it's better if you don't have energy pollution, where one system interferes with another such as light and heat, then each can be controlled better.
I do believe that a lot of companies made an absolute fortune from the forced introduction of LED. I suppose that worldwide they do save power??? I'm very cynical about new technology as a way of saving the planet. There is too much money involved for the truth to be revealed. Electric cars are an example. I am not convinced it is a solution. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a champion of clean air and renewable energy, was interviewed on the BBC . Quote the site...." Mr Schwarzenegger also believes technology is delivering solutions and cites his Hummer - a massive military style off-road vehicle - that he switched from diesel to battery power as evidence, given the electric version goes faster with more horsepower. " I think he moved from about 400Hp to 1000hp. That may be fine in CA where they have 95% renewable energy, but he has increased pollution by going electric! World wide, only about 28% of energy is renewable, so this kind of thinking is not going to solve problems.
 
I'm very cynical about new technology as a way of saving the planet. There is too much money involved for the truth to be revealed.

I agree entirely, the issue is not how we heat our homes or power our cars, more that we use both too much.

though regarding the light issue, I only heat the downstairs living rooms. And I insulated the ceilings of these.

Much of this new technology is just to provide something new to sell us in my opinion. The stop start system in my car adds 20Kg to it's weight.
All the components add a fortune in cost for repairs.
If you drive mainly medium/long journeys the additional weight of the car is actually creating pollution.

During the oil crisis in the 1970's we were told to reduce the weight carried in our cars to improve economy.
Now we are 'told' that carrying that extra weight is 'saving the planet'.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top