Energy Conservation, The First Step Towards Solar

[russ]

Hi ericaminto - Participation is desired however more than this is required to be dropping links.

Russ

nice ideas..one must follow them..

[Brainless]

I have the feeling that saving 25-30% of your electricity is a wasted effort when you not at the same time prepare to go off grid as much as possible.
In my own house in the Netherlands i managed to save around 40%, encouraged by subsidies from the government. Soon after (within 2 years) the electricity rate went up, a 'green' tax was introduced and gone where the saving, the utilities companies were making top profits selling less energy at higher prices. This trend is still going on.
I was unable to install solar and wind because of regulations. As the house was on a dune at the beach wind alone would have been enough for all my energy needs. No more ways to save on energy use and still getting higher bills every year. Conclusion wrong location!

It has stopped to bother me because i moved to Thailand.
At least here i am able to install solar/wind and go off gird when i want to. Makes you think about the whole energy thing again. I have some land that is still unprepared. Connecting to the grid will cost about the same as around 2kw solar panels. The choice will be easy.

Now the most energy in my current house, a 2 bedroom townhouse in Bangkok, is used for cooling. I managed to get my fridge and freezer use a lot less energy by always keeping it completely filled. Empty space is filled with water bottles. The freezer and fridge are set on a timer so that it switches on only during the day. Keeping it filled and switched of at night saves about 50% without noticeable difference in temperature inside. At night it will never be opened anyway. The challenge will be to get the fridge and freezer running on solar. The 50% savings i have reached sofar will make it easier to accomplish. The best way to to use these bottles is when you buy groceries then take out a few bottles to make room and place them in the freezer. When you use the food and it gets more empty transferring the bottles from the freezer to the fridge will help to cool down the interior a lot quicker after you have opened the fridge. The freezer has 2 lids on top, opening the smaller one will keep the cool air in, not wasting much. The fridge has a large door in the front causing all the cool air to rush out quickly. I am still trying to figure out if i can use a second freezer as a fridge by regulating the temperature myself. I think it will be more energy efficient then the fridge. Time and experience will tell.

Lighting is florescent already so not much to save there, maybe change a few to LED as the light is more comfortable to the eyes.

I use a very small desktop computer using max 3 amps on 12v through an 220/12v adapter. The 32" screen uses 120 watts on 220v. Not much to save there anymore except making sure the screen switches of quickly when not used.

Insulating the roof saved about 20% on the aircon bill that is used only at night. I just used the bubble foam with aluminum backing to reflect most of the heat. Installed a fan to extract the hot air from the attic and made sure air could raise through convection out of the rooms to the roof, sometimes with a little help from a fan. It lowered the temperature in the house by 4 degrees Celsius. That was in our case enough to get it from uncomfortable to comfortable most of the year. In hot season (april/may) a few fans are used to help evaporate the sweat.

My current project is building an air conditioning using ice water to cool and extract moisture from the air using a simple water pump, heat exchanger and a fan. It will use about 30 watts. Ice is very cheap to get here otherwise this would not be possible. I expect the air conditioning bill to be 80% cheaper this way. In western countries it is currently being used in large buildings by making ice at night and using that to cool during the daytime using the lower rates at night to save money.

[Sunking]

In my own house in the Netherlands i managed to save around 40%, encouraged by subsidies from the government. Soon after (within 2 years) the electricity rate went up, a 'green' tax was introduced and gone where the saving, the utilities companies were making top profits selling less energy at higher prices. This trend is still going on.

To me this is just plain NUTZ. Why would any government or the people under that government allow that to happen? Why on earth do people want to kill their economy, put people out of work, and devalue their currency?

Brainless I am not picking on the Netherlands. Here in the USA we are following the down the same road. Since the Progressive movement started in the 60's our government has been giving industry every incentive they can to encourage companies and businesses to the leave the country and set up shop elsewhere. With the new executive administration put in place 2 years ago, that process has been accelerated.

[esthdam]

Some things to help cut back electricity

Hmm..I dont know if this is much help but

One of the things that might reduce your electricity consumption is applying Passive Solar in to your CASTLE

For all you gents who don't know what is the process of passive solar is. Its the use of a very wide open space in your home, like BIG windows. So that sunlight will pass through and heat-up your house. The heat will be stuck one some part of your home (I don't know where) but it will come out once the sun sets providing you with heat at night time.

Hope this helps

Ethan

[jace_low]

Cool!

Nice suggestions!

I especially liked this one;

-Run your dishwasher and wash your clothes at night. A lot of utility companies have rating scales where they will charge you more during peak hours. Find out from your utility company when the lowest rates apply.

LOL. I never knew that there were instances like this.

[russ]

I mentioned running the dishwasher etc late at night - the reply I get I won't bother to mention! I expect I can work that around but forget the washer & dryer!

Russ

[esthdam]

Ok...I'm really surprise to know that companies have peak and off peak charges?!

Nice suggestion though

[russ]

TOU (time of use) charges are used by many utilities and will no doubt be used more in the future.

It is an easy way for the utilities to force people/companies to consider reducing power consumption which is often possible once it is looked at.

Russ

[Sunking]

TOU (time of use) charges are used by many utilities and will no doubt be used more in the future.

It is an easy way for the utilities to force people/companies to consider reducing power consumption which is often possible once it is looked at.

Russ it is really a marketing gimmick used to bring about huge rate hikes on customers. People bills can literally go up 400% artificially all with the governments blessing.

[Mike90250]

All Hail the "Smart Meter" and the "Time of Use" that it brings. (and the remote disable)

[Sunking]

All Hail the "Smart Meter" and the "Time of Use" that it brings. (and the remote disable)

The scary thing is the REMOTE DISABLE is coming. I do not like SMART meters or TOD rates. I am a Libertarian, and IMO that is something to take up arms and replace the government by force.

[russ]

If the cost were linked to an actual power cost to the utility it would be one thing.

Unfortunately there is no such linkage.

Russ

[iamshane]

I most definitely agree with this post. It sure is very informative. I was even amazed that there are some utility companies that has rating scales which they will charge a person more during peak hours??! Energy conservation is definitely a must nowadays, most especially that there is a looming energy crisis if we continue with our dependence on fossil based energy..

[Sunking]

Well here is the deal with TOD rates. If you look into it, most of the states that have TOD rates are importers of electricity. Meaning they do not generate enough electricity to supply their own needs.

They have to import because of their own self imposed economic and environmental policies. They have artificially inflated the cost of building and operating generating plants to the point no public or private entity will dare build generating capacity. Those very same states have the highest electric rates in the country which is driving manufacturing and those jobs with tax dollars to other states.

As the saying goes: Money goes to where it is put to work, welcomed, and appreciated.

[solarsandiego]

This is a really good list that everyone should read, not just those thinking about solar panels!