Can you cut down your energy consumption if you have to?

SILVERHARP2 · Post by **SILVERHARP2** » 16 Oct 2006, 18:08

I was pondering this over the weekend and was wondering how I could adapt to peak oil if I had to, here are some of he things I could do

-all my driving is now optional, so in the event of a shortage I would not even be inconvenienced.

-in the winter if we had to we could live out of 2 rooms in the house, Kitchen and one bedroom which would double as a living area. this would mean 2 radiators on instead of a possible 10.

-fridge and freezer could be switched off over the winter.

-as food prices would go up could dig garden over to produce vegetables. also going vegetarian would save money

in a way it would be a challenge to adapt.

aliwood · Post by **aliwood** » 16 Oct 2006, 19:06

Yes absolutely.

Where to start?

In winter we use three rooms in our house - the bathroom, bedroom and smallest spare bedroom now converted into a sitting room (I am in this room now). Our house central heating thermostat is set at 15C so the cat doesn't freeze and thanks to the insulating job we have been doing over the past four years has not yet leapt into action. I seem to remember it was November before it woke up last year and we have done further work since then. In this sitting room we have opened up the fire place and use the firegrate as necessary - in previous years this has allowed us to cook as well as heat the room. Fuel is provided by smokeless fuel, we buy four bags per year, and waste wood donated by neighbours and people from our local Freecycle list. We have one shop owner who delivers ex veg and fruit boxes, all wood on a regular basis which we use for fuel or for building filing systems! I cut our privet hedge twice a year to provide long straight stems for our storm kettle so our tea making is free apart from the tea itself.

We have cut our power use considerably, I think everyone on here has. We have a load of Wilkos 8W / 12 V lights that we plan to fit and run from batteries that will eventually be charged by a bicycle based system. Our plan always allowed for the fact that we might not have computers or the internet, so we have the wind-up radio and lots of books and board games. It is my intention to get hold of a piano and learn the basics at some point soon.

I have already stopped buying most of my grain from supermarkets, I get them direct from a farm. We do have a power grinder, but we can grind by hand if required.

Transport is two bicycles, we plan to buy two trailers eventually and we are doing a lot of cycling around the area at the moment to improve our fitness and find out what's out there.

Sounds good huh? Only snag so far, my gardening skills are not quite up to the job, but I am working on changing that over the next few years by putting in lots of permanent cropping plants, rhubarb is a good example, where you don't have to put in a lot of effort but you do get a good return.

Result - We currently require about ?40 a week to pay the bills, if things go wobbly we can manage without and have a lot of other strategies and ideas we can use.

aliwood · Post by **aliwood** » 16 Oct 2006, 19:15

Sorry I forgot about this:

Clothing: I am currently making all our knitwear and am slowly learning how to make all our other apparel from trousers to underwear, so I think the only things we need to buy are coats and shoes. I don't remember the last time we went shopping for clothes, it's not an activity either of us finds particularly exciting or interesting.

tattercoats · Post by **tattercoats** » 17 Oct 2006, 10:09

Yay for making clothes - and I've not forgotten I must send you some homespun, Ali - but I'm in knitting frenzy now as my son needs gloves and a hat, my daughter needs mitts, and we are all enjoying handmade socks. I've a pile of knitted dishcloths so we don't use kitchen roll, and I'll be making facecloths the same way soon.

I'm utterly charmed that my teenage son wants handmade gloves from his mum. I like the notion that I'm supplying my family's needs from my craft stash.

We're currently loving our homegrown sweetcorn, and squash, and anticipating pumpkins; we did test the heating system because we were all ill together recently and it seemed a good chance to make sure it was working, but it's off again now and will stay that way for some while.

We need to tackle our electricity usage, and look seriously at solar or wind - where to start, really. But making things is SO satisfying. Gloves! I can knit gloves! (Sorry. I'm a bit excited about this...)

aliwood · Post by **aliwood** » 17 Oct 2006, 16:30

Tattercoats! Great to see you again. I am so with you on the gloves. I made these recently.

So I can knit when my hands get cold. With you on the knitting frenzy too, belt, boot socks, ordinary socks, jumper, slippers, Advent calendar (yes, really!), even a shoelace. Who needs shopping? Too busy to go shopping!

Making things is the nicest thing in the world.

Good to have you back chuck.

jonny2mad · Post by **jonny2mad** » 09 Nov 2006, 01:33

I dont have any home heating well wood fires and a rayburn, but I dont often light them as there is just me in the house and the trouble keeping them lit isnt worth it as I dont feel cold .
I spent three years living in a tent often in snow ,so being in a house even without heating is fine .

I have my computer and electric lights all low energy, and a small electric cooker, often I dont use that, as the cooking I do is very simple and I can cook soup say in a billy can over a small fire .

A lot in not feeling cold is eating good food, soup is good also keeping your feet and head warm , I have a wonderful sleeping bag ex british army arctic sleeping bag and I could quite easy sleep on a snowdrift in it if I had thermarests under me .

Get some long johns and good outdoor clothing and you will be fine

theeggman · Post by **theeggman** » 10 Dec 2006, 17:43

If needs be I could manage with my manual washing "machine" for the laundry, use ecoballs instead of detergent, use a mangle to wring the excess water out of the clothes and dry them over the wood stove.

I've always got olive oil lamps at the ready , but you've still got to get a supply of oil from somewhere. I'm looking into ways of pressing oils if anyone has any info or links. By the way, wicks can be made really cheaply by using an old-fashioned mop head. You get loads of wicks quite cheaply that way.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 10 Dec 2006, 23:31

Hi Alice,

I wish I was as serious as you about the transport/food/other aspects to your way of living. I've tackled the energy issue with wood stove/PV panels etc, but I'm way behind you with the food arrangements etc.

The main problem is that both myself and my other half work full-time, which basically means that we don't get anything done! We don't have time to go to markets, butchers etc for our food, and mainly get it from the supermarket, unfortunately.

We only have one car - an old-style Mini Cooper which is reasonably fuel efficient. But it does make me lazy, when I could make a lot of journeys on my bike!

So the answer's yes - I reckon there is still more scope for us to cut our energy use. We have a Wonder Washer for the clothes if required, and could cook on the wood stove.

I'm mulling the idea of trying to do a week without the grid sometime in the spring, to see how we get on.

Post by **mikepepler** » 11 Dec 2006, 15:33

Andy Hunt wrote:The main problem is that both myself and my other half work full-time, which basically means that we don't get anything done! We don't have time to go to markets, butchers etc for our food, and mainly get it from the supermarket, unfortunately.

Could you manage if one of you worked part-time, or not at all? Not working sometimes saves money, as you don't need to travel there, buy work clothes, etc. Aslo, you have more time to save money by doing jobs yourself, and getting your food cheap from the market (or growing more of it).

Tracy and I have reduced our spending and then reduced our earning in line with that, with the result that I now work 80% of full time and she's just doing a few days a month of supply teaching. We now have bags of time to get on with all those other things we wanted to do, and are a lot less stressed

In some ways, I'm surprised that you're still both working full time Andy, given your signature: "The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up", which I really like!

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 11 Dec 2006, 16:13

mikepepler wrote:
Andy Hunt wrote:The main problem is that both myself and my other half work full-time, which basically means that we don't get anything done! We don't have time to go to markets, butchers etc for our food, and mainly get it from the supermarket, unfortunately.
Could you manage if one of you worked part-time, or not at all? Not working sometimes saves money, as you don't need to travel there, buy work clothes, etc. Aslo, you have more time to save money by doing jobs yourself, and getting your food cheap from the market (or growing more of it).

Tracy and I have reduced our spending and then reduced our earning in line with that, with the result that I now work 80% of full time and she's just doing a few days a month of supply teaching. We now have bags of time to get on with all those other things we wanted to do, and are a lot less stressed

In some ways, I'm surprised that you're still both working full time Andy, given your signature: "The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up", which I really like!

Funnily enough, I am trying to persuade Gaynor to give up her job! She's bored with it anyway, and has been looking for a library job, with no success.

I have told her that if she wants to stay at home and have a rest for a bit, I will pay her share of the bills until she finds herself something part-time. She's also thinking of doing some sort of re-training course.

We would be worse off but nowhere near on the breadline, just would have less to spend on gadgets and holidays and stuff. We have talked about it, and she would be happy to look after the house (much better that someone is around at home for a lot of the time) and get decent food for us from Bury Market instead of Asda, which I used to do until I started full-time in March this year.

I have told her she can have it as a Christmas present if she wants. She is tormenting her work colleagues telling them about the offer! But for me, it would be an investment in the stability of our social situation, as well as giving her a bit of breathing space to realise her full potential, which she isn't doing stuck in her dead-end merchandising job.

Our mortgage will be paid off in just over 8 years, so I am planning on retiring when I am 45! It may well be that I still want to work doing something at that time, but I can decide then. Plus, I would still like to make enough money to buy up some woodland at some stage. But I have a few projects on the go which might bear some fruit for that project!

http://www.thedandelionclocks.co.uk/welcome.htm

Spot the hippy guitarist!

rabbit_hop · Post by **rabbit_hop** » 26 Dec 2006, 18:02

It?s been said recently that in the UK ?Peak Gas? is about to hit us, even sooner than Peak Oil; some of the cliff-edge gas supply prediction graphs for 2007 on forums like The Oil Drum are pretty sobering. A challenge I?ve set myself this winter is to find out how much I can economise on gas heating and remain at least reasonably comfortable. If TSHTF soon, it may be my final opportunity to run this experiment with the option of halting it.

Last year, prior to my PO epiphany, the gas heating would run for two hours in the morning (06.30-08.30) and five hours in the evening (18.00-23.00), with the thermostat set at 21?. I sort of managed to justify this because gas was a lot cheaper then, even last year. (Luxury? them were t?days.) This autumn, I?ve been cutting down as the weeks go by, lopping off a quarter of an hour here and half an hour there. Now down to 30min. in the morning (06.30-07.00) and 90min. in the evening (17.30-19.00), thermostat set at 16? - compensating by investing in several thick woollen jumpers. As it happens, this has been a fairly mild autumn/winter, even in Scotland, with daytime temperatures outside around 6? in late December.

This little experiment has already had several beneficial effects, aside from the obvious (with luck) smaller gas bill and reduced PO/PG impact. Firstly, my waking hours are becoming more aligned with sunrise and sunset: if it gets uncomfortably cold I simply go to bed, sometimes as early as 19 or 20.00. (This brings to mind an old First World War public information slogan: ?Go to bed and save your coal? ? all to economise to help the war effort!) Secondly, the kitchen drops to about 8? overnight when the heating is off - which means that milk, bread etc keep reasonably well without the need to run the fridge. Thirdly, with no fridge, one is encouraged to buy fresh local food daily instead of stocking up on ready-meals at Tesco.

Turning in early also reminds me of the oil crisis of the early 1970s ? it sounds unbelievably quaint in these days of 24-hour multi-channel entertainment, but in 1973 all three T.V. channels really did stop transmitting at 22.30 every night and the Great British Public was packed off to bed after the National Anthem.

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 26 Dec 2006, 20:01

Inspiring post....

However although I'll manage to scrimp our heating a bit, I can't see me going as far as you do.

I wear a vest, a couple of tee-shirts & several jerseys at home as it is..... but before you think we have a 15'C or lower temp you gotta understand that the rest of the house hold only need a T and sweat shirt!

Hmmm some will be better adapted to cope with reduced heating than others!