Conservation is boring but incredibly effective

[Steelejones]

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

[wooferhound]

You can save another $10 a month by venting the house instead of air conditioning.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/4/6/2056/94039

[bob g]

the classic "a penny saved is a penny earned" no longer is applicable

as you have figured out "a penny saved is a nickle"

to have that nickel to purchase AE with, you will have to make upwards of a dime, factoring in taxes, transportation, and other work related expenses.

there simply is no better investment than that of conservation, where else can your reap upwards of 10 to 1?

bob g

[DamonHD]

Yes, dead right: conservation first, RE second, is the way to go.

I cut my home servers down from ~700W to <<30W (and off-grid on solar PV a few hours per day).

Total consumption at home has dropped from ~33kWh/day to maybe 7kWh/day (I'm aiming for 5kWh/day).

(Plus I just switched our electricity supplier, effective 1st October) to take all our energy from 'green' sources, and the new supplier (Ecotricity) is building new wind gen like crazy, basically with all the money from retail customers.)

Rgds

Damon

[Steelejones]

It would be completely amazing if i could get down to even 20kwh a day!!!

[mungewell]

My first thought was 4000KWH per month!!!

But I'm really impressed to see the savings that you have made, congratulations. Although be warned once you start 'watt picking' you'll never stop ;-)

Simon.

[dirk65]

I halved my electricity consumption by half. 600kWh in one year instead of 1200kWh. Ok, maybe 990Wp installed on my roof since june did contribute a bit also.. Changing from halogen lamps to CFL and LED, shutting down appliances instead of leaving them stand by must have helped also. Nowadays I'm daily on my roof, checking wind speed and direction and looking down my garden for a suitable place for a turbine. It's a nice addiction. Next year I'll try installing solar water heating in order to reduce gas consumption.

[DamonHD]

Yes, we're looking to move for room for another child, and solar hot water is definitely something I'm keen on doing to cut gas usage, once we're settled in.

Not at all sure if I want to do solar PV on a large scale because of the sheer cost, but if I could do enough grid-tied to reduce our net grid electricity consumption over a year to zero or below, then I'm keen.  4kWp would do it comfortably I think.  I'd install some extra panels alongside for off-grid too, if possible.

(Then maybe a MotorWind-style wind gen on the roof ridge if it works at all and if I can get planning permission, for more off-grid power!)

Rgds

Damon

[jacquesm]

Super work steelejones, I'm really happy that you have taken the time and effort to post your work and your figures.

It's one of the easiest ways of lowering your powerbill, to get the same effect from renewable energy sources you'd be spending lots of $...

keep up the good work and please keep us posted, it's like a sport, trying to beat last months bill on the low side

best regards,

 Jacques

[DanG]

I think you will miss the tanks come next winter. Aquariums are a nice way to keep some humidity in the air when outside air is twenty below with with no/low moisture left in it - I keep two 2-1/2 gallon plant tanks with java ferns and another broad leaf aquatic plant with just 7 watt 5000k CFL bulbs over each on a timer for 16 hours a day, with the timer draw a kilowatt every four days and very pleasing on dark dreary winter days.

With conservation efforts in a 1920 frame house the utility bills are slightly less dollar amounts than they were in 1998 when I arrived here - our immediate neighbors are paying $500 a month in winter and summer when our bills max out at $180 and I haven't really done the hardest mods yet! Now that you have accomplished major active conservation measures look for 50 more passive (is that possible?) winter ways to save like...

Wall-hangings or art on the coldest walls... Adding a mud-room on the most used entrance for the air-lock effect, keep conditioned air inside... Physically inspecting attic-basement ductwork and plenums for misfits or failed joints to include removing the registers in the living area and peeking around everywhere possible... Keeping refrigerator fan & coils spotlessly clean... Tight fitting roller blinds that have a foil layer laminated in (sometimes found in are 'room darkening' type" to pull shut at night and only open half way except where sunlight can pour in... An extra layer of insulation on the HW heater.... the list goes on forever!

[wooferhound]

I opened the floor vent covers in my house and I was surprised to find a 1/8 inch gap between the Metal Duct and the Wooden floor surrounding it. AND The Under House air was coming up through that gap. Minutes later I had a caulk gun and sealed all the vents in the house.

It was letting in air that was not the right temperature, plus that Under House air isn't very healthy.

[DanG]

Yup. Just a couple of the 'search' successes here: found a second floor air return missing a baffle plate so it was drawing 90% from the attic behind the knee wall and  short-circuiting the whole of second floor returns with super heated or cooled squirrel-nest air (or worse) and the installers leaving the 8x14 legal sized instructions inserted between the AC evap coil layers that restricted total airflow in the system by 30%. Take nothing for granted!

[TomW]

DanG;

Probably "highly trained" union installers too!

T

[GaryGary]

Hi,

Way to go!

My big interest is solar heating projects, but I came to the same conclusion as you did -- solar is fun and interesting, but conservation is where the most bang for the buck is.

Some more potential ideas for you:

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/ProjectsConservation.htm

Gary

[twombo]

Impressive, Woof!  a 50 % or better reduction is amazing!

I was sorta forced into conservation when I bought my place in the woods. On average I use about 2 kw/hr a day on summer days  and 1.5 kw hr on cooler days. Granted, I live a  spartan life, but I'm comfortable. Conservation is a huge part of my limited energy budget.

Mike

[GlutealCleft]

I found the exact opposite.  I went around with a kill-a-watt measuring everything, and didn't come up with much useful.  Rather than measure the power draw, I left it in KWh mode over a few days to a week to see how much we used things, and nothing that we plugged into an outlet really used much.

The largest draw, by far, is our air conditioner.  Venting our house isn't really an option, it's far, far too hot here in the summer.  :-(

[DamonHD]

All your lighting on (C)FL or LED?  Getting rid of any incandescent used for more than about 3 hours per day should make a useful difference...

Rgds

Damon

[rossw]

This one is a double-edged sword in summer.

Taking out 10 x 50W incandescent lamps that burn much of the time (SO many new places have that many halogen downlights!) and replacing with CFLs:

 (a) reduces the consumption by close to 400W

but also

 (b) reduces your additional HEAT LOAD by that much

which

 (c) reduces your AIRCONDITIONING requirements by at least that!

My new home has 120 downlights - if we'd gone with the "recommended" spacing by the "experts" it would have been almost double that.

Instead, I went with all GU-10 style CFL lamps at 11 watts each. Even better, they have a 120 degree angle of radiation, which lets us put them on a 2.4 metre grid instead of a much tighter grid that was suggested to avoid the "lilly-pad" effect most of the lower angle (tighter beam) halogens have.

We still manage to survive our 46-degree celcius (115 F) summers without airconditioning....