Domestic Goddess Question.

[pete]

messagenews:uDvMn.19213$oi.2011@hurricane...

best place to come for a sensible answer!

[dennis]

Knitted wool doesn't shrink because of the heat but because of the agitation IIRC. That is the reason for having wool programs that don't agitate the load much.

[Tim Streater]

But at a substantial increase in electric consumption.

[Tim Watts]

But a drop in the ocean compared to all my other bills...

[Tim Streater]

Now now - that's not the attitude!

My brother a few years ago changed electric supplier, got a new meter (reading zero) and without standing charge. So he started recording their monthly usage. After a few months of that, he then started seeing how much he could get their consumption down by - turning things off, changing to switched extension strips so all the mobile chargers etc were only on when needed, you can imagine the sort of thing.

He found he was able to get it down by 50% - but it's clear you have to be quite anal to do that, and to keep it going.

[Tim Watts]

I did a detailed cost of living at my last house... Turned out the only thing I could control and was big enough to be worth making any effort to control was food shopping. Metered water was small, council tax was large but nothing I could do about that. Gas and electricity weren't that much compared to the food bill for a family of 4.

So I stopped worrying about small details.

Here, it is different right now, with lack of insulation and all electric heating. But even then, food still outweighs everything.

Still, at least here, putting in that insulation and fitting gas CH will make a big saving. If I get the insulation right, then worrying about leaving the computers on all the time and an extra degree on the room heat will become irrelevant again ;->

Yes. And technically, his savings are reduced for 50% of the year when the excess heat is no longer a waste item. Would never work with kids. Can't even get everyone to stop leaving shoes in every doorway for me to trip over - what hope do I have! ;->>>

[Gib Bogle]

Some people would say it's misguided to insist on having perfectly white tea towels etc.

[dennis]

Some of us are wondering what you use a tea towel for? The dishes are dry when they come from the dishwasher so what else are they for?

[sweetheart]

That is a good question. I Tea towels get used for all sorts of things in my home. They rarely dry anything up. Its a general kitchen towel to hand when required. Mostly they are used to mop up spills, as oven gloves to take things from the oven, to mop floors sometimes, to wipe off anything wet ( like messy bottoms of tea cups when tea has spilled over to stop them dripping when lifted). Its a cloth to hand in the kitchen for any purpose so it sees a lot of action, hence the stains - tea, grease, drips off anything, spills off the floor or rtable or work top etc.

[geoff]

Breeding bacteria