Our 2 year old has just began toilet training, before that we were using reusable nappies which were (roughly cleaned) then put on a rinse and then a 2.5 hour 60 degree cycle, 3 times a week. Since we’ve stopped doing that, our electric consumption has gone down considerably (obviously).
Which got me thinking that people could save a fair chunk of electric by soaking clothes in washing powder overnight, then washing on a shorter and lower temperature than usual, as hopefully a fair bit of the work would already have been done?
Also, we have a huge gas bill compared to most, when we hardly ever use it. A few minutes using the hob, very short showers and the washing up. From what we’ve learned this month, it’s the short bursts from the hot tap (when washing hands etc) that seem to be eating up all the gas, as the boiler fires up, takes a while to heat the water and then takes a fair bit longer to cut out. I was always under the impression that “it’s just 5 seconds of hot water so won’t cost that much”, but seems that I was wrong. We’ve stopped using the hot tap for all but essentials and it’s made a huge difference to consumption.