I don’t know if impressed is the word I want but I am certainly surprised by the hardiness of so many folk on this forum - setting the thermostat to 18° or lower, not turning heating on until November, not running it in daylight hours etc. Don’t you feel uncomfortably cold? I certainly would.
I must emphasise I entirely understand budgetary constraints affecting so many people and others are maybe altruistic environmentalists. Or maybe your house really does stay warm when the heating is turned off; mine doesn’t. But otherwise why don’t people live in greater comfort (from my perspective)? After all, if you can afford sofas you don’t sit on deckchairs, if you can afford steak you don’t live on bread and rice, and your summer holiday isn’t a weekend in Skeggy.
What I do know is my energy bill is somewhat above the price cap average. Naturally we have economised this year by turning off lights, turning heating right down in lesser used rooms etc and I am hoping for about a 25% saving. However if the weather was wet and cold, as it was yesterday, we did not hesitate to use the override button in the middle of the day off period when we sat down to watch the football.
Lots of people don't seem to go in for winter clothes these days. I find that if I dress in layers I don't need the heating on during the daytime (not yet anyway) and can add/remove depending on how warm or cold I feel.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I bought one of those multi-tiered heated airers (not advertising, but like this https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7441765 - although ours came form one of those over 50s catalogues) years back when there were still four of us here. That worked well, especially if you put an old duvet over the top and the dehumidifier under that. Not sure what the wattage (it doesn't get hot-hot - so probably like a slow cooker and a couple of hundred watts or so) is and I only now tend to use it when you get those protracted periods of grey/damp where the washing can't go out and it it doesn't readily dry indoors. It acts as my main after ironing airer usually as we don't have an airing cupboard here (combi boiler).
As an side, my kids go me a Ninja foodi multi cooker to replace my old leccy pressure cooker, and that came with a basically useless wire rack (one tier) that meant you couldn't cook multiple things at the same time. So I boughta one-to-five tier wire rack for it that I tried yesterday. A bit fiddly and not how I would have designed it, especially as adding tiers when the cooker is hot is a pain, but I did manage to cook 12 sausages (two tiers) and potato wedges (1 tier) at the same time last night with it. That took half the time as my oven and hopefully far less than that in way of power. If anyone wants to know which one I got and which foodi it worked with, let me know - I don't want to adverise!
@steveTu I don't think there's any problem with mentioning a product that you've found to be good as long as you aren't selling it or benefitting in some way.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Advertising is promoting something in order to sell it. I can’t see any harm in an unsolicited recommendation.
I’m often amused when a member of the public happens to mention a product on the TV and then coyly asks if they’re allowed to say that on the BBC. Do they really think we’re be now tempted to buy?
I don't think you're necessarily pampered @BenCotto - I know your wife has health problems, and that has a big impact. They're actually discussing this on R2 just now - GPs prescribing heating bills paid for those who are vulnerable, and will probably end up in hospital due to their health problems meaning cold will affect them that badly. The overall NHS cost is probably far lower than paying the bills for them. When my older daughter was a young baby, we had a colder than normal winter here - minus 10 and below, and long periods of below minus 5. Our house had single glazing [we only moved in a month before daughter was born] and we were worried about paying the bills as I wasn't working. We had the heating on for an hour when hubby was going to work, and that was it until evening when we had it on for an hour again. We 'cut our cloth' until we had enough bills to work out what we could afford.
I thought of getting one of those @steveTu, but the reviews were so mixed that I decided against it, and just bought another standard one. We had an airing cupboard in the house round the corner, but it's all combi boilers now. That same daughter never needed the rad on in her bedroom because the boiler was in her wardrobe. We've just got one of the air fryers too, to see what we can do in it instead of using the oven.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
It's all opinion isn't it? As a standard airer, the heated ones, by themselves, aren't too different to non heated - you got a band of dry area on the clothes that touched the bars, but damp at the points furthest away from the bars (probably slightly less damp than a non heated).The improvement with in just putting an old duvet over it (and the dehumdifier) - and that seemed to work really well. This year I'll try that without the heat on and just the dehumdifier going under the duvet to see what that does.
As for the air fryer - the Ninja Foodi combi that I have is grand for me (I'm not sure for a family bigger than two though). The pressure cooker is brilliant with rice and stuff and the air fryer bit does wedges, chops, sausages, fish'n'chips (the frozen stuff) ok. I haven't used the bake yet, but I will use that soon as I've got a half joint to cook. Hopefully, now with the wire rack, I won't need the bigger oven at all. It allegedly does yoghurt, slow cooking (although I still use the gas hob for that) and dehydrating. If you look at the cost of the things though and then check how much you save in cooking, I'm not sure how long it takes to get back the investment!
That was the impression I was getting with the heated airer - you still need to keep moving the clothes around. I looked at various ones and decided the price made it a no go.
We don't really fry anything much apart from stir fries. No one eats a 'cooked breakfast', so it's the [very] odd bit of bacon -grilled though, and older daughter has a steak now and again [boak] but we do use the oven quite a lot, so the air fryer is to replace some of that usage - roast chicken & veg in particular. I make soup every week through autumn/winter, and mainly make it with slow roast veg, so I'm hoping to try that and see if it works well. Her Dad has one, and younger daughter said it was great for chips, so it'll likely get used for that quite often! I rarely eat them, but it should mean less oven time.
I've never deep fried anything in my life, other than pakora once when we had friends round and did the full curry thing.
Younger daughter knew someone who had one of those combi ovens, or similar. He lived on his own though. I expect it's well worth it rather than a conventional oven/hob in that instance.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I did the roast chicken in mine and that turned out fine although it was more of a faff than the oven (my oven has a program to cook a whole chicken - cooked in a Pyrex (other brands are available) - and it comes out perfect every time) as it meant pressure cooking it first, then air frying it to crisp it off. It turned out pretty well though.
Pressure cooking veg is good as well. The only thing with electric pressure cooking (in general) is recipes - the electric ones don't appear to use the same pressure as hob top cookers, so it's worth checking recipes for the model of pressure cooker you have.
Posts
I must emphasise I entirely understand budgetary constraints affecting so many people and others are maybe altruistic environmentalists. Or maybe your house really does stay warm when the heating is turned off; mine doesn’t. But otherwise why don’t people live in greater comfort (from my perspective)? After all, if you can afford sofas you don’t sit on deckchairs, if you can afford steak you don’t live on bread and rice, and your summer holiday isn’t a weekend in Skeggy.
What I do know is my energy bill is somewhat above the price cap average. Naturally we have economised this year by turning off lights, turning heating right down in lesser used rooms etc and I am hoping for about a 25% saving. However if the weather was wet and cold, as it was yesterday, we did not hesitate to use the override button in the middle of the day off period when we sat down to watch the football.
Are we pampered wimps in Cotto Towers?
I’m often amused when a member of the public happens to mention a product on the TV and then coyly asks if they’re allowed to say that on the BBC. Do they really think we’re be now tempted to buy?
When my older daughter was a young baby, we had a colder than normal winter here - minus 10 and below, and long periods of below minus 5. Our house had single glazing [we only moved in a month before daughter was born] and we were worried about paying the bills as I wasn't working. We had the heating on for an hour when hubby was going to work, and that was it until evening when we had it on for an hour again. We 'cut our cloth' until we had enough bills to work out what we could afford.
I thought of getting one of those @steveTu, but the reviews were so mixed that I decided against it, and just bought another standard one. We had an airing cupboard in the house round the corner, but it's all combi boilers now. That same daughter never needed the rad on in her bedroom because the boiler was in her wardrobe. We've just got one of the air fryers too, to see what we can do in it instead of using the oven.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...