Readers Hints and Tips
Hints and tips from viewers and readers on how to conserve energy
You can buy heated dressing gowns that take batteries. Pre cook meals now and freeze them so you can just reheat and still have a healthy diet. Boil a kettle in the morning and fill a flask as it will keep it hot for hours for more tea and coffee. A stove top kettle can be used on the camping stove if we have power cuts. That’s the majority of what I’ve done. I bought food and started a vegetable garden too. Not very green fingered but managing to grow a few things. Hope that helps some people. Take care everyone.
One tip that some maybe not of heard of is thermal cooking. Basically you heat up your pan then put it in box/laundry basket wrapped in towels / old duvets and it keeps cooking slowly. This works well with soups and casseroles with small size pieces. Or if you need to feed people who aren’t eating at the same time it keeps food warm. I also try to make meals that have short cooking times /can be cooked together (steamer pans, layer trays in oven)…casseroles rather than roasts. Another tip for energy use is to spot clean and air clothes if can and presoak clothes so don’t need full cycle washing. So many more tips but my favourite is hot water bottles!
On the subject of layering clothes, my answer is cardigans and warm socks. I have mostly hand knitted cardies and in actual fact, if you do something like knitting or crochet while you sit in the evening, that in itself generates some warmth while you are active in a small way. I wear 2 pairs of socks : one finer hand knit pair and a thicker commercial pair over the top. Being a very elderly lady, I find them warmer and safer than slippers. Cooking wise, I bought a halogen cooker for roasting and grilling and have even made small buns in it.I haven’t used my gas oven for a long time.
Not heating tips but some cost saving ideas. Fleecy bedding (The Range/B&M, Asda), use an air fryer as it is massively cheaper than the oven, hand wash dishes to save using the dishwasher, a camping gas hob is only £15 from Halfords which could be used if we get power cuts, draughty excluders for doors (The Range), fingerless gloves for the house, thermals, extra set of clothes horse for bedding/linen to save on using the tumble dryer, torches, turn appliances off and don’t leave them on standby x
A couple of thoughts. I’ve been delving into British wartime cooking recently. A couple of methods used then might be useful now. Firstly, the hay box. You start a stew or casserole on the stove and get it boiling rapidly, then take it off and put it into a wooden box lined with hay as insulation and put hay on top and put the lid on. The heat is retained by the insulation and continues cooking it slowly. There is a modern version of this which I think is called a wonder cooker. It’s a fabric version and uses wool as the insulation material. Another method I’ve seen was steaming everything in the one pot. You start the item that will take longest and add other items as you go. I think she had potatoes tied to the lid of the steamer with a piece of muslin. It still needs to cook for a long time, but it only uses one burner for 3 or 4 items instead of 3 or 4 burners. 2 resources to check into available on YouTube are the BBC series Wartime Farm, as well as the series Wartime Kitchen and Garden. They might give you some good ideas. Wartime Farm shows the hay box well. Wartime Kitchen and Garden shows the multi steaming. They both have other fabulous hints and tips which might be very helpful too. If you see a pressure cooker in a charity shop or can afford one new, grab it. They cut your cooking time dramatically. Marguerite Patten had a cookbook in the late 40’s I think about pressure cooking and how much cheaper it was because it used less fuel. They started getting that message out even during the war.
My helpful hint for those without coal or wood fires is to invest in an electric blanket for bed and a superwarm onesie before going to bed and always keep your head covered and wear socks in bed – really makes a difference to retaining body heat. I agree about natural fibre clothing – my pure wool jumpers really are much warmer than acrylics.
We will need to layer up, thermals, shirt, leggings, jumper, cardigan, 2 pairs of socks and warm slippers etc., new habits e.g., thermos by the kettle for hot water supplies, hot food made in a slow cooker, hay box/eco cooking bag, bucket in the shower to catch water to hand wash items to drip dry over the bath, candles on a heatproof dish under a terracotta pot provide some heat, woollen hats to save heat from our heads, propane heaters, re chargeable lights, radios etc., blankets on all the chairs, blankets over the duvets. It’s all going to look very different. This will not be easy but could save some lives.
In October the draught excluders/ heavy curtains/flannelette sheets and eiderdowns would come out. And my favourite was the winceyette pyjamas and a hot water bottle.
I bought an Oodie for my daughter and myself for Christmas last year when they were on offer – absolutely brilliant when the boiler packed in – worth every penny. Popped a hot water bottle inside when it got really cold and was cosy for hours. They are washed and ready for this winter, along with fleece bedding
If you need to line curtains and find actual curtain lining to expensive. Get some fleece blankets and use a simple tacking stitch to attach to the window side. As long as it covers the window size it will help keep your heat in
If your windows are not double glazed, get some large bubble wrap (the larger bubble one works best) cut to size, mist the glass with water and the bubble wrap will cling to the glass. Makes a big difference and stops condensation running down the glass. Hope this helps someone
Homemade Radiator: Mountain Man Jim Bridger took a large pot with lid and filled it with hot stones from his fire to warm a space. Place in a room to radiate heat. You would need to set it on top of something noncombustible like bricks or stepping stones. But this could help heat a space. You just need to change out the hot stones/bricks often. Conserving Fuel: In medieval times (according to the lady who taught this trick with solar ovens), people had a chest filled with straw/blankets so that when they boiled water, they could place the lidded pot inside the chest, cover it with more hay/blankets/etc. and keep the water hot without burning more fuel. With solar ovens, the clouds might block the sun and the temp falls rapidly inside the oven. The trick is to quickly put the lidded pot into an ice chest with towels/blanket around the pot to nestle it inside the closed ice chest. This keeps the boiling contents at temperature for quite some time.