Energy surplus day June 6th, 2009 Woot!

Very nice!

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There are two primary reasons our energy consumption is low:

1.) We have a swamp cooler not an air conditioner
2.) Our house is 1350 sqft.

We do, of course, do a lot of other things to avoid wasting energy and I'm always on the lookout for ways to drive our usage down further. The most radical thing we do is I hang my clothes on a line to dry (wor lass still uses the dryer for her and the wee 'uns clothes). We also are pretty good about cutting off power strips at the end of the day to kill some of our ghost loads. It's really amazing how much energy could be saved in this country without sacrificing standard of living one iota.

 

Doesn't it seem ironic somehow that some folks spend money (energy) to cool their house (A/C) and simultaneously add heat with a dryer? Why not hang it out? Failing that,, consider drawing air for the dryer out of the super heated attic,, and then turning off or changing to a smaller heating element in the dryer.

Also,, consider motion/heat sensor that turn on the lights when you enter the room,, off when you leave. You can over ride with a manual switch.

Icarus

 

I understand Tripp's family's dislike of scratchy towels. While I haven't tried it, how about line drying with a final touch up in the dryer, or perhaps the other way round, dryer for a few minutes with softener sheets then main drying on the line?

This thread got me to thinking about what if...one were to box in the air conditioner, allowing the heat to rise and escape from the top, then hang wet clothes in the box to dry using the exchanged heat as a source...perhaps the box would have more or less an open top to encourage the heat to rise among the laundry on it's way out the top of the box?

 

Scratchy towels??? I would tell the kids they have a choice,, a future or scratchy towels! After you use a towel once,,, the scratchyness goes away.

A much more efficient A/C option is to first use the condenser waste heat to heat domestic hot water. This allow the a/c to run more efficiently AND produce hot water with the "waste" heat. A second option is a earth loop, ground water or surface water heat pump,,, a much more efficient a/c system. Finally,, the newest generation of Sanyo Mini split/inverter a/c systems are VERY efficient because they can alter the speed of the compressor.

Finally,, a little fluff in the dryer with little or no heat added will soften the towels pretty well. Another thing I never understood was "dryer sheets"! What in the world is wrong with letting nature do what nature does?

Icarus

 

The dryer is a pretty large user but it won't top the AC if the AC is running more than half an hour/day. We cut our drying electrical usage down considerably when we went to a front loading washer (using highest spin speed reduces water content of clothes going to the dryer) and by purchasing a dryer with a moisture sensor. Combined these two things have knocked as much as 2 kwh/day off of our electric use.

There are many items of clothing that we partially dry, then hang in the laundry room (drying rack or hangers).

I really hate the cans. I've converted all of ours to non-dimmable CFL's, except for two cans on a dimmer that is actually useful. These are in the lower level and get used most in the winter when the electric resistance heating effect is actually useful down there.

This is the one I would target first. What bulbs does it take? Assuming it is something with a standard thread (not candelabra) if you ditch the dimmer you should be able to put standard CFL's in it. If you do, length of the bulb could be an issue:
1. Sylvania micro-mini twist CFL's are by far the smallest I've come across and should work. They are instant on at near full intensity. I got mine at Lowe's. Drawback is that they are pricey! (About $4.50/bulb when I bought mine.)
2. n:visions from Home Depot are shorter than most standard CFL's. Instant on, full intensity, and only about $1.50/bulb. But if the fan lights are small they might stick out a little.
3. GE's are the worst of the lot. Considerable and variable start up delay in many/most, about 3/8" - 1/2" longer than the n:visions and usually don't look right in fans or vanities because of the length.

You might also consider buying a replacement fan light kit with a circline fluorescent or better bulb arrangement for fitting CFL's.

 

Vinegar will help with the scratchiness. It apparently helps remove the detergent from the water/clothes on the rinse cycle. One approach could be to air dry and then chuck the clothes in the dryer on air dry (no heating element) for 5-10 minutes. That would use a minimal amount of energy.

If you live somewhere with a good breeze, I think the wind really helps with the cardboard feel.

 

What's the SEER rating on your AC unit? If you ever upgrade your home's exterior shell insulation you can probably downsize both your AC and furnace. Window awnings and low E glass would help with this too, esp if you're in a cooling climate.

For what it's worth, evaporative coolers are SEER 30-40. Top of the line AC units are, I think, around SEER 20. The new industry minimum rating is SEER 13. If you're AC unit is more than about 10 years old, it's probably a SEER 10.

 

Unfortunately, swamp coolers are more limited regionally. In climates with humidity running 70-75% during summer, they aren't feasible. Here we need dehumidification more than sensible cooling. Denver's average summer humidity is something like 40% (looking at one of the weather stations in 2008) so it would appear to be attractive there.

 

oh yeah. I grew up in Savannah. You can cut the air with a knife there. Swamp cooler would just make you even more miserable. I wish that we had had one in our apartment when I lived in Tucson. That would have saved us a LOT of money versus central air.

 

Sorry it took a bit to get back to you Codyroo. Yes, we're maybe 90 minutes north of the S.D. area. June glume abounds. We've had 9 days of clouds & drizzle, so the surplus has slowed way down. Just checked. 1,720Kwh on the books, which means since the last report, our surplus has only increased about 100Kwh ... about as much as we got during February. Once it warms up, the 15 year old AC compressor will likely make quick work of that 1,700Kwh surplus. Some say we may be entering an El Niño scenerio, where we get a ton of clouds & rains in the south west. We'll see. Monster system? Heck, did you see the Jim Barkley Toyota dealership PV system, where our benevolent dictator, Danny bought his Gen III ?? Oh, MAN . . . those folks have a 75Kwh system !!! ... more than 10X the size of ours. If you get a chance to check out the pictures, I'd do so. The inverter is as big as our walk in closet!

Have you ever seen the size of a SEER 20 compressor? Even the 3 ton 17's are behemoths. If you got the $$$ and the space, they're great ... they really pinch the pennys, and go light on the electric use. But the up front costs can be heafty. Still, the compressor is our personal achilles heel ... every thing else we can do, is pretty much done, efficiency wise. MAN, the meter can really fly when the 1995 compressor kicks on. Thank God it's been cool this late spring . . . so far.

 

Two things to help out-- Philips makes some efficient halogen bulbs you can get at Home Depot that use about 30% less power (40w = 60w, more or less) than normal incandscents, but work as drop-in replacements for normal incandescents. Not as big a savings as CFLs, but ideal for places where there's a reason you need properly dimmable bulbs. I have a few in some dimmable ceiling can lights.

The second thing you mention is swapping dimmers for switches. This isn't rocket science. If you've never done it before, talk to somebody at your local hardware store. And make sure the appropriate breaker is off before you fiddle with it. You shouldn't have any trouble-- it's usually a five-minute project. If you're really nervous, take a pic before you disconnect any wires, so that you can put it back the way it was if you get confused in the middle. If you get stumped partway through, go back and talk to the guy at the hardware store again.