energy saving tips

Thanks for sharing such important information with us..Hope people will start to implement it.

Mod note - caution - both are nonsense posts and both are from India -

This would be a great help for me, I have increasing electricity bills and I don't know how to lower the price of my bills. I follow the tips of this saving energy. Thanks for this post.

There are many tips for saving energy at home it start with our self disciplined first and most importantly, off the whole electric things after using it. In addition, try to use natural way of lighting.

Start here

The best energy saving tip I can give is to buy all high efficiency appliances. I did that and changed all my lighting to CFL and florescent, and I cut my electric bill by 40%. I also installed a high efficiency gas furnace and gas water heater and that cut my gas bill by 45%. I also added insulation in my attic. The way I see it, that was the first step in going solar. This all needed to be done BEFORE getting a grid tied solar pv system, otherwise I would just be wasting the energy I produced.

Anyway, there are some methods and techniques on how to save energy specifically at home. And I think this methods helps a lot for the some consumers. Saving energy at home is just like saving our Mother earth. Moreover, you can save energy at home by maintaining switching off the light after you use it and most importantly, you can reduce using some appliances who did not really important at home.

Energy Conservation

I am just starting this as a topic on my blog. Would mind if I quote you?

I agree. Conservation is going to be at least as important as finding new energies.

Thank you for posting this.
Lisa

It depends on the design of the charger. Old ones with transformers always pulled some power. Newer ones typically pull enough to light the LED so that you know that they are on. Plus some other losses in the circuitry.
Appliances which stay powered up enough to run the remote control receiver and internal computer take a lot more.

Mission control we have a SPAMMER.

Our house came with sky lights in both interior bathrooms that at first, when you would go to leave the bathroom, you would constantly look to "turn off the light" switch every time as it was so nice and bright inside these interior rooms via the sky lights! Added benefit is when we re-roofed, we replaced the sky lights with ones that can open with a crank. It is amazing how much air flow an open sky light can create, and also eliminate the need for a vent fan to be running!


Around Christmas time, look for the inexpensive wireless remote units that they sell to turn on and off Christmas lights. (Like $25 for a 3 A/C unit controllers and battery operated remote). I have a 3 unit remote controller on the table by my easy chair that I can turn on, or off, most all of the units in our entertainment center, via a power strip, plugged into the remote control A/C plug in unit. So all those power draining devices, that are them selves remote controlled, such as our DVD, Blue ray DVD, old VCR, Stereo, Old cassette Tape deck, and even our powered sub woofer, are all now on a single power strip, plugged into a single remote A/C unit, that I can remotely turn on, and off, from my easy chair when we need to use them. The sub woofer alone was using 15 watts to just sit in "stand by" mode, all combined it was draining 45+ watts per my kw meter, 24 /7. I have another A/C remote on a light, and even one for our gas log fireplace fan, where the gas log, is also remote controlled, from a remote by my chair. (So I can turn on the gas log fireplace,, and the fan to move the heat out, all from my Lazy Boy chair!) Just be careful and mindful that you do not draw more watts through the remote A/C unit then it is stated to be able to control... For the ultimate lazy, I just ran a water line from our reverse Osmosis water purifier line going to our refrigerator, (under the house), over to that same Lazy Boy easy chair. I installed a 2nd R/O water tap faucet ($17) on my oak TV tray table beside the chair, so now I can fill up my water glass while sitting in my chair, and not have to get up, go into the kitchen, to get a glass of water! (Now if I could just put that keg o beer, and install a 2nd tap on that oak TV tray, I would really be set, (and way too fat)... Just don't get too carried away, and turn your place into a James Bond Bachelor Pad!

I have seasonal allergies so when we replaced our forced air heater with a new one, I also added an "Aprilaire" whole house HEPA filter. You can add an AprilAire system to most any existing heaters too. You can find all the info about Aprilaire at aprilaire.com. It is a HUGE HEPA air filter that goes in before the heater - A/C unit on the return air of a forced air system, so it uses the heater fan to function. Most newer heater - A/C units have multi speed fans, and the Aprilaire is working when ever your heater or A/C runs, plus, it also has its own control box which you can mount right below your home thermostat. It has some great features on its own control box so you can run and filter your air via having your furnace heater come on slow speed independently of heating or A/C. It has push buttons for being fully on, all the time, to an "Event" function button where you can turn it on for 4 hours say after vacuuming or having company over and you want to clean the air. Another button runs the air purifier 1/2 hour on, 1/2 hour off continuously. On the AprilAire control box is also a bar graph showing you how much life is left on your filter. I have found running the AprilAire has greatly helped with my allergies, but you do have to keep the house closed up for it to clean the air, and not bring in more pollen. It is a great match for a solar system as you get the power to run it from the sun.

Another thing out there are ultraviolet lights to install just before the heater, just before the AprilAire, on that same return air duct to kill germs. The ultraviolet lights come on whenever the heater / fan motor comes on and kill's germs that can cause illness. I took mine a step further, and wired a wall switch into our hall closet, so I do not run the ultraviolet lights all the time, as they do burn out. I just turn the switch on when someone in the house gets ill. So when someone gets ill in the house, the ultraviolet switch is turned on, then the Aprilaire is put to be on either 24 hours a day, or 1/2 hour on, 1/2 hour off, to keep the germs down, and the air clean. It seems to help as with it on, we do not seem to share colds or illness nearly as often as before we had it, so IMHO it was worth the cost, which was not that much.

The heater we purchased came with a 10 year parts & labor warranty, so, hey, I expect them to replace that heater motor at least once in that period...

If you have dust allergies a great solution is a central vacuum that exhausts to the outside.
I haven't seen a vac hepa filter that doesn't let some dust get by

+1
Particularly when you have to change it or open the housing to look at it.

Outside Exhaust

That is a fact. When I bought the central vac, they said it would be OK to exhaust inside
the house. NO WAY said I, outside is a BIG ADVANTAGE to the central vac for us dust &
pollen sensitive types. Took me half a day to chisel a hole in the brick wall.

I have also had an electronic air cleaner for decades. I used to worry about the electricity
for running the blower often during non heat/cooling seasons, but no longer do since
generating my own power. Bruce Roe

very useful tips. thanks

energy saving tips

I agree with you. I had started reading Energy.gov that gives lot of tips