Any tips on saving on electric?
>HVAC was replaced in 2014
>keep most lights off when I'm not in the room
What else?
>>923452
well it all depends
where do you live?
somewhere hot? ac is expensive, blow up a paddling pool infront of your sofa to steep your feet in to keep you cool
somewhere cold? wear a jumper. if your heating is even electric.
insulate your house. double glazing, blinds, heavy curtains. curtains over doors. how many rooms/floors? heat/cool a smaller area, live in a bedroom if necessary. keep other doors closed to help insulate from the outside
what electric do you use?
lights? switch to cfl/led when you need to. keep your house tidy so you can walk around in the dark. get a miners lamp helmet with a handcrank.
adjust your sleeping hours to use daylight efficiently. hibernate during the winter.
tv? get a much smaller one or read a book, listen to radio.
computer? use computers at a library to do your internetting. get a jazz mag instead of watching porn online.
electric oven? get a gas oven. eat microwave meals instead. or cold food i.e. sandwices and shit. cook food outside on a bbq using scrap wood. chop up pallets for wood if you dont mind lung cancer
electric shower? get a gas shower
lay a hosepipe outside under a sheet of glass and learn the navy shower technique to save
water.
want to spend to save? solar cells on a south (depending on location) facing roof. watch out for snow. keep them clean, sell electricity to grid.
farm? wind turbine. easy to diy too plenty of tutorials.
live near a river? build a water turbine. environmental police will fuck your shit up if they find you however.
around here if you have an electric car you get free parking and free recharge in the city while your car is parked, so buy an electric car and fill the back with extra batteries, charge them for free during the day then run your house via inverter by night.
all depends how far you want to take it.
>>923469
Fuck. I guess your right, thanks though for the info
>>923452
electricity is cheap, after the big saving things like adjusting thermostat and turning down water heater. your time is better spent making more money than saving on electricity
>>923452
>Any tips on saving on electric
unplug things when not in use
Switch to LED or CFL lightbulbs, halogens are energy guzzlers and need lots of power to produce a measly amount of light.
>>923531
Be thoughtful of which bulbs you replace though.
Bulbs which are on long durations and have many on-off cycles are prime candidates.
Bulbs which are on maybe 30 minutes a week , closets, rarely used hallways, dark corners of basement etc are very poor choices to replace with LED or even CFL and you may never break even.
>>923540
What about refrigerator bulbs, could that be worth it? There is a 40w incandescent in there right now and I've been considering looking into it.
The local hardware store is selling Philips LED's for less than half of what amazon charges.
>>923542
do you really need a bulb in your fridge at all?
depends how much of a fat fuck you are in and out of the fridge all day.
less time you are in the fridge the less electric it uses to keep cold so its a double saving by just keeping your greedy mitts out of there
does your store have an led bulb of the correct fitting? doubt it will be an e27 for sure
>>923545
>do you really need a bulb in your fridge at all?
Yes, it just doesn't look right without one. And it wouldn't be me complaining if it got removed.
I have been replacing all CFLs with 15W LED lights that give out a whopping 140 lumen output
>>923452
Put your water heater on a switch so it is only working when you need it.
>>924503
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Read a book.
>>923481
Maybe where you are. Here it is $0.40 USD a kWh.
And a bartender starts at $175 USD a month so you can see how affordable it really is.
>>923469
very good advice
>>924511
Solar panels would pay for themselves really fast at $0.40/kWh
>>923452
What I did to get below the 350kWh mark while still using electric 24/7 was to do much of what is listed in >>923469
-Weatherizing house and living spaces
-Only using energy when it is needed on-demand
-Changing my habits (summer I use less than 4kWh a day since I'm outside more)
-Using thermal mass to better maintain indoor temperatures
-Switching everything to energy efficient technologies (LEDs instead of CFLs, energy-star rated appliances, hand tools, haybox cooker, 35watt netbook instead of 600watt gaming PC)
-Dual-purpose appliances (heating stove doubles as food cooker)
>>924555
That depends on how much a month it costs for the OP after he's learned to be very thrifty with his electric.
I can't afford any sort of solar panel to take up the slack for my electric, even at $0.10/kWh. The most I use is 200kWh to 350kWh a month. That's nearly 12kWh a day. With the amount of sun in my area I'd need a system that could produce 2777 watts or more. That's 14, 200watt panels.
If I were to build a 200watt solar panel from eBay-sourced PV cells I might be able to spend as little as $150 per panel. That's still $2,100USD and it would take at least 5 years for those to pay for themselves. That doesn't include any other gear needed to setup or maintenance/replacement costs. It also doesn't include any kind of energy storage.
The best course of action really is to conserve as much as I can. Though, that hasn't stopped me from collecting PV cells off broken solar yard lights to use for charging batteries at home. I also have a few solar cookers I use from time to time.
>>924582
Even just a couple solar panels could reduce your bill be more than 10%, and at 40c/kWh, they'd pay for themselves within 18 months!
>>923469
Capped.
>>923469
>electric oven? get a gas oven
>electric shower? get a gas shower
>>923469
>solar cells
save energy but but...
>>924555
You would think so but the power company is run by the government and they are a bunch of crooks.
40% on duty for the solar panel (if the company invoices you for any inland freight in the country of manufacturer or even the sea fare they charge duty on that too) and despite a clear invoice and obviously fair market value the customs officer is likely to re-value the item and base the price on local market value (which would consider the price of a locally retailed solar panel which obviously would include the initial 40% duty) so you can get royally assfucked on the price of the panel alone.
And if you think that is bad. To still be part of the grid you are forced into a contract to sell the power at half price and when you consume power, at night, you pay out 1.5x.
They also have banned new solar panels on another island, in the same country, because the population is a little smaller and full of rich foreign people so they can afford the panels, the island is amazingly sunny and the power company can't into effective load management.
>>924608
A lot of solar is use it or lose it, so I'd recommend a pattern change. Wash your clothes and dishes in the day time if you have electric appliances.
Also gas is always cheaper than electric, so switch to gas on things like your tumble dryer, heating systems, showers, cookers, etc
>>924752
Can't you just run a few of your appliances off the solar and not tie it into the grid? If you run out of battery power, just plug the appliances into a wall socket.
That way it's scalable, you don't have to generate enough power to run everything, but you do reduce your power bill by however much you use the panel power.
Your fridge typically uses a lot of power. Put it on a switch so it only runs when you are using it.
>>924752
>forced into a contract to sell the power
It's the grid that's being forced to take your shitty power that they didn't ask for, don't want and don't need at a time they don't need it.
ITT: first-world problems and middle-class welfare.
>>925748
>tfw, not sure if trolling.
over here in the UK the government encouraged us all to switch to low energy light bulbs then the power company's just put up the cost of electric.
I'm actually paying more to use less power and even if you take in inflation it still works out higher.
>>925843
I noticed that in the UK you always pay more for less. The funny thing is that a good chunk of the population thinks it makes sense.
>obesity would be less of an issue if food costs were higher and the stopped this whole sale discounts
There is literally a movement for this or at least there was in 2004-2009
>>924765
The most prohibitive part is the actual cost of the solar panel. Then if you look at appliances. For the residents who are out all day the only appliance running would be the fridge so that panel will only scrub off a little and batteries also are expensive and you would need a larger bank to run all your washing machines and cookers for when you are home and it gets dark at 6 all year round. Not just to purchase locally but to import too. A bunch of environmental taxes associated and then the freight.
>>923452
Heat with wood and/or gas
Don't use AC
Don't use an electric dryer
>>925833
This! There is like no place ever where the companies operating the grid have asked for this energy. Instead it's the small producers complaining about not getting paid for their power. (and it makes no sense to be allowed to force your goods on a buyer)
>>924555
Holy fuck dude, you can get an efficient listeroid generator, use non road diesel and make your owner power for under 20 cents a kw. Granted it takes some work to get the power usage vs fuel use to that number. They last forever.
>>926235
In many places heating and dryers run on natural gas...
>>927194
Some people have electric heat and dryers.
>>925843
The climate-change gangsters are running the biggest scam in the history of the world.
Charles Ponzi was a piker compared to Al Gore and the rest of them who are jacking every single one of us.
>>927192
>1916
>paying for diesel to fuel a listeroid
