P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[twotravellersLondon]

28 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Just to answer my own question !

Under the new October price cap, an electric oven will cost roughly 50p an hour to run. (Obviously age of the cooker, oven size etc will have an impact). 

By buying a £150 air fryer, you will therefore get "payback" once you have not used your oven for 300 hours. But, obviously, the airfryer still consumes electricity, so, being conservative,  the payback period now increases to, say 350 hours.

We barely use our oven during the summer months,  but I estimate our usage is around 6 hours a week in the winter. So, from a personal point of view, our payback period would be around  two years. Obviously the quality of the food cooked by either method is subjective.

The most economical way of cooking is to use a slow cooker, but I imagine that the quality if fush and chips cooked this way would leave a lot to be desired ! 

 

This may sound a bit like the algebra puzzles that we all did at school.... you know the ones bath, taps on, plug out so how long does it take to fill the bath?

 

With any conventional cooker or hob about half of the energy used is lost to the surrounding air and surfaces in the kitchen. In the middle of really hot weather that's waste... pure and simple. 

 

When the weather turns cooler that "waste heat" warms the kitchen and the house and replaces the need for central heating... in many cases thermostats will cut the central heating in areas that are affected.

 

The same's true of all appliances. So rather than look at them in isolation and worry about how much energy is used by any one... look at the total consumption and where possible keep warm air in the house... for instance; many cooker-hoods have reusable carbon filters and can recycle air so that expensive heat isn't pumped outside. 

 

A basin full of used hot water in the sink warms the surrounding air if left to go cool before being disposed of. Hovering on a cool day contributes to warming the house. 

 

And... lots of people will have other ideas and suggestions.

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

This may sound a bit like the algebra puzzles that we all did at school.... you know the ones bath, taps on, plug out so how long does it take to fill the bath?

 

With any conventional cooker or hob about half of the energy used is lost to the surrounding air and surfaces in the kitchen. In the middle of really hot weather that's waste... pure and simple. 

 

When the weather turns cooler that "waste heat" warms the kitchen and the house and replaces the need for central heating... in many cases thermostats will cut the central heating in areas that are affected.

 

The same's true of all appliances. So rather than look at them in isolation and worry about how much energy is used by any one... look at the total consumption and where possible keep warm air in the house... for instance; many cooker-hoods have reusable carbon filters and can recycle air so that expensive heat isn't pumped outside. 

 

A basin full of used hot water in the sink warms the surrounding air if left to go cool before being disposed of. Hovering on a cool day contributes to warming the house. 

 

And... lots of people will have other ideas and suggestions.

Eminently sensible and more eloquent than anything I could have written !

 

 

[AnnieC]

5 minutes ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

Hovering on a cool day contributes to warming the house. 

 

 

How does that work?😂

[twotravellersLondon]

14 minutes ago, AnnieC said:

How does that work?😂

 

Waste heat from the motor is released into the house and helps to raise the ambient temperature of the room... every little helps. Keep the outside windows and door closed and about half of the energy used to power the hover will negate the need for the same amount of energy to be used to power the central heating. It's a tiddling amount but as my old gran used to say... "Waste not, want not." 😀

Edited September 1, 2022 by twotravellersLondon

[Gettingwarmer]

9 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

I wouldn’t be without my air fryer now and only had it for two weeks, it is a big one 5 ltr and a big square basket which is better than a round basket, much easier to put things into , also just had a smart meter installed yesterday and tested out the oven usage compared to the air fryer and way lower of course, cooking things frozen too is a bonus, I’m still learning and going to bake a cake in it this weekend. After reading many reviews and what was best for me and voted best from BBC good food I brought the 
COSORI xxl 5.5l oil free one from Amazon.

but I’m baffled how to cook paella in it though 🤷‍♀️

But mine is a multi cooker so does much more than just air fry. Paella was good and so quick to do. We haven’t tried a cake yet. 

[Gettingwarmer]

9 hours ago, indiana123 said:

Just read that Ninja 11 is good for a small family.. but I see that the 15 does a lot more.

 

Is the Ninja  15 too big and uneconomical for two of us ...or will it be ok.

There is only two of us and it is a multi cooker so does everything but it is expensive although the 11 in 1  is more expensive at the moment as there is an offer on the 15 in 1.  It also does not steam roast or have the included automatic meat thermostat probe. However it saves time, cooks well, uses so little oil when frying  so good and saves electricity. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Gettingwarmer

[kalos]

35 minutes ago, AnnieC said:

How does that work?😂

 

Put your back into it and you soon get warm ..A bit like this .. https://youtu.be/f4Mc-NYPHaQ?t=14😁

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by kalos

[lincslady]

I wouldn't have thought that hovering would warm the  house - hoovering,  maybe.

[terrierjohn]

47 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I wouldn't have thought that hovering would warm the  house - hoovering,  maybe.

I guess hovering would require a great deal of energy, so that could warm the house as well as a Hoover or Dyson.😉

[twotravellersLondon]

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

I wouldn't have thought that hovering would warm the  house - hoovering,  maybe.

 

15 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I guess hovering would require a great deal of energy, so that could warm the house as well as a Hoover or Dyson.😉

  

I suppose that it really depends on just how vigorously you flap your arms to "hover". Predictive text does make life more fun... but seriously...

 

We run a pretty complex house hold budget spreadsheet... and have done for the last 42 years... it started off on paper and has moved with the times from one computer system to another. It's on a cloud called "I" at the moment... I think.

 

What we do know is that our total energy use in the last year up to 31 August 2022 rose by only 10% and was comparable with what we paid in the same period in 2016-2017.  There's been no great changes, just minor modifications and in fact the 2016-2017 figure is a little lower that it could be because we were off on a number of cruises that year... including on the the Ventura.

 

Yes... our thermostats are a degree or two lower, we close curtains earlier on cold evenings and, as part of the house faces due south, we encourage the 'greenhouse effect' in bright weather. The wall of our study that takes the southern light is painted to absorb the heat and it acts as a heat source... although a very minor one. We keep our freezer full to reduce the running cost. We adjust our fridge temperature with the changing weather. And so on...

 

And just like most people, we make sure that things are switched off, thermostats are down etc, etc when we're away or on holiday. These things aren't "life hacks" they're just habits that we've got used to and now take for granted. Individually, most save just a tiny amount of energy and money but together they've helped our budget over the last year... by hundreds of pounds.

 

And over the last ten years, our energy/power bill has increased by significantly less than the 37.3% goods and services inflation rate over that period. 

 

We're all taking steps... and as my old grannie was Scottish perhaps another of her sayings, "Mony a mickle macks a muckle"... a loose English version is "Many little savings makes a big difference."

Edited September 1, 2022 by twotravellersLondon

[Adawn47]

11 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

I wouldn’t be without my air fryer now and only had it for two weeks, it is a big one 5 ltr and a big square basket which is better than a round basket, much easier to put things into , also just had a smart meter installed yesterday and tested out the oven usage compared to the air fryer and way lower of course, cooking things frozen too is a bonus, I’m still learning and going to bake a cake in it this weekend. After reading many reviews and what was best for me and voted best from BBC good food I brought the 
COSORI xxl 5.5l oil free one from Amazon.

but I’m baffled how to cook paella in it though 🤷‍♀️

After reading your post Sandra, I have looked on Amazon and it seems to be the ideal one for me. As I only need one for two people, would the xxl 5.5 will be too big do you think?

Avril

[SarahHben]

Morning. After all this talk of air fryers I rooted around in the back of my kitchen gadget cupboard and dug out an air fryer that I bought 3 or 4 years ago but didn’t use very much. It’s only a basic Tower one, bought from The Range.
I’ve just ‘cooked’ a pizza in the air fryer, 3 minutes warm up, 4 minutes cook, instead of oven’s 15 minutes warm up for just 1 small item & 10 minutes cook. It was lovely and fluffy, will definitely be getting to grips with using it properly.

[janny444]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

Just to answer my own question !

Under the new October price cap, an electric oven will cost roughly 50p an hour to run. (Obviously age of the cooker, oven size etc will have an impact). 

By buying a £150 air fryer, you will therefore get "payback" once you have not used your oven for 300 hours. But, obviously, the airfryer still consumes electricity, so, being conservative,  the payback period now increases to, say 350 hours.

We barely use our oven during the summer months,  but I estimate our usage is around 6 hours a week in the winter. So, from a personal point of view, our payback period would be around  two years. Obviously the quality of the food cooked by either method is subjective.

The most economical way of cooking is to use a slow cooker, but I imagine that the quality if fush and chips cooked this way would leave a lot to be desired ! 

Phew!....that's some working out but thanx for the time and effort....I only use our oven during the winter for maybe 2 hours a week as I tend to batch cook.....especially bread and cakes....slow cooker mostly takes care of the " other stuff" so according to Wozz's calculations it will take me 6 years for the payback.🤔

[davecttr]

5 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

Morning. After all this talk of air fryers I rooted around in the back of my kitchen gadget cupboard and dug out an air fryer that I bought 3 or 4 years ago but didn’t use very much. It’s only a basic Tower one, bought from The Range.
I’ve just ‘cooked’ a pizza in the air fryer, 3 minutes warm up, 4 minutes cook, instead of oven’s 15 minutes warm up for just 1 small item & 10 minutes cook. It was lovely and fluffy, will definitely be getting to grips with using it properly.

Since I found my gas oven cooks the food just fine without warming up I just switch on, set the temperature, stick the food in and set the timer.

[Angel57]

Lovely walk by the River Stour (near Wimborne) this morning and making the most of the dry weather. 

 

[wowzz]

Been on the phone to our TA this morning, re-faring our Princess cruise in April. Now have a minisuite for only slightly more than the balcony cabin we had previously booked. Still had to pay the Princess £100 admin cost, which I think is excessive, but the overall cost saving made it worthwhile. I wish P&O did something similar.

Phone was answered after 2 or 3 minutes, and the whole process took less than 10 minutes in total.

[zap99]

28 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Been on the phone to our TA this morning, re-faring our Princess cruise in April. Now have a minisuite for only slightly more than the balcony cabin we had previously booked. Still had to pay the Princess £100 admin cost, which I think is excessive, but the overall cost saving made it worthwhile. I wish P&O did something similar.

Phone was answered after 2 or 3 minutes, and the whole process took less than 10 minutes in total.

On the subject of Princess and P&O. We are just waiting to see if our bids to upgrade to a proper suite on Anthem have been successful. As we go on Sunday. I  assume not.

[Peanut006]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Been on the phone to our TA this morning, re-faring our Princess cruise in April. Now have a minisuite for only slightly more than the balcony cabin we had previously booked. Still had to pay the Princess £100 admin cost, which I think is excessive, but the overall cost saving made it worthwhile. I wish P&O did something similar.

Phone was answered after 2 or 3 minutes, and the whole process took less than 10 minutes in total.

I did the same last week for our Princess cruise in May. Moved cabins (to a better location), got gratuities, drinks package, OBC & Wi-fi for the same cost plus £100 admin fee.

 

Michelle 

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, Peanut006 said:

I did the same last week for our Princess cruise in May. Moved cabins (to a better location), got gratuities, drinks package, OBC & Wi-fi for the same cost plus £100 admin fee.

 

Michelle 

Sounds like a deal.

Dare you look at the new prices that started today ? I think you can only refare once, so perhaps best not to look !

[Peanut006]

6 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sounds like a deal.

Dare you look at the new prices that started today ? I think you can only refare once, so perhaps best not to look !

I haven’t looked!!! 
 

Michelle

[Peanut006]

9 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sounds like a deal.

Dare you look at the new prices that started today ? I think you can only refare once, so perhaps best not to look !

I have just looked, hardly any difference for me with Princess plus surprisingly 

 

Michelle

[yorkshirephil]

7 hours ago, SarahHben said:

Morning. After all this talk of air fryers I rooted around in the back of my kitchen gadget cupboard and dug out an air fryer that I bought 3 or 4 years ago but didn’t use very much. It’s only a basic Tower one, bought from The Range.
I’ve just ‘cooked’ a pizza in the air fryer, 3 minutes warm up, 4 minutes cook, instead of oven’s 15 minutes warm up for just 1 small item & 10 minutes cook. It was lovely and fluffy, will definitely be getting to grips with using it properly.

There lies the issue sometimes, I am as guilty as anyone for buying gadgets and gizmos. Sometimes we see things and think that looks handy only to find it does pretty much the same as another gadget. Use it a few times then consign it to a cupboard, however we find that the airfryer is great and we use it regularly. I think it is just a case of experimenting a bit to get the best from it.

[Host Sharon]

I have been using a halogen oven for years, ever since my remoska broke. Cheaper initial outlay and just as good as a conventional oven only quicker. No warm-up time either.

[Purdey16]

12 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

After reading your post Sandra, I have looked on Amazon and it seems to be the ideal one for me. As I only need one for two people, would the xxl 5.5 will be too big do you think?

Avril

Hi Avril , I think it’s more than perfect for two people, I cooked 2 chicken Kievs and two portions of chips all together tonight, a nice square basket and very easy to clean, it is big and it sits on top of my cooker because I don’t have space in my cupboards, it comes in black or all white which is what I’ve got .

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

Use it a few times then consign it to a cupboard

You must have a NutriBullit like us !

Never use it,  but can't bring it upon ourselves to throw it away.