Easy ways to save on your power bill - please share yours...

1) Deciduous Shade Trees. Shade in the Summer, sun in the Winter.
2) Whole House Fan. Not only do I use it to cool the house during the Summer, I also use it to warm-up the house on warm Spring and Fall days.

Between the two, I rarely use the central air to cool the house.

Of course, the benefits of using shade trees and whole house fans are dependent on the local climate. Sacramento, where I live, for instance has hot sunny Summer days and cool marine influenced nights. Perfect for shade trees and whole house fans.

 

Last summer we shut off the pilot light to our gas fireplace, saved about $10. per month on our natural gas bill til the fall when we turned it back on.

Two years ago, replaced all our windows with super efficient triple glass with Low E and Solar films, didn't use the A/C once last summer and our winter fuel bills are about half.

 

7.5 kW Solar generating station on home! I pay $350 a year total for power!!

Pat KK6PD

 

It's a 2.5 system but I can go bigger as I installed a larger inverter.

 

Either your pump motor is way oversized, or your pool is unsanitary due to insufficient filtration.

If you pump is oversized to the point where only 2hrs filtration is needed for one turn of the water, then you could save 90% or more by switching to a variable speed motor. If it's not oversized, than 2 hours is not enough to get one turn of the water and your pool is so filthy I wouldn't want to swim in it.

Low and slow is the way to filter a pool efficiently. With lower flow rates there is lower pressure in the pipes for the pump to work against, and less friction between the water and pipes. By halving flow rates, but doubling run-time to insure the same amount of filtration, you save 75% on energy costs (power goes up with the cube of flow rates). Since a well-maintained pool only needs one or one and a half turns of the water a day, you can often run reduce total filtration.

Also, the most environmentally friendly method of pool sanitation is a salt-water chlorine generator, and these work best with long periods of filtration at low flow rates.

 

There are ways to balance your pool with plants, etc. so no filtration or chlorine is necessary. Of course....it then becomes a natural pond and many people don't want to swim in the green water.

 

My pool water always sparkles and always has the correct chlorine and PH levels. I keep the pool covered most of the time when it is not in use although in peak season I leave the cover off for several days at a time using the liquid blanket.
My pump is oversize for the size of my pool (about twice the power required) but it is what came with the pool. High return velocity ensures the water from the far end of the pool circulates past the skimmer box. I may purchase a smaller pump the next time it needs replacement.
I use chlorine tablets to ensure a steady release of chlorine, I can increase the chlorine level by manually running the pump longer to agitate the tablets in the floating dispenser or adding dry chlorine to the pool surface.
I don't use salt water chlorination because I have friends with it who constantly have trouble and my pool is steel and salt water chlorination isn't recommended.
I have my water professionally tested twice each year, start and end of season and have never had to make large corrections.

 

Most of it has been covered, but one thing I didn't see was low flow shower heads. Saves water and the energy required to heat the water.

We have a swamp cooler, which we can also use as a reverse attic fan if it's cool outside (which is generally what we do at night). Uses WAY less energy than an AC but only works in dry air like we have here in CO.

The thing we need to replace is the fridge. Ours in an ancient PIG that uses ~95 kWh/month. Replacing it with an equivalently sized modern, energy star fridge would cut consumption by over 50%! That's probably the biggest bang for the buck in our house. The other thing we need to do is properly insulate our crawl space.

 

When was it installed?

" . . . in August, 2008."
Ah, yes. The Sharp time warp model.

and one more nit picky thing . . .
"They are the most efficient panels on the market but since I have a huge amount of space they were the best bang for the buck."
Did you mean they AREN'T the most efficient? The sentence doesn't seem to make sense otherwise.

I would put in solar, but we have too much shade tree coverage (not a bad thing during Sacramento's Summers), and the original roof rafters are redwood . . . a no go for extra weight . . . so it's full conservation route for me.

 

Yeah, some people on Epionion. It's the same brand but not model.
Royal Sovereign ARP-900DE Portable Air Conditioner Reviews. Buying guides & consumer product reviews at Epinions.com

There are many other brands too . . .
http://www1.epinions.com/Air_Conditioners--~all-9688_brand

 

Yep, I have 9L/m shower roses in both bathrooms.
This is the required standard here in new homes. My home isn't new but I like to do the right thing.
You can fit flow restrictors cheaply and shower timers give added savings.
I restrict showers to no more than 1 full song plus the remainder of the song playing on the radio when you get in the shower or a 5 minute news service.
All inside taps also have aerators fitted and flow restrictors except the laundry and over the bath (which is rarely used).
Dish washer is a 4 star rated unit used on eco setting. That is it doesn't use extra heat to dry dishes but recaptures the heat from the outflowing water which is used to heat incoming water and dries the dishes.

 

Godiva,

Your panels sure look nice up there on your steep roof-line, but did you and your contractor ever get the necessary corrections to pass the inspection, tie into the grid and flip the switch? I agree with you. Borrego Solar should have looked at EVERY aspect of the installation, including your existing house electrical configuration BEFORE they drew up the plan and had you sign. It's absurd for your solar company to go ahead with something like this unless they've looked at every angle and verified adherence to all pertinent and existing code.

Well, I hope your meter is finally spinning backwards. I hope to have something like your solar system at some not-too-distant point...

Thanks for sharing your pics. Fun site, by the way. :ranger:

 

If I had that light fixture I would look into replacing it, or at least putting in lower-watt bulbs. I once lived in an apartment that had this type of light fixture in a very small bathroom, and it made the room really hot. I realized I didn't need anywhere near that bright a light so I changed the bulbs.

Currently my super ugly bathroom light takes 2 bulbs and they were both 100 watts when I moved in. One of the bulbs burned out and I never bothered to replace it. There's still more than enough light with just the one bulb.

 

When we remodeled our upstairs bathroom I downsized the light fixture from 4 sockets to 3. 2700 lumens is plenty of light, the extra one was just overkill. Of course, I have globe CFLs so the thing is just chewing 42 W during the few minutes a day that the lights are on in there (there are, sadly, no windows). I'm guessing that those lights aren't on more than an hour/day.

What if the unedited version of "Thick as a Brick" is playing? 43 minutes of shear brilliance and your treat.

 

Yes. It was finally up and running in OCTOBER.

After the electrical had to be redone TWICE.

The first I paid parts and they paid labor. They put it on the house. City passed. Utility didn't. Their code says it has to be within 4 ft of alley. Borrego knew this. So Borrego had to pay the entire cost of moving it to the corner of my garage. I paid for an SDGE lock ($100) and built a second gate in my yard to close it off because of the dog. ($100).

They were idiots.

And yes, the meter is finally spinning backwards. 3 months for a 3 day job.

 

Ok if your Air handler is up in your attic go check it out while the AC is on. Believe it or not I have lived in houses where cold air was blowing into the attic!

Go seal it up with HVAC tape.

Also check your refrigerant pipe coming out of your unit outside. make sure it is insulated. It degrades over time.

The unscrewing light bulb thing works well.

 

Replace your regular light switches with motion-detecting switches if your kids/wife cannot seem to turn lights off on their own.

Plumb hot attic air to your clothes dryer's air intake and use 'no heat' setting.

I use low-flow (but high-pressure) 'Navy' showerhead with a little switch on the head to shut off the water while soaping up (less water to heat).

Solartube-type skylights in hallways and bathrooms.

If you have a large yard and a high water table, you can almost completely self-install some geothermal HVAC units.

Insulate and seal all HVAC ductwork. Programmable thermostats are inexpensive and easy to install.

Glued 1-inch thick sheets of styrofoam from Home Depot to the inside of my non-insulated garage door. Blew insulation between the studs of my non-insulated garage walls.

 

That would be nice, I like a bit of Jethro Tull but the radio station I listen too seems to stick with songs under 4 minutes. Sometimes they play Stevie 1, 2 & 3 or Meatloaf, paradise by the Dashboard Light but not often.