What are you doing to conserve energy and how much are you saving?
I’d like to hear some of things people are really doing to save energy and how much energy are you saving? I would like to know in Watts, Joules, BTU’s ect.
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Recent Posts
- What is the reason/importance for saving energy?
- How much energy does energy saving light bulbs save?
- What sort of people are against saving energy consumption and stopping global warming. What do they believe?
- What are the positives of saving energy?
- Energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs – do they use less energy if switched on for only a minute?
My husband purchases our house from his parents. His Dad built this house back in the 1970′s. For a while, all four of us lived under the same roof, while the In-Laws new house was being built.
The electric bill stayed the same after the In-Laws moved out. Why? Because we went back to farming the land, and the electric is now used to run the 5 horse pump to irragate the fields (we live in the desert). That actually means the In-Laws were consuming a fair bit of electric, for the bill to stay the same, since the 5 horse pump in a power hog. Difference is that power now produces food for us, and for others.
After the In-Laws moved out, we turned the thermostat down 13 degrees!! They had it set on 78 degrees, we set it at 65 degrees. Our house is 3600 sq ft. When the In-Laws lived here, it took two 1000 gallon tanks of propane to get through the winter.
For us, it takes 700 gallons to make it through the winter, by turning the thermostate down 13 degrees. That’s a savings of 1300 gallons of propane!!
I ran about after spending a bundle on CFL bulbs replacing them all over our house. I have found they do NOT last longer, indeed almost always signifigantly shorter, nor do they reduce the power bill. I’ve lived here for three years. Almost all the bloody CFL bulbs have been replaced twice….so much for the 7 years of life! We do NOT leave lights on either.
Other power we save is a lot less tangible. We store food and shop only twice a year. How much is that is saved fuel? No idea, but it’s huge.
We truely cook from scratch. Dairy goats provide us with milk and cheese…how much is that is saved cost of plastic jug manufacture, disposal, and the fuel used to transport the milk? No idea, but it’s a large amount. Same with home baked bread, and animals we butcher ourselves. No transport cost to the grocery store, nor waste plastics, and styrofoam produced. Not easily meassured, yet it is signifigant.
How much fuel are we saving by producing our own biofuels? No idea, but the tanker truck does not have to go deliever to the gas station for us.
Our savings will get even better once we are able to build our straw bale house….then we will be totally off grid!
~Garnet
Homesteding/Farming over 20 years