What are you doing to reduce energy costs?

[Submariner]

Energy costs?

Wife is driving a new Aveo 34-36 MPG.

We heat using some propane, some kerosene, mostly newspaper logs / peat / wood-chips / coal.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

When this house was built I intended that it be as energy efficient as possible. That was the mid 1990's. I installed an on-demand water heater (propane) which has worked extremely well for the twelve years that it has been working. The bad part is that it has a pilot light so it consumers some propane continuously.

The house was oriented for the most solar gain possible, with the north side blocked by the garage and a largely blank wall.

Lately we have installed some cfl's, and the largest single change has been the acquisition of a new, Energy Star rated refrigerator.

But we still use entirely too much electricity, and I suspect that we leave too many electrical appliances on all the time; that the electric oil filled radiator in the bathroom needs to be replaced due to old age (although if my wife would learn to live without it, it would be much better), and the sewer pump and well pump aren't helping anything.

We also bought a new Energy Star rated dishwasher to replace the one that was as old as the house.

Cars? Well, our two main cars are both at least fourteen years old. My wife's Audi station wagon and my Audi sedan both average around 22 miles per gallon for overall driving. My sedan does a bit better over the road, but long distance driving....two or three hundred miles at a sitting...is not normal. My wife's station wagon requires at least medium grade premium.

My light duty pickup wears a plow and that is basically its primary mission in life. It is a 1992 with a new engine, and with the plow it gets around nine and without about thirteen miles per gallon.

None of these vehicles has consumed any energy in getting built in fourteen or more years.

This house heats with kerosene, and was built and insulated to the highest standard consistent with the dollar cost prevalent at the time. I could have added another inch of insulation in the ceiling, but the payback at that time was more than ten years. I could have used 2X12's in the roof joists and added another 1/2 inch on top of all of what I could have done, and I would never in my life see a savings. We will burn around 600 gallons of kerosene here this winter, and I doubt that the total will top 800 gallons ever.

Nevertheless, I am moving on. The new house will be completely different, and utilize as much natural energy as possible. Heat will probably be from a gorund source heat pump, and we will design in light tubes whereever possible to radially reduce the number of electric lights used during the day. A passive solar array will be used to generate electricty onto the grid, and the end goal is to take electricty off the grid at night only.

This is a big project. The research is never ending, but the most obvious changes will be that in the new house there will NOT be a septic pump, and the well pump for that well will be very much an energy efficient, Energy Star rated pump.

This is a challenge and one that will prove interesting. If I thought we could be "off grid" and still do some of the things that we enjoy doing in the home, we would do it. But I think the cost of batteries will exceed the cost of the powerline from the road to where we will be building, which is around 800 feet.

Sounds like you have a plan! Good for you! Be sure to keep us updated on what works and what doesn't! I'd sure like to get off the pump and the grid at some point. It would be a quick $5000 back in my pocket each year! DW will not allow windmills, solar panels, wood boilers, or anything like that in the yard or attached to the house. I had a weather station on a pole with a small solar panel to charge the battery and DW complained about that for three years. Finally I donated it to a school. We live in an area surrounded by large fields and a busy road about 1500 feet away. I call it the fish bowl as everything we do around here people notice. If I'm painting the house and go to the store to get a coffee someone will invariably ask me how the house painting is going, or we saw you turning your garden, mowing the lawn, cutting down that old oak the other day,saw a pile of loam in your yard... no matter what it is folks take notice. I don't care that they notice I just wonder why. I guess I'll have to wait for the hydrogen fuel cell generators to be marketed before I go for the real oil and elecricty savings. I can hear the neighbors now.....what's that green metal thing behind your garage?

[K-Luv]

I move into apartments where the heat is paid for by the landlord. In the few cases when it wasn't, well, I bundle up and use a small ceramic space heater. The extra cost to the electricity bill is only a fraction of what running heater would cost.

I once severed the thermostat so the roommates couldn't turn it up.

[corgis]

We'll be putting new double pane windows in the Eastport house this summer. They are cheaper for us to buy through the Passamoquoddy Co-op in Pleasant Point.

[Moxie]

Originally Posted by Bydand

Occupancy Sensors use a very tiny amount of energy to operate. When I say tiny I mean as in milliamps. Low enough that of it turns the lights in a typical bathroom off for more than 10-15 minutes a year, they just saved you more than it cost to run them. I personally like the ultrasonic sensors over the motion sensors, and the better ones you can fine tune the sensitivity if you find your pets are triggering them to turn on. Most have a range of 15 seconds to 15 minutes. Some are up to 60 minutes of "on". You can get them with an on delay so the lights do not come on right away. These are semi-useful like in an office setting with night lights, you pass through one room to another and you do not want the first rooms lights to turn on every time you walk through. I have only installed a couple of these types in the last 27 years. The regular type I would hate to guess how many I have installed over the years.

Are the ultrasonic ones easy to find in stores?
Also, as you are an electrician, is there some easier way to reduce electric "pull" when you aren't using a device except to unplug it?

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Bydand

Occupancy Sensors use a very tiny amount of energy to operate. When I say tiny I mean as in milliamps. Low enough that of it turns the lights in a typical bathroom off for more than 10-15 minutes a year, they just saved you more than it cost to run them. I personally like the ultrasonic sensors over the motion sensors, and the better ones you can fine tune the sensitivity if you find your pets are triggering them to turn on. Most have a range of 15 seconds to 15 minutes. Some are up to 60 minutes of "on". You can get them with an on delay so the lights do not come on right away. These are semi-useful like in an office setting with night lights, you pass through one room to another and you do not want the first rooms lights to turn on every time you walk through. I have only installed a couple of these types in the last 27 years. The regular type I would hate to guess how many I have installed over the years.

These are not just motion sensors they have to detect heat too. I don't know the technical term for them but if a towel falls off the rack it won't turn the lights on. They have dip switches on them to aim and fine tune them plus have a delay selector and override switch on the front. If the bathroom is hot sometimes it makes it harder for the detector to "see" people too. They weren't inexpensive I think I paid $80.00 a piece for them. They seem to react slower in hot weather or if I've had the heat on in the bathroom for a while. As far as installing them it's real easy, it does take some time to dial them in.