Any suggestions on Electricity - being efficient? (Hilo: appliances, credit)

[1freespirit]

Hello, fellow Forum members.

K I am aware Hawaii is very expensive on the electricty. I think when I looked it was around 46 cent KWH.

So any tips on how to cut down on electricity - I have been reading and reading and reading so far this is what I think would help. This would be for our second home on Hawaii and when we are over there we would like to keep our cost down if possible.

1 Replace all light bulbs to those swirly enery efficient ones.

2 Maybe replace the electric water heater to a tankless LP or propane one.

3 As far as television I think I read where a projection set uses less KWH then a plasma. (any suggestions).

4 Get a toaster oven and Microwave and of course a Grill.

5 Not sure about Fridge or Washer and dryer any suggestions where the inital cost would be cost effective to change to a different format besides electric?


Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Has anyone heard of a different type of electricaly possible being used? Is Hawaii testing out on the wind turbines or anything thing like that? I know there is solar but that seems so expensive and would be out of our budget to convert the place strickly to solar.

Thank you,

[mdand3boys]

Light bulbs - CFL's or LED's. LED's are still somewhat expensive, but if you find a deal, grab as many as you can.

Water heater - Hawaii Electric Company currently has large rebates, that combined with the federal energy tax credit makes for a very easy way to get solar water heating.

LCD television over plasma - or better yet, no television. You're in Hawaii, go outside.

Grill everything! It tastes better anyway! Throw away your toaster. Go with energy star rated fridge and washer,for sure.

Use a laptop computer instead of desktop and turn off all those power strips, all the time!

LPG (propane) seems to be reasonably priced here. If it were me, I would have a propane oven/stove, dryer, solar water heat primary with propane backup instead of electric, and also run a line over to my grill to take advantage of the bulk size tank pricing. Plus, I hate having to refill the little tanks.

It would be relatively cheap and easy to have fun experimenting with a small solar panel, battery and charge controller combined with some DC lighting (LED). That way you could learn about solar while you save. I have a design sketched up for a portable system...

[KoaKine]

If you cant get solar heater try a tankless water heater!

[hotzcatz]

Those are all good ideas, 1freespirit and thinking about electric use before getting shocked by your first electric bill is very sensible.

Water heaters are probably the biggest household energy users in Hawaii. Very few folks have air conditioning because of the cost. Electric dryers use a lot of power, too, so either a gas dryer or hang the laundry out on the line. Lots of folks have clothes lines.

Water pumps use a lot of power. Jetted tubs can rack up the Kwh's. Vacuum cleaners use rather a lot of power, too. I was surprised. Anything heating up or moving objects powered by electricity is probably going to use a lot of power.

We use as much power as we have, but we're off the grid so our power is limited. The house is wired up just like an on grid house, except all the appliances are either gas or energy efficient ones. Electric refrigerator and freezer, gas stove and tankless water heater. Electric washing machine (there are hand operated ones out there as well as gasoline operated ones) and gas dryer although we haven't used that in years. Instead of an electric meter from the power company, we have an inverter which changes the DC volts from the battery bank into AC house current. There are solar PV panels on the roof which gather up the sunshine and put it through a charge controller on it's way to be stored in the battery bank. From there the inverter can take the power out as we need it. The inverter is a square metal box about the size of a boot shoe box bolted to the kitchen wall. It has a few LED indicator lights as well as a dial or two on it. There are quite a few folks living off the grid on the outer islands.

[mogon]

Lots and lots of folks with electric water heaters have timers that turn the heater on and off so you're only actively heating at the time you expect to need hot water in quantity. HPM in Hilo and Home Depot have these and they're not hard to install and you get program several different times of day. Combined with a good thermal blanket insulating the water heater, you won't be annoyed at all with the results, and you will save money.

[PacificFlights]

1. O.K.

2. Part of the energy used is wasted on heating water that cools in the pipes. If your hot water heater is a foot or two from the spigot, little waste. If it's many feet, all that water was heated with energy, now cooled down, and has to be replaced with hot water for you to use, just to cool down in the pipes until next time needed.

3. Plasma, LCD, DLP, etc, all use electricity when you turn it off. If you watch Tv a liitle, you may use just as much electricty while its off for many hours as the hour your watching it. Turning off the power is the only real way to save. What do they call it, phantom electricty use?

4. Just so long as your not getting a big unit when only heating small items.

5. use the energy guide. A big empty fridge uses more electricty to stay cool over a smaller fridge full of stuff. Washers are just as much a product of the detergent. Cheap detergent yields cheap results.

[KonaKat]

We have a large family (the typical multigenerational household!) so without any solar our bill is pretty outrageous. We do what we can without feeling totally deprived. One thing I did that kind of surprsed me in noticing no difference in result was to never use hot water for laundry. I had read somewhere that the newer liquid detergents work just as well in cold so I tried it. Once in a great while if I have sick people or something I might wash the sheets in warm but a dab of bleach and being dried on a line in the sun kills germs too.
You can imagine w/ 9 people we use a lot of hot water so the laundry appliances is one of our biggest targets for conservative use.
We also replaced a couple of appliances with brand new energy star ones, like an upright freezer, and a 2nd small fridge downstairs.
Some solar is on our short list for longer term savings and also as a marketing plus when and if we ever sell this house.

[KoaKine]

Oh ya you could use the motion sensitive switches I have ten in the bathrooms so no one can leave the light on. They have a timer on it you can adjust how long it stays on.

[KonaKat]

oh yes we use one on the stairway because no one would ever remember to turn that one off!

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by KonaKat

... One thing I did that kind of surprsed me in noticing no difference in result was to never use hot water for laundry. I had read somewhere that the newer liquid detergents work just as well in cold so I tried it. Once in a great while if I have sick people or something I might wash the sheets in warm but a dab of bleach and being dried on a line in the sun kills germs too....

Absolutely. We have not used hot water for normal laundry for years, either.