Two or Three best energy saving devices.

Madpaddy · Expert Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 1936

I third the wattmeter. I had no idea that my computer when fully powered down was still sucking 25 watts via my wireless broadband connection. The electrisave showed me that I have a baseline consumption of between 50 and 90 watts. That is because either one of the refridgerator or my well pump or my solar pump or mycordless phone is always using something.However, I am quite happy with my 7-8kWh per day consumption. I reckon though, that to be off grid I need to cut this down to 3 kWh per day - what gives...

I don't use a clothes dryer and my fridge is A rated.
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snax · Tar Sands Joined: Jan 20, 2007 Posts: 74

Aside from my commuting to work by bike or bus, the second biggest energy saver for us is the OFF setting for the heat pump during temperate days. Although we keep the fan running most of the time to promote better air circulation, it seems to be cutting about 200kWH/month on average from our energy useage. That and more intelligent planning of our oven useage, such as less frequent baking as the weather warms up, makes a significant impact.

gg3

Ten points to Green_Achers. The lever, the wheel, and the inclined plane / multiply muscles by using your brain!

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Niagara gets a TrollRate for "767s..."

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Okay...

The clothes line. Saves 2.4 KWH for every load that goes on the line instead of in a tumble dryer.

The sweater, knit cap, and scarf: Let you turn down winter temperatures to about 60 Fahrenheit and still stay cozy.

The heating pad: 50 watts to warm your body at even lower temps, rather than 1500 watts (or equivalent) to heat a room.

The Kill-A-Watt meter. Same comments as others above.

Bicycles, obviously. Ditto.

The (hardwired landline) telephone. 2.5 watts while talking, instead of having to drive places. Communication substitutes for transportation.

The pot pipe. Enables smoking marijuana, which replaces the desire to consume material goods with the pure satisfaction of whatever sensory stimulus happens to be available at the time, thereby contributing to overall powerdown.

The condom and the IUD. Preventing accidental pregnancies is the single biggest thing anyone can do to reduce overall energy & resource consumption.

Madpaddy · Expert Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 1936

gg3,

You have to get off the whole lets stop reproducing thing... you're beginning to upset me.

Because you are right and I already have 2 kids. Don't worry, we won't be having another.
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Wolfeman30 · Tar Sands Joined: May 04, 2007 Posts: 21

I can think of 2 things:

1. Your Brain - make the choice to consume less - drop your ego and cooperate more. Stop the me, me, me, rhetoric

2. Education - understand the consequences of using more.

snax · Tar Sands Joined: Jan 20, 2007 Posts: 74

Niagara

Madpaddy · Expert Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 1936

My wife got this for me for my birthday. I can truely say, it is the business.

http://www.diykyoto.com/

Each day is broken into 5 minute segments so once you download the data from the Receiver (Wattson) into your PC, you can even tell at what time of the day the washing machine was switched on. I now have my kids going around the house plugging out everything so they can get Wattson to read 0. The transmitter which is a CT clamp on the supply is called Holmes (funny that).
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JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 384

Pretty cool, but......that price is more than 4 months of electricity for me. No thanks, a $20 kill a watt will do pretty much the same though not as conveniently.
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The shovel with a wheel - The Wovel.
http://wovel.com/

Building the AMPhibian
http://amp-phibian.blogspot.com/

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/

TheDude

It's strictly for EU countries too, looks like.

How do you rank the Wovel against the bicycle or insulation or the brain, JRP3? That's pretty clever. I'm fond of Grandpa's Weeder myself. That thing can really yank.
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Cogito, ergo non satis bibivi
The god damn plane has crashed into the mountain!

Dukat_Reloaded · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 1004

TheDude

JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 384

PhebaAndThePilgrim

Good day from Pheba, from the farm:
Here on the farm we have cut kwh from about 900 down to 450, and that includes lights for outbuildings, all hotwire for cattle, all water heating elements, etc.
We heat with wood, have a house that is very well insulated, and I have a quirky way I have evolved to do the laundry. We do not wear clothing just one time if we don't get it dirty. That's crazy and creates a lot of work. If I wear a nice outfit to, let's say, to the doctors office, then take it off when I come straight home, that article of clothing is not dirty. So, I don't wash it.
I only put clothing in the dryer for five minutes, then remove and hang up wet to dry in the house. The clothing dries beautifully this way. The five minutes in the dryer softens it up and I reduced our electric use by 150kwh a month by adopting this sytem. Since we heat with wood we are finding that our laundry is a very big drawdown for energy. I have become creative to try to reduce that. I know I am getting personal now, but one thing that always bugged me was bath towels. The energy used to launder a bath towel is silly. But if you dry a private body part with a bath towel, that makes it dirty in my book. So, I dry my body with the towel, and the private places with a dry washcloth. I can wash two weeks of wash cloths for the cost of washing one bath towel.
I purchased a nice toaster/convection oven. We love it. When it is just the two of us, and we want to bake something small I use the toaster convection oven. The amount of energy used is cut in half. By the way, our wood stove also heats all of our home hot water, so hot water is not figured into energy savings of 150kwh. All of that is savings from reduction in electric used to heat the dryer and run the washer.
I can not hang laundry outside. We have a clothesline, but I have asthma, and the pollen gets in the clothing. Ditto for road dust from our gravel road. Also we raise blackberries and during the summer the birds eat blackberries and then fly over and potty on my fresh clean laundry. The stains do not come out. I swear they always aim for the most expensive item on the clothesline. I have become very creative at hanging laundry to dry in the house. We also do not have air conditioning. We would like a ground source heat pump, but do not have the money right now. Pheba.