What are you doing to save energy?
- Thread starter JJJJ
- Start date
HalfBaked
Ever the student
It works but not great. When I first moved off grid I tried using a small non-operative chest freezer that I had to swap out 6gal frozen water jugs every couple days. That worked until every 2 days became 3, then 4 then salmonella.
Shawn Hayes
Learning Everyday
Exactly. In my garage, I have an original 1953/4 GE refrigerator still operating as it was sold, not refurbished.
In the kitchen, an LG inverter fridge (25 cu/ft) that uses 562-kWh’s per year. How long will it last?
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
31 ways to save on winter heating for $30 or less (energy forum at permies)
31 ways to reduce heating costs in winter and for less than $30. Even if you can only do one change listed here the first year, you'll be able to do two the next year and four the following because these projects, if done with thought for your situation, can pay for themselves in very little...
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
They missed one and it's free.31 ways to save on winter heating for $30 or less (energy forum at permies)
31 ways to reduce heating costs in winter and for less than $30. Even if you can only do one change listed here the first year, you'll be able to do two the next year and four the following because these projects, if done with thought for your situation, can pay for themselves in very little...permies.com
It's called sleeping close to your partner.
I found new way to save a little energy a couple days ago. Under the cover of darkness, I sneak over to the neighbor's house and plug in an extension cord on his porch to run my fridge. By morning I just give the cord a yank before he can notice! You're welcome.
cs1234
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- May 9, 2022
- Messages
- 2,324
Charging a battery bank is a better way to go. Right up to the limit of the outlet. A whole night of 120vac at 15 amps is a good haul.
How about you sell him some free energy during the summer when you're overproducing, and buy it back in the winter to charge your batteries. Heck you can even give him a discount .
I already know what @timselectric is going to say:
"I overproduce 24/7/365"???
In that case, I'll wait until he goes on vacation and trench in a feeder from his air conditioner circuit.
cs1234
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- May 9, 2022
- Messages
- 2,324
Harder to claim "sleep walking" as a defense if you take it to that extreme.
I wondered why my electric bill took such a hit!
BigDoug
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2022
- Messages
- 29
The town I live in has a few free EV chargers. I grabbed the EV charging adapter from Ecoflow for a "just in case" scenario.... Sure, my taxes are helping pay for all of it, and I don't plan to use it if I don't have to - those things are way too heavy to just consistently be lugging around - but it's nice to have as an option. Went and tested it out the other day just to make sure the adapter did work.
Wish
New Member
Since watching a serious wildfire incident in California, USA in 2021. After seeing the scene of ecological destruction, I think it is really important to protect the ecology. To be honest, if you ask me if I am a 100% energy-saving person, I am not, but I have done some things that I can do to save energy. I set aside a piece of land on my farm and built a house. There were no appliances in it, and I didn’t install any circuits. I would spend two days there with my family on the weekends. If there was nothing special, we would insist on it. Spend two days of primitive life there. I have recently paid attention to solar energy. The house I built before did not have any home appliances, but I want to consider what solar products are green and environmentally friendly?
When my boys were in scouting took part in a number of backpacking trips. There is something very special about being away from technology and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.
When I was young we used to stay in a cabin up in Canada. They did have electricity but there was no radio or TV. Our entertainment was outdoors.
As a professional my life is wrapped up in tech and am very comfortable with it. There really is value however to decompressing and getting away from it all even if it is a walk on a trail.
Got my Induction hotplate today. Put on a pot to make some tea. I thought the old electric stove was good. In the past I would put hot water in the pot and it usually took 5 to 10 minutes to warm the water. This thing did it in half the time with cold water to start. Very impressive technology.
JakAHearts
New Member
Interesting. Now if I can get my wife to use it over the stovetop....
NCislander
Solar Enthusiast
Not doing much to "Save" energy. The way I see it is having many different energy sources. Learning how to mix them effectively.
Heating: Woodburner Stove, Propane, Electricity
Cooking: Propane, Electricity, Wood BBQ
Lighting: LED Lights
Electricity: Solar/DIY Batteries, Gas Generator, Grid
Water: Gravity Fed Spring/Holding Tank
Heating: Woodburner Stove, Propane, Electricity
Cooking: Propane, Electricity, Wood BBQ
Lighting: LED Lights
Electricity: Solar/DIY Batteries, Gas Generator, Grid
Water: Gravity Fed Spring/Holding Tank
As an IT guy, I query the "SSD pull less power" assertion. This is often not true at all, you may want to check the devices you're using. SSDs are better in terms of ruggedness but they don't always pull less power (and in fact can pull more because they're running at faster bus speeds!).
Generally, however, I don't change the energy I pull very much. I pull power because I need to use it. This is often overlooked by all the green-policy writers. I don't have things pulling electricity for the fun of it, I have them because I need them. I have things in standby because I need or want them in standby, and so on.
However, there are some obvious changes. I bought an all-electric house last year and I'm slowly putting in some small solar setup into it, building on it each month. It's an amateur setup, but it grows all the time and is at the point where it is saving me money already.
- Before I even started, I noticed a lot that I changed on day one. The previous guy had halogens and incandescent lights everywhere. I removed over 1KW of lighting and replaced it with LED bulbs that don't even pull 60W collectively in normal usage. There were literal scorch-marks on the ceiling from the light fittings (which all had multiple lamps!) previously because of the heat he was throwing away.
- I turned off the immersion heater. It was on an "Economy 7" timer that basically means it only turned on overnight to try to save money, and then cooled throughout the day. Those things were built in an era of housewives, and as someone who lives alone and work during the day, it was just a waste - by the time I get home, most of the savings have cooled away. I turn it on when I need it now, and am looking at an instant hot-water heater and a power shower instead. Higher pull, sure, but far less power overall.
- Similarly, I turned off all the storage heating. Same problem. I'd wake up baking hot in the morning and by the time I got home the house was lukewarm, and I'd be pulling so much power to do it that it was wasteful.
- Better insulation, sealing lots of holes (e.g. an old tumble-dryer vent), keeping doors closed, and point-of-use heaters and water-heating. Higher peak load, sure, but far lower overall usage. I even use a Tassimo rather than a kettle so it only heats what I'm going to drink, and only to a temperature that I'm going to drink it at straight away (I hate having to wait for my tea to "cool" first!). The house maintains 20C (in the UK) for 90% of the year and I only need to put the heating on for maybe a month at most.
- A robot vacuum rather than a large Dyson. He runs around while I'm at work, and I can charge him very cheaply or even for free if I have solar battery power still. Far better than a 2KW monstrosity.
- I got a set of Worx tools that all use the same batteries, and I put the charger on the solar. So my "jobs around the house" don't use any power. Even cutting the lawn uses nothing but solar.
- Smart plugs. Technically I'm pulling power to run them, but they let me turn on/off the solar remotely and monitor my energy usage. It's also helpful for inaccessible things - I can turn on my external garden power socket from an app, I can turn on some gadgets that are high-up on the ceiling without having to get up, etc. Tiny power usage overall (<1W each in standby) but savings because I can just turn things off when I remember. I put the dishwasher and the washer-dryer on a plug but I have a control button that I twist to turn one or the other on. Not only does this stop me blowing a fuse, but it also means that I separate their usage and can turn them off remotely when their program is finished (and they are connected to a water leak sensor so they get turned off if they drip water anywhere).
- I have a second small freezer that's only needed for half the month. So when there is space, I empty it into my main freezer and then turn it off with a smart plug. Also lets me know if the power has gone out and how long ago, if I need to do something about my frozen food!
- I use a slow-cooker - I often prep meals on a weekend, leave them in the slow cooker, and then power it up remotely from work. By the time I get home, the food is piping hot and ready to eat immediately. I do this throughout winter, and tend to start with veggies and add meat later in the week (so the meat doesn't get re-heated too many times). I also bought a pair of silicone inserts for it so I can keep two different meals going and just eat / rinse one out. The slow-cooker is on a smart switch that monitors energy usage and it costs less than other methods of cooking and has much lower overall peak draw.
- I didn't make a "change" as such but I use a laptop rather than a PC, and all my "always-on" servers are using the solar. I use Raspberry Pi's and a NAS box for things like entertainment (my own personal Netflix/Spotify) and watching TV, tracking aircraft, monitoring the solar, etc. etc. All my CCTV cameras are PoE run from the same setup, which has its own UPS. The whole shebang uses less than 80W at the wall. I also don't have a physical TV, I use my laptop, so I don't have a huge TV running for 8 hours a day like some people I know.
- Each month, I spend more on more batteries, a better controller, more panels, etc. and slowly move more to the solar and lower my grid bill. I have such lower usage than the previous guy, in fact, that even at the start the electricity company kept estimating I would use nearly TRIPLE the energy that I did. Presumably because of the previous owner's wasteful usage. Each time they would take a huge payment from me, but my bill would be tiny, and I'd demand a refund - and then spend the difference on more solar or batteries!
There's plenty you can do, but do remember - you're pulling power for a reason. For me, that reason is most often "luxury/convenience" (e.g. running a washer-dryer), and it's a conscious choice (because I work hard to earn money which I then use so I don't have to work so hard!). I don't mind adapting a little, but I'm never going to be one of those people who monitors every watt and cuts out all appliances. What I will be, though, is someone who has planned - by retirement - to generate all the electricity I do use. Including, potentially, an electric vehicle.
Generally, however, I don't change the energy I pull very much. I pull power because I need to use it. This is often overlooked by all the green-policy writers. I don't have things pulling electricity for the fun of it, I have them because I need them. I have things in standby because I need or want them in standby, and so on.
However, there are some obvious changes. I bought an all-electric house last year and I'm slowly putting in some small solar setup into it, building on it each month. It's an amateur setup, but it grows all the time and is at the point where it is saving me money already.
- Before I even started, I noticed a lot that I changed on day one. The previous guy had halogens and incandescent lights everywhere. I removed over 1KW of lighting and replaced it with LED bulbs that don't even pull 60W collectively in normal usage. There were literal scorch-marks on the ceiling from the light fittings (which all had multiple lamps!) previously because of the heat he was throwing away.
- I turned off the immersion heater. It was on an "Economy 7" timer that basically means it only turned on overnight to try to save money, and then cooled throughout the day. Those things were built in an era of housewives, and as someone who lives alone and work during the day, it was just a waste - by the time I get home, most of the savings have cooled away. I turn it on when I need it now, and am looking at an instant hot-water heater and a power shower instead. Higher pull, sure, but far less power overall.
- Similarly, I turned off all the storage heating. Same problem. I'd wake up baking hot in the morning and by the time I got home the house was lukewarm, and I'd be pulling so much power to do it that it was wasteful.
- Better insulation, sealing lots of holes (e.g. an old tumble-dryer vent), keeping doors closed, and point-of-use heaters and water-heating. Higher peak load, sure, but far lower overall usage. I even use a Tassimo rather than a kettle so it only heats what I'm going to drink, and only to a temperature that I'm going to drink it at straight away (I hate having to wait for my tea to "cool" first!). The house maintains 20C (in the UK) for 90% of the year and I only need to put the heating on for maybe a month at most.
- A robot vacuum rather than a large Dyson. He runs around while I'm at work, and I can charge him very cheaply or even for free if I have solar battery power still. Far better than a 2KW monstrosity.
- I got a set of Worx tools that all use the same batteries, and I put the charger on the solar. So my "jobs around the house" don't use any power. Even cutting the lawn uses nothing but solar.
- Smart plugs. Technically I'm pulling power to run them, but they let me turn on/off the solar remotely and monitor my energy usage. It's also helpful for inaccessible things - I can turn on my external garden power socket from an app, I can turn on some gadgets that are high-up on the ceiling without having to get up, etc. Tiny power usage overall (<1W each in standby) but savings because I can just turn things off when I remember. I put the dishwasher and the washer-dryer on a plug but I have a control button that I twist to turn one or the other on. Not only does this stop me blowing a fuse, but it also means that I separate their usage and can turn them off remotely when their program is finished (and they are connected to a water leak sensor so they get turned off if they drip water anywhere).
- I have a second small freezer that's only needed for half the month. So when there is space, I empty it into my main freezer and then turn it off with a smart plug. Also lets me know if the power has gone out and how long ago, if I need to do something about my frozen food!
- I use a slow-cooker - I often prep meals on a weekend, leave them in the slow cooker, and then power it up remotely from work. By the time I get home, the food is piping hot and ready to eat immediately. I do this throughout winter, and tend to start with veggies and add meat later in the week (so the meat doesn't get re-heated too many times). I also bought a pair of silicone inserts for it so I can keep two different meals going and just eat / rinse one out. The slow-cooker is on a smart switch that monitors energy usage and it costs less than other methods of cooking and has much lower overall peak draw.
- I didn't make a "change" as such but I use a laptop rather than a PC, and all my "always-on" servers are using the solar. I use Raspberry Pi's and a NAS box for things like entertainment (my own personal Netflix/Spotify) and watching TV, tracking aircraft, monitoring the solar, etc. etc. All my CCTV cameras are PoE run from the same setup, which has its own UPS. The whole shebang uses less than 80W at the wall. I also don't have a physical TV, I use my laptop, so I don't have a huge TV running for 8 hours a day like some people I know.
- Each month, I spend more on more batteries, a better controller, more panels, etc. and slowly move more to the solar and lower my grid bill. I have such lower usage than the previous guy, in fact, that even at the start the electricity company kept estimating I would use nearly TRIPLE the energy that I did. Presumably because of the previous owner's wasteful usage. Each time they would take a huge payment from me, but my bill would be tiny, and I'd demand a refund - and then spend the difference on more solar or batteries!
There's plenty you can do, but do remember - you're pulling power for a reason. For me, that reason is most often "luxury/convenience" (e.g. running a washer-dryer), and it's a conscious choice (because I work hard to earn money which I then use so I don't have to work so hard!). I don't mind adapting a little, but I'm never going to be one of those people who monitors every watt and cuts out all appliances. What I will be, though, is someone who has planned - by retirement - to generate all the electricity I do use. Including, potentially, an electric vehicle.
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