THE DISHWASHER FACT HAS blown my mind, whole thing was super useful, cheers! :D x

For the people living in a rental home or flat: When your windows are bad and not isolated (this is the case in my boyfriends flat), you may want to add big, thick curtains to keep the warmth in during winter (especially for the night or when it's dark outside). I had this too in my old flat and it worked really good.

For the people having an electric or induction stove like me, it might be a good tip to make sure the pot/pan fit the stove plate. S no heat is wasted because the pot/pan is too small, or it takes ages because it's too big. Also, my father always preaches that "water boils at 100°C not 200°C". What he means is that once the water boils there is no need to supply further heat, so one can turn down the heat to only keep it boiling, which in my case it is almost turning off the stove. The residual heat when the electric stove is turned off can be used at the end of your cooking adventures to either keep the dish warm or simmer it for the last couple of minutes.

I agree with the point of putting on more layers before turning on the heat in your home. But you should be careful that your house and especially the walls do not get too cold, as this can lead to mold on the walls. Feel the outside walls from inside you house from time to time to see if they get too cold or damp. Love the tips :)

I absolutely agree with dressing accordingly instead of just changing the temperature in your home, but please always keep your apartment/house at a minimum of 18 degrees celcius in order to help avoid problems like mold - waiting until a certain date instead of keeping an eye on the temperature in your home can be problematic :)

thanks! if you want to do a part two, or people are looking for more easy tips, here are some I thought of ( and I think most can also be applied for renters, who don't always have the options home-owners have to lower their energy bill) - many central heating systems are automatically programmed to warm the water up to about 80 degrees. That is often not necessary, and takes a lot of energy to keep it at that temperature, even when you're not using it. turning it down to for example 60 degrees saves energy and you don't really notice it in your usage of warm water (but of course, check the specs of your system to make sure it is okay) - closing doors between rooms is a super easy way to use the heating more efficiently (hallways are a massive leak of warmth) we installed to kitty flaps to make sure the pets were still able to get around. - very old timey, but quite efficient: using a 'hay box' or 'slow cooking bag' really saves energy when cooking: you heat the pan up on your stove and place it in the bag/box to finish on its own. Great for camping too ;) - a bit silly perhaps, but still... but the temperature of our feet has an ungodly amount of influence on how comfortable we feel in general. so while putting a nice rug on the floor will probably not make your room much warmer, it will affect the way you experience the temperature in the room, so you don't have to heat your room as much to be comfortable.

Great tips! I live in Southern Spain, so my heating necessities are very different from places where actual winters happen. However, I live up in the mountains and it can get cold in the house (which has been built more for the hellish summers down here) so my husband and I decided to invest in electric blankets which we turn on at night instead of heating the air. A little bit of heat from the blanket goes a long way and it is so much more efficient than a radiator.

This is one I only learnt in the past week, and it's interesting (for ppl in temperate/cold winter places): Moisture-saturated cold air takes more energy to heat up than drier cold air. Because we do a lot of activities in our homes that create moisture (cooking, laundry, washing and just breathing), it's actually useful to make sure you try to ventilate your home to remove as much moist cold air as you can. Modern homes are built to be as air-tight as possible, but if people don't do things like open "trickle vents" on modern, double-glazed UPVC windows, don't have adequate extraction fans in kitchens and bathrooms, or don't open their windows to ventilate the home regularly (probably best during times of the day when it is warmer outside), then they can end up using more energy to heat their home, plus have the added health problem of mold growth. Kinda blew my mind when I learnt this, but it makes a lot of sense.

My dishwasher opens its door at the end of the cycle so that the dishes air-dry 👍😁. It's a feature that we really appreciate.

Some great tips both in your video and in the comments. One I didn't see yet was leaving the oven door open after cooking to use the heat to help warm up the room a bit! Makes such a difference in our freezing , drafty old house.

Hi, great topic! Especially now the prices of energy and gas went up 5 times the price it was in 2021 😮. Many people just can’t afford the bill anymore so every little bit of energy saving helps. For us, we already do everything we can to save energy and gas and our solar panels bring up the same amount of energy we use so 😆👍. So we are lucky. But a tip I missed is using curtains and blinds in front off the windows! It makes such a big difference in our opinions. Off corse keeping the cold out is the best way! We have the highest insulation glass available right now, but still if I close our curtains we directly feel a difference in warmth. And we open all our blinds completely on the winter days the sun is shining to get more warmth in our home. After 1 hour of sun in to our home the temperature is raised by 1 degrees Celsius! And for the summer. Having blinds that you close on the times of the day the sun is on you’re window, keeps you’re house way cooler. Good luck everyone ❤️🍀.

Love this, also filling the kettle all the way up and then using a thermos to keep the rest of the water warm reduces the amount of times you have to boil your kettle and saves energy!

One of my friends who lives in Guatemala came to visit us here in Wa State during the winter (so it was VERY cold to him here.) He was cold and he went to work outside to get himself warmed up. It was something his dad taught him and I thought that was such a great lesson passed down and that it was also just a beneficial tip for living. When you feel cold = get moving if you can.

Cool video, love the simplicity! Some additional ideas came to my mind: For laundry: Invest in a good pre-treatment soap (enzyme cleaner or gall-soap for exapmle), moisten a stain, use pre treatment and wash. This helps getting fibers clean with lower temperature washes. Cooking: Invest in a pressure cooker! Less energy, faster cooking, less water use especially for potatoes, beans etc.

Ok byyye🏃🏻‍♀️ find me in the cellar defrosting my freezer this weekend 🤓 thanks for the tipps Gittemary! 🌱

Thank you for the tip about defrosting! I will get a new no frost fridge this year but th one we have is over 12 years old and needs to be defrosted manually, which I never do. But I got inspired and did it last weekend :)

I am currently wearing a big scarf in my own living room to avoid turning on the heat, even if I feel like a vampire in a vault, yay. 🧛 However, when it will get around 18°C, I will have to turn it on, as I don't wan't my dog to feel cold (she has short hair). 🥶

Another heating tip that really works for me, instead of scheduling the temperature at my home, i keep it at a steady "low" temperature and only turn it up when i need to. So if i'm home later from work or decide to go out for a drink, i don't have to "reschedule" the temperature ;)

We recently got solar panels and batteries to store power we don't use. Our bills are less than they were a year ago.

For those of your living in apartments with old and crappy windows, you can actually do a little insulating of them yourselves with these films that you attach to the windows to create an airpocket that insulates it. i did it in my apartment with old windows from the 1800s and it was supereasy and really efficient! Also, while you are at it, also replace the rubber lining to prevent drafts!

I live in an apartment with huge sun faced windows. Nice in winter but dreadful in California heat. I use car visors to cover about 50% of the windows so that I can save on ac energy. It looks hideous but it is low energy

One thing to keep in mind with oven pre-heating is that if you are using a glass pan (like Pyrex or similar), you MUST pre-heat the oven prior to putting the glass pan in. The consistent direct heat while an oven heats up can be too much for glass bakeware and they can shatter. Which potentially makes an argument for using metal bakeware when you don't need to pre-heat if possible.

I’m about to move into my solar tiny home so this is great and timely info! Thanks GM!

Two winters ago, I invested for myself and my Wife in a hooded blanket by a company called The Oodie, these things are a life changer and have served their purpose well enough for me to recommend them.😊

Also, if you live in the U.S., check with your utilities to see if they offer home weatherization/insulation incentives. It makes those kind of upgrades super affordable, and in some cases, free (usually income dependent).

Thank you for the informative content! I just learned recently that the blue light from LED's affect negatively sleep cycles for humans and animals...food for thought, I also hate those "energy save" bulbs that actually have mercury in them and break so easily! I've been enjoying your channel!

great video gittemary! thanks 😊

Regarding heating your house - just remenber that it is not recomented for any room in your house to be coulder than 18 degress C, as the risk of mould ind your house rises a lot at lower temperatures :)

Thank you for the great tips!

I love your videos. They’re informative and fun, but the references help a lot. I use them in the HS classes that I teach. ❤

I'm working on convincing my landlord to switch over to a heat pump. He was talking about getting air-conditioning (they live upstairs, we live downstairs) since their suite gets really hot in the summers, and he was also saying they need to replace the furnace in a year or two, so I suggested a heat pump since our province is offering a lot of subsidies for them. They work to both heat and cool and are more energy efficient. Our power here in BC is mostly hydroelectric, and heat pumps run on electricity. Our current furnace is natural gas so that's really not ideal. I definitely fantasize about all the eco-friendly switches I'd make to a house if we could ever afford to buy one.

Going to defrost my freezer now, thanks for putting me to action

Switching energy supplier isn't a great idea at the start of winter time. You'll start at a high monthly fee because your usage is highest in winter (the bulk of what you'll need is needed right away, and needs to be purchased when demand is high pushing prices up). Everyone switching to renewable energy would be great for the environment but will not work if we don't adjust our use of energy also (amount and the time of day we use it). Most people use the most in the morning and evening (this is called a duck model because the curve in the graph depicting peak use, is shaped like a duck). In the morning and evening we tend to produce low amount of renewable energy (sun). So the demand and production don't line up, and prices go up unless less green types of energy (biomass) are used as back up to meet energy demand. In short, renewable energy isn't able to work with the peak loads we are accustomed to in our day to day lives. Other tips are really good.

Hvis jeg skal bruge noget fra min fryser til madlavningen, så prøver jeg at huske at tage det ud af fryseren dagen før, så det kan tø i køleskabet. På den måde hjælper det med at holde køleskabet koldt, OG man sparer energi på fx ikke at skulle sætte madvarerne på et optøningsprogram i microbølgeovnen

Proud of myself for knowing these tips and of course trying to do all of them. The problem is when you live in a family who doesn't care as much as you do but constantly complaining about bills. Sometimes people are just too lazy and they are not willing to listen

TY for this roundup! People should be aware of these things even without an energy crises going and/or fincancial worries. >While cooking on electric stoves without auto pot-size recognition: Choose the right field size for your pot. >Personally I cook most of my meals in an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot FTW), which is even more energy efficient than induction. But I'm a lazy one-pot-meal person overall. >Same as with my older electric stove I use the residual heat respectively pressure as a factor for the overall cooking time. >And I precook the water for noodles or soups/stew with my electric kettle bc it's more efficient in that; while I steam rice and potatos instead of boiling in water. >Oh, somehow became used to eat leftovers without reheating... laziness again. 😅 >Also have no issues with cold showers but that's nothing I would ask other ppl to do. But how about turning off the water while soaping/shampooing/shaving? >In general I don't really have a need to heat (despite living in upper middle europe) but I deliberately keep my kitchen as cold as possible bc of the cooling appliances. This only works bc I'm an avid "ventilator" and quite resistant to lower temperatures + the insulation standard is good. >>I'm looking forward to solar technology becoming more advanced (e. g. for settings with low sun exposure) and accessible (for any rental situation) in future. :)

Excellent video and a very appropriate topic Gittemary because the cost of energy is increasing. I definitely will be applying the 16th suggestion to use a microwave and also plan to get an airfryer (once I find one because of the energy efficiency there's a high demand in the UK for them). Love 🥰 the video and love 💕Gittemary.

This was very informative. Thank you! I’ll try to stop the dishwasher before drying. Most things you mentioned I do. In the week my child is at his fathers place I switch of the fuse of his room stopping his stand by stuff. I insulate the gap between front door and floor with a thick long worm out of fabric stuffed with left over fabric scrubs from sewing. I live in a good insulated house. I stopped heating the last three ore four years. When my flat is too cold I heat once, because I don’t want to have mold, and when the temperature is higher, I stop heating after 30 minutes or so. So I don’t need to heat more often then 3 times a month. For the rest of the time I wear a cardigan. But it works only in houses with good insulation. Btw in my country the temperature is around -5 to +10 degrees Celsius in the winter.

Great topic! I do think if you have old wood windows it’s just as efficient to fix your windows and install storm windows. Not to mention , less waste in manufacturing and the landfill. I’d love to see a video on this topic!

If you own a house and want to replace your heating system, geothermal (or ground-source) heat pumps can be a great option! They are really energy efficient because they don’t create heat, they just transfer it. They can be expensive, but your local government may have subsidies or rebates available to help with the installation cost.

Heating bottles,tjose old-fashioned rubber ones (I know, rubber is not ideal, but the levels might be less impactfull in this situation). I have 3 which is plenty for my daughter, our cat and I, co-sleeping. Closing off a level if you have more. I live in a 3 story house. Each level is about 300 squarefeet and it may not sound like much. But by sleeping, eating, living in our living/family room with the adjasent kitchen,I've pretty much closed off the first floor. I've hung up heavy curtins in front of all doors andI've sealed off the in-house door to the basement - there's one on the outside as-well and the draft was awfull. I've out down rugs around the different "zonea" of the room, to alsolimit some of the cokd from the basement andmy entire hall is covered as-well, due to the very large open space. I've got old tavle cloths on the eindow dills etc.

Living in a rented apartment cuts a lot of those tips out, and the rest I‘m already doing since forever. 😅😇

Great overview, some additions: 1) Found out that my washing machine uses 11W when on OFF. It's a new Siemens label A+++! That is the same use when its off as in service! And smart power strips dont work, as 11 W is considered to be ON. So add hard wired rocker switches! 2) Measure energy use. Get a TRMS (true root mean square) electricity meter and measure the use. Non TRMS ones are bad at modern equipment with a switching power supply. 3) Use sunlight. Never close curtains or blinds if the sun hits your windows in the winter, cause you can't see shit on your laptop. Move the laptop! Don't close the windows. Sunlight can heat your house 100% on winter days. 4) Check ventilation systems. We have CO2 controlled ventilation, but at night, we sleep with windows full open. We added a time switch so ventilation is OFF during the night. Saves 60kWh anually. 5) LED ≠ LED. There is 90% crap when it comes to LED bulbs, main cause is a bad power supply. Check them on flicker and whine (put your ear at the fitting). Flicker is harder, but an LDR with an oscilloscope works. Good bulbs do 500-2000Hz. Too high makes the cats and dogs go nuts, to low is tiring your eyes. 6) Cook water in a water cooker instead of boiling on the furnace. Even if you use induction heating. A cooker is twice as efficient. 7) Put coffee in a thermo can after making it. A good dripping coffee maker is finished in 2 minutes with 600W energy (0,02kWh). Espresso machines or leaving a pot on the heating plate uses >10 times the energy up to 0,5kWh per serving.

I don't agree about the dishwasher being more resource efficient than washing by hand. I fill up the sink with warm water and dish soap and then wash all my dishes, pans, utensils, etc. without having to keep the tap running. I let everything air dry when I'm done. This way of dish washing is heaps more resource efficient, especially if you don't rinse if that's not necessary.

With regards to switching supplier, see if you can switch to a time of use energy tariff as well. This means you pay less for energy consumption outside of peak periods.

I love top load washers because I can choose how much clothes/ water I need. I don't see that function in the front load ones...

Over the top, but I have found that closing the blinds at night helps a lot to keep warmth in during winter.

it’s also good to have freezer packs in the freezer! to help save on energy costs :)

Would love to know some more in depth facts too, such as what uses less energy, air fryer vs oven or does boiling the water in a kettle before popping it on the hob save energy or heating it completely on the hob?

You are like me with the heating - I refuse to turn it on unless I am freezing even in a hoodie and warm socks :D

There is a “smart” device that can be added to the regular electric water heaters where you can set vacation modes and the such. I am planning to get it soon!

I changed from using my induction hob everything to cook to my insta pot and it saved me £10 a month on my electric bill. I found this nuts

I turn off lights and oven at the meter box. It makes a difference for the kids coz it forces them to think about what they can do instead. I do use a dryer but its in my kitchen so it doubles a heater for my home

How do we know when we can skip the preheat of the oven or not??

I feel like in terms of sustainability you can achieve even more if you join a political movement, could you make a video about the best organizations to volunteer or join (in europe ideally)... also, I'm about to order your book ☺ i'm so passionate about this topic myself....ill comment on the actual video from my geo2go profile 😄

I’m Finnish and scared af for this coming winter due to my house being heated with electricity only… with current prices I’m looking at hundreds of euros for electricity each month 😭😭 Here are my tips; ~Bigger things~ - If there is snow where you live, shovel as much snow as you can up against the base of your house in the beginning of winter, make it about a meter high and very thick. It saves a bunch of energy because the snow insulates your house naturally. Compared to other winters my energy bill dropped about 20-25% last year thanks to this! - If you have security cameras, install small solar panels to power them. I believe Shelbizzle actually made a vlog where she did this. - If you have heated floors, avoid rugs all together or only buy ones made specifically for heated floors. Regular rugs won’t let the heat through, and they can mess with the sensors causing you to raise the thermostat way more than necessary. - If you have radiators along your walls, make sure no furniture are in front of them; leave atleast 20cm of space between furniture and radiators. Otherwise that radiator will basically heat nothing, or it could even catch something on fire! - If you use firewood to heat your house, always bring it indoors 1-2 days before you burn it to ensure it is 100% dry and at room temp. Never burn anything else than firewood, burning things like paper, cardboard or other trash can seriously harm your stove/pipes/exausts. ~Smaller things~ - When boiling water for pasta or rice, boil it in an electric kettle and pour it into the pot before putting it on your stove. It saves alot of energy (and time!) when cooking. - Try meal prepping, or try to have dedicated ’cooking days’ to avoid using the stove and oven daily. Basically, avoid turning on the oven or stove for only one thing at a time. - Turn down the temp in rooms you don’t use as often, like guest bedrooms, attic, basement, heated garage. Around 15C is enough for those less used rooms. The same goes if you travel or are away from home, drop the temp when you’re away. - If you can’t stand not having outdoor christmas lights this year, make use of plug-in timers and only have them lit a few hours at night. Or use solar powered christmas lights! - Install motion sensor lights in areas like bathrooms, hallways and entry ways where you don’t spend much time. - Buy plug-in motion sensor night lights to avoid having to turn on lights at night, like in kids rooms or in the hallway to the bathroom. - Switch your outlets (especially in the kitchen, and office/entertainment centers) to ones with built-in switches, that way you don’t need smart power strips because the outlets themselves have switches. Just make it a habit to turn off the outlet when you’re done using an appliance.

Another tip about the air conditioner - set it to room temperature. If you turn it on, set for 24/25 degrees. This is the most efficient consumption, every degree above or below this temperature will increase the energy consumption by approximately 6%.

for fridge efficiency, it is also useful to keep it full. because the fridge cools the items in it, making the products in the fridge maintain the temperature. so if you can't fill your fridge, you can always just place some jars or bottles in it with cold water. also, obviously not putting anything hot in it. for the stove, always try to match the size of the pot and the size of the burner (instead of a smaller pot on a bigger burner). but this, i guess is an obvious one as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Disclaimer to the washing machine one, not all cycles are meant for full loads! If your delicates cycle is designed for 2kg, filling it up to 8kg means that the clothes won't get properly clean. So yes, you can absolutely wash full loads, but check your machine instructions for the recommend load sizes for each cycle and use the ones you can use full load in. 😊 I'd also wash things like bed sheets and towels, reusable cleaning rags in high temperature to get the grease stains (including body sweat etc) out. Definitely for more delicate clothes and less dirty things, I'd use lower temperatures and wash less often if possible. It also keeps the clothing in better shape.

Yea

Some really good tips! As an avid tea drinker, I was also wondering about the energy use of the kettle. Would it be more energy efficient to heat my water in different ways (like the stove or even the microwave?)

❤❤❤

what does 200% less energy mean? is it generating energy?

Ah, if only many of these tips were applicable to shared houses and rented spaces in general! Landlords don't give two shits about environment, and whenever there is a hike in bills they dump it on renters rather than investing some money into improving the spaces they own 😢 flatmates can be irresponsible as well. So many years I've been living in house shares, I've experienced so much leaky boilers and faucets, drafty windows and doors, poor insulation, old inefficient aplliances and zero will to improve any of that. So many flatmates I lived with turned on heating to the max and then were constantly opening windows, so they could always walk around the house in shorts and flipflops in the middle of winter, turning gas to the max while cooking, filling up electric kettles up to the brim only to use water for 1 cup, then pooring the rest of the boiled water down the drain, leaving lights on in all rooms and communal spaces 24/7, not recycling properly... Once I asked a house mate to be more considerate about the ways he was using electricity, he replied that if our landlord puts the price up, he'll just move out and find something else. Noone will tell him what to do 😳 Oh I could go on and on 😭 and the thing is whenever I tried to do something about it I was the one everyone thought was a nuisance and making problems, flatmates and landlords alike. Anyways, I wish everyone was more educated about the issues we are facing, I wish people took it more to heart and at least tried to listen and think and perhaps change a habit or two at least, as I know changing your set behaviuors is tough. And think about it, there are SO many places for rent and people renting and landlords not giving a shit... After so many years of experiencing the same thing in different places with different people from different countries I am becoming discouraged frankly... I'll do my best in my own home but this experience of being a renter just puts my hope down for us as a society. Ok, rant over now, sorry for being so wordy!

My hot tip is to invest in a solar power bank. I have 2 fairly cheap ones. One gives me light and charges my mobile phone while the other tops back up,then I swap them. I hardly use any electric lighting. I clamped the panels gently by the frames to my balcony with D clamps. A good option if roof panels are not allowed. If you have a drill you can make holes in the frame and attach with zip ties. Solar radios are also really good,and fairly cheap now. I have a little one in the bathroom with the panel hidden behind my toothbrush pot.

And now I am searching how to correctly defrost my freezer 😂

En gang kunne jeg virkelig godt lide din kanal. Føler lidt du er blevet for amerikansk. Energy Star, aircondition, små køleskabe, ex?!? Du gør stadig et godt stykke arbejde og tjener flere penge på det amerikanske marked. Det meste er irrelevant for mig og føler lidt det er spild af energi at se dine videoer

I am living in outback Australia this summer. I will NOT be turning off my air-conditioning 😂 sorry not sorry 😂 i think I'm going to turn into a vampire

I can't get behind smart technology in the house anymore. I've seen to much of it being used to target poor or at risk people.

With children and a mechanic partner if I stuff the laundry clothes don't get cleaned. Sorry.

Does Jens live in " your " house ? I hear me , I , my .

It's tough, isn't it?!? Can you understand what the rest of the us used to feel when we were hungry and cold?!?

*laughing in poor* I've been teached all of these as a child by my dad to keep the bill low 🥲 But it's a good reminder!

studies how led lights are not good for eye health nd i would rather not have something plastic being gently heated for long periods of time in multiple difficult to access places in y home ill keep my 20/21 vision and cut my energy in a safer way

I was really excited for these tips. But now I'm just panicking even more... I already do 24 out of these, have no option to do other 4.... so I think I do pretty good, and I still cannot figure out how I will pay my bills this winter. 🥲 (not that I earn that bad money, it's just the energy prices became SKY HIGH) Time to move out to the forest I guess. 🌳🌲