Is there any XXX ways to save energy around the house writen

[guest001]

There's one for saving gas. I was curious if there was anything like this for around the house. looking for something good ideas to save energy and a buck or two around the house.

[bowtieguy]

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=4989

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=2299

[guest001]

Thanks.

[shatto]

Forget the government mandated mercury filled pig-tailed lightbulbs. LED's are here.

Rodale Press published a good book on all that stuff in the late 70's.
I got all excited about doing all that self sufficient stuff then realized that none of the cool stuff could be done in a city. No biomass generator. No room for the stand of trees, no fires allowed now, no windmill, trombe wall, no well for heating and cooling. Almost nothing that could be justified unless you were sure to never move so you could ultimately recoup the investment.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Yup the books that explain that you're a complete a-hole for not living in perfect ecological symmetry because it's so easy if you just do this, this, and this, fail to explain where everybody gets their 10 acres from....

Practically everything big I can think of to do is in violation of some city building code or other... and if not in violation, needs to be done and certified by a professional, which pretty much means you can get yourself a nice $10,000 solar electric or solar water heater system that will pay itself off in 50 years if energy prices rise exponentially. (i.e. not very large, not very efficient, and $9,500 of it appearing to be pure profit and labor) it's like owning a Prius, it's a status symbol for ecosmug, but of questionable overall benefit.

[GasSavers_Scott]

California and a couple of other states are giving state sponsored solar panels to your house. The catch is, its a minimal system, you will never be able to generate too much power, then the public utilities have to pay you.

Now Italy has just lit a public road way with LED, it uses half of the power of the Sodium lighting and is as bright as day light. LED is still expensive, it will be cheap in a cuple of years.

A friend of my works in municipal structures lighting, 40 years ago it was 300 watt light bulbs, 30 years ago every body went high pressure sodim and that gave off twice the lighting at only 175 watts. 5 years ago high efficiency flourescents came into being running 40 to 50 watts. 3 years ago LED got designers to make jumbo LED systems and their running 30 watts. The CFL's in your house are going to give way to LED's soon.

My house is covered in CFL's, I run kitchen lights at 11 watts and its bright in there. I used to run 2 60's and now I run a total of 22 watts. My portch light is a 7 watt CFL, hall lights, sconces, torche' all CFL and yes I can see a reduction in my bill, so far over 3 years and not one has burned out. Now Consumer Reports did a report on CFL's, they took bulbs from 3 dollars to 56 dollars and they all put out the same lumons and lasted about 5 years. All my CFL's are from Home Depot, I buy em in the 4 and 6 packs for 9 to 13 dollars a pack.

[dkjones96]

I've started giving CFLs to family for gifts. My mom used to run 2 lamps with 3 60 watt bulbs per unit and she'd run them for hours on end. I calculated it out to ~4.2Kw/hr per day for her to run those lamps. Last Christmas I went to her house and made a list of all the bulbs and wattages she used and even got dimmers for the hallway(the excuse she always used for not getting them). The last time I asked her about it the bill had dropped $60 a month. Like me, the only incandescent light in the home is the one in the fridge. I've been thinking of making an LED panel light for my fridge.

[theholycow]

I put a CFL in my fridge. A few months later I put another one in. Finally I gave up...I turn on the kitchen light if I need to see in the fridge.

[bowtieguy]

everyone knows the easiest and cheapest way to reduce your energy bill is to "modify" your meter.

[GasSavers_Pete]

Originally Posted by theholycow

I put a CFL in my fridge. A few months later I put another one in. Finally I gave up...I turn on the kitchen light if I need to see in the fridge.

Interesting point there.

I don't walk around my place in the dark either so why is there a light in the cold box and not in a normal cupboard?

Simply put. There is a room light on anyway why add another in the fridge?
If it is bright enough to see without a light on then you shouldn't need one in the fridge either.

That said the number of times I open my fridge is about twice or three times per day so I don't think there is a huge difference anyway.

Yep I agree LED's are well on the way to replacing compact fluoro's.
Pete.