Hi Everyone, This is one of my first real posts where I'm trying to give back to this community. I've been reading this site and asking a gazillion questions to the great guys that frequent the IRC side of this site.
I've been contemplating everything from small wind genny with some solar thermal help to a small array of PV and OR a large wind genny in the size of 10kw to help me with my electricity bill that was going out of control. We currently pay about .16 a KWH here where i am and my usage has been anywhere from 2000-4000KWH per month depending on the time of the year.
Well after reading everything i could get my hands on and trying the guys patience in IRC it because crystal clear that if I was to get anything accomplished my first REAL step in RE is going to have to be conservation.
Well starting last month, i became very conscious of where my power was being used. I bought a Kill A Watt meter and started to make my family nervous with all my figures, facts and notepad. It became evident pretty quick that we have LOTS of areas where we could be saving real money with hardly any effort at all.
First off, i have a large 200gallon fish tank that's been in operation for several years and for the past year I've given away all my fish except for one. I no longer wanted him but wouldn't shut down the tank because I've had him for so long. I finally found someone to take him, so i shut down the tank. It had 2 large pumps that were being left on 24/7 for several years.
Second, we switched every light bulb in our house to the new CFL bulbs
Third, i completely refused to use the clothes dryer, i hung up everything for the entire month. My wife and kids were in awe as they have never seen me do laundry before hah aha.
Fourth, my pc setup is quite large with a large UPC, Tower, Dual monitors, large speaker setup as well as a laser printer. This unit is all connected via the UPC and used to be left running 24/7. Now I've been shutting it down as well as the UPC so its drawing ZERO power at night while i sleep.
And lastly, I became a drill sergeant with left on lights in empty rooms. The kids quickly caught on and rather quickly i may add
Finally, the day arrived when the light bill showed up, I ran into the house in anticipation to finally see what the result would have been. I was SHOCKED to see that we have only used 956KWH for last month. Just imagine how it may look once we get rid of that electric hot water tank!!! We cut our usage down in HALF in one month of a conscious effort! This was our lowest by far EVER! In my research it becomes fairly evident once you crunch enough numbers that $1 saved by conservation can save you $5 in money you will have to dish out for renewable's, and that's something you can take to the bank every month!
I know I have along ways to go, but next month is going to be even more exciting as I've done a few more things to try and curve the KWH habit.
Take care
Steelejones