Posted by haranjoe on December 19, 2008, 8:44 pm
> So that's a couple of small changes we have made. How about you?
I got a bunch of CFL light bulbs to replace incandescents, and hooked
up a coil in my woodstove to heat hot water. Haven't used electricity
to make hot water since.
Posted by Jeff on December 19, 2008, 10:49 pm
haranjoe@lycos.com wrote:
>> So that's a couple of small changes we have made. How about you?
>
> I got a bunch of CFL light bulbs to replace incandescents, and hooked
> up a coil in my woodstove to heat hot water. Haven't used electricity
> to make hot water since.
Gee, where do you live that you run a woodstove all year? Saving
money on hot water is a great idea as it can be 1/3 of your energy budget.
I'm going to try to get my solar hot water going this winter, just
painted the collectors with selective paint. My main idea is for winter
heat, but I'll have plenty for hot water the rest of the year which will
probably save as much or more money. I'd like to get my total energy
bill under $50/month. Not that it's a lot of money saved, I just hate
paying them!
Jeff
Posted by Cinnamin on December 20, 2008, 3:51 pm
On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:07:39 -0800, "Bill"
>I went beyond turning things off with a power strip. I now turn un-needed
>things off when the power strip is on!
>Instead of one power strip, I now have 4 power strips in some cases. The
>kind without any lights on the switches.
>So for my entertainment center, there is a DVD, Satellite TV, Stereo, and
>Playstation. Before these were all on one power strip. Now with 4 power
>strips, I can turn on just the things I am going to use.
>For example the Playstation. This was always being turned on with the main
>power strip. But this is used maybe twice a month. So now it is always off
>unless we are going to use it. And when we are using that, we are not using
>the satellite TV or DVD, so those are turned off.
I like that idea! I will have to try it.
This year I weaned myself away from soda. Amazing how much better I
feel and how little I miss it.
Cin.
Posted by JonquilJan on December 20, 2008, 5:03 pm
I didn't
buy a cell phone
buy a DVD player
rent videos
I did
use coupons for grocery shopping
plant a small garden for fresh salad greens
use reuseable containers if I had to take food anywhere
keep only the basic cable channels
cancel all book club memberships
But all those are nothing new. With my income, I cut corners whereever and
whenever possible.
JonquilJan
Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying
Posted by haranjoe on December 21, 2008, 7:31 am
"Gee, where do you live that you run a woodstove all year? Saving
money on hot water is a great idea as it can be 1/3 of your energy
budget-"
Hi - Vermont, small woodstove is in the cellar. It is an old cast iron
box stove, bored 2 holes in the back with a grinding attachment on the
drill, used 1/4" refrig. copper coil and hooked it up to the water
heater . 1 hour of a not very hot fire will heat up 5 gallons, enough
for the 2 of us. Only one glitch. One end of the copper goes in the
top and one in the bottom of the tank. If the thermal syphon starts
the right was, with hot water going in the bottom, the tank gets full
of uniformly hot water. If it starts flowing the hot water into the
top of the tank, there will be a bunch of REALLY hot water at the top
of the tank and it doesn't last as long. Can't figure it out, it must
be mixing in the tank in either case...
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