Energy wasters

[petek]

I disagree, I find the "daylight" type CF's much easier to read by.. try em you'll like em. Many times I don't even have to wear my drug store specs.

 

[toggleswitch]

So what is the rule-of-thumb?

Is it get a fuorescent a wattage of about 1/4 of the incandescent wattage?

 

[mrboilwash]

I think I remember having read somewhere that only about 10% of the average German electricity bill is used for washing.
Toggle don`t dare to comment, we are a clean nation ;-)

I won`t drop wash temperatures and don`t feel guilty, but of course I try to save energy wherever it really does make sense.

In 2002 I have seen that "Washright" TV spot in the UK, exactly the same spot as here in Germany except for the temperatures. While we have been educated to stop washing at 90° and drop to 60°, UK citizes have been taught to switch down from 60° to 40°. So I guess we are even worse wasters and still it is only about 10%.

 

[chad_hauris]

As far as I know, the compact fluorescents use a rectifier and then a solid state inverter type oscillator to power the tube at a higher frequency so there shouldn't be 60/50 hz flicker like in a traditional ballast type fluorescent lamp.

I use only compact fluorescents except in the few lamps I use on a dimmer and some CF's have been on for almost 4 yrs constanly and are still going fine.

 

[washertalk]

You know... The US uses like 25% of all the worlds energy. (and if your republican, your darn proud of it, and will strive to use even more! ha-rumphh)

I recently stepped back on hot water washes. I have always soaked whites like sheets and socks in warm for 30 minutes then washed in warm. Haven't noticed a difference.

Having clean stable water, meaning SOFTened or treated for what ever it's issues may be, and non-rusting water pipes will make a difference in your laundry and all cleaning results.

My water heater is the smallest I could buy and uses outside air for combustion. With an extra insulation jacket added and I have set it at 125 degrees the lowest it can go.

Have an electric robotic lawnmower(no handling of gas, no noise, no air pollution, no yard waste), drive a Honda Civic for a car, and turn off the water between rinsing my hair in the shower and lathering up & rinsing off.

But I must confess I like the house comfortable at 72 degrees all the time, but I added more insulation to my attic and added storm windows where needed.

Not to make it seem irrelevent but I think if you are doing 1 load a week of hot laundry vs doing that same load with warm, you are probably only using 10 more gallons of hot water per week.

 

[washertalk]

some pics

cuz I know we all like pics.

The water heater is just a standard "Hotpoint" 30 gallon gas bought at Lowes for like 249. It is designed with vents on the lower bottom for combustion air. so I simply made an adaptor and connected a standard 4" dryer vent ducting connected to a Stationary intack vent from the outside. Elimated the vent draft hood as that is necessary when there would not be any inside are leakage in the event of a backdraft.

 

[washertalk]

close up. Still need to insulate the water pipes coming from the water heater.

 

[washertalk]

close up of temperature setting

 

[washertalk]

I think I did a good job considering I moved the W. heater from the other side of the basement and had to replumb some gas lines and some of the Hot water lines(resize). I thought it would take me longer but I have to admit I bought the water heater in October 05 and didn't install it until July 06. Lots of time to plan and mentally do the work.

the 4" intake adapter I made with sheet metal.

 

[washertalk]

my robotic lawnmower

does a great job.

very quiet.

 

[washertalk]

to top control panel

 

[washertalk]

the blades, could probably use cleaning.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

The mower is neat, but I'm not sure it's less polluting than a gas mower. The electricity to charge it was made how? And the batteries cause pollution when manufactured and again when recycled/disposed of.

You might want to turn up the water heater just a little, you don't want anything growing in there.

Ken

 

[petek]

Love the mower, does it work with an underground perimeter wire? I saw something similar a few years ago from Husqvarna I believe.
We keep our hot water heater temp pretty low as well. You can shower with just the hot water on pretty much. I figure with all the chemicals in the laundry detergent they'll clean anything regardless of water temp. And for the dishwasher we just set it for the extra hot wash using the dw's internal water heater to boost.

 

[washertalk]

perimeter wire, easy to put down. check it out at www.friendlyrobotics.com

Husqvarna had one as well but I thing they are redesigning it.
There are several out there. There is one that is large, like 5foot wide, and is made for golf courses.

I like the friendly robotics because they offer the most options at a reasonable price. You can program this mower and set out side, with its recharge stand, at the beginning of the mowing season, program it, and not have to do anything with it until it is time to bring in in the fall. It will go out and mow on the days and times you select, then when done come back to it's dock and recharge.

As for the Dishwasher, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I chose to forego dishwashing about 4 years ago, with no regrets. In the past I ran the DW like once a week. by the time it ran the soil wouldn't all come off. It takes me 10 minutes a day to wash dishes. no noise, no electric, no loading, and always clean. Maybe if I found someone special who would tolerate me, I would have the need for a dw. I think then I would get a inexpensive undersink 240v. instant water heater just for the sink and dw. I know the water should be at least 140 degrees there.

 

[oxydolfan1]

Them's fightin' words Aquarius.....

Speaking of which, what is the proper setting for the water heater....I think mine is usually 140(there's a senior citizen in the house, and the manual advises me to keep it on the triangle setting...sometimes I throw it up to "B" before washing whites and turn it right back.

 

[Cybrvanr]

Here's some of the things I've done to save energy on this side of the pond that had relatively little in investment, if any, but had pretty good returns:

Converted most of my incandescant light fixtures to using CFL's. I love those new "daylight" ones! I don't like lots of light anyways, so i bought some of the 9 watt models and replaced all my 60 watt bulbs

Turn lights and appliances off in rooms I'm not occupying..

Take a shower at night, then turn the water-heater off before I go to bed. Turn it on again the next day when I get home from work, and do all my water-based chores after about an hour or so...this way, the water heater is sitting at least 18 hours without consuming any electricity.

Plugged appliances that take "standby" power all into outlet strips, then turn off the strip whenever they're not being used...IE appliances with clocks, wall-wort AC adapters, etc.

I planted some maple trees on the south side of my house. During the summer, their leaves block sunlight from getting to the house and heating it up, and thus keep it cooler. During the winter, they loose their leaves, and allow the sunlight in the windows, thus warming the house.

Planted some low shrubs around the AC compressor to keep it out of direct sunlight.

swapped my low-voltage landscaping lights for solar LED ones

Installed ceiling fans in the most commonly used rooms. During the winter, they run on low in the updraft direction to push warm air away from the ceiling. During the summer, they run on medium downdraft, and then I don't need to set the AC as cool.

...so far, these ideas have made significant savings! My electric bill this summer, even during the hottest part didn't top $84. During this past fall when I had the HVAC systems off because the weather was comfortable, it got as cheap as $37!

 

[gizmo]

energy use

Our house runs from solar power, so we have to be very conscious of power use.

Specific things done to save energy:

-All lights are compact fluoro
-cordless phone runs directly from the solar batteries
-wood heater in lounge room, its fan replaced with 4 "muffin fans" which run from 12 volt
-Asko front loader with heating element disconnected
-computer is a laptop -uses about 1/10 the power of a desktop
-clock radio runs from ni-mh batteries (Grundig Ocean Boy radio - a lovely little radio)
-TV, digital set-top box, dvd, vcr, and sat decoder all plugged into power board which is turned off when tv not in use
-every night before going to sleep, I check that everything is switched off - a neon on a power board flashes when the inverter is off so I know there is nothing still running
-fridge runs from lpg
-clothes irons - electric one is a 300 watt dry iron, otherwise put two old Morphy-Richards 1950s vintage elec irons with cords removed onto the wood stove to heat up.
-two stoves - gas in summer, wood in winter
-microwave oven used only infrequently - older Philips uses 950 watts input for 550 watts output
-Hot water from solar with wood stove boost in winter
our electricity use is generally under 1 kw per day, up to 1.5 on a heavy day.
we are adjusted to our pretty strict regime and are good at switching off, when we have guests stay over we go mad following them around switching off...

chris

 

[mixfinder]

Mercury

The long life bulbs contain mercury. In King County it is against the law to dispose of CFL bulbs in the trash.
Just how many people, in all truthfulness are going to save burned out CFLs, drive them to a HAZMAT and PAY to dispose of them.
I question what the incorrect usage of CFLs does to the environment in the long run.
It has not been my experience that CFLs last 15,000 hours and live up to the rediculous claims.
I save my money three times by buying cheaper bulbs, not paying for gas to drive to collection centers and not paying to throw my expensive, now defective, save the whales, bulb away.
Make it safe for the envirnment, more user friendly and make it make sense.
Kelly

 

[mistereric]

A question for the folks who are on the grid and turn off water heaters after they are done - what takes more energy, heating water from room temp to "hot" over and over, or heating it and then just maintaining a relatively constant temperature?

Of course, coming from the north eastern USA, the idea of electric heat & hot water scares the hell out of my wallet.