Nice suggestions!

I especially liked this one;



LOL. I never knew that there were instances like this.

same here borther c:

Mod note - You can place your contact information in your profile and direct people there - not allowed in posts though

HI appreciate your approach for the energy conservation. I also think that that using the solar panels should be the first step of everyone who is involved in idea of energy conservation. Thank you.

I have the feeling that saving 25-30% of your electricity is a wasted effort when you not at the same time prepare to go off grid as much as possible.
In my own house in the Netherlands i managed to save around 40%, encouraged by subsidies from the government. Soon after (within 2 years) the electricity rate went up, a 'green' tax was introduced and gone where the saving, the utilities companies were making top profits selling less energy at higher prices. This trend is still going on.
I was unable to install solar and wind because of regulations. As the house was on a dune at the beach wind alone would have been enough for all my energy needs. No more ways to save on energy use and still getting higher bills every year. Conclusion wrong location!

It has stopped to bother me because i moved to Thailand.
At least here i am able to install solar/wind and go off gird when i want to. Makes you think about the whole energy thing again. I have some land that is still unprepared. Connecting to the grid will cost about the same as around 2kw solar panels. The choice will be easy.

Now the most energy in my current house, a 2 bedroom townhouse in Bangkok, is used for cooling. I managed to get my fridge and freezer use a lot less energy by always keeping it completely filled. Empty space is filled with water bottles. The freezer and fridge are set on a timer so that it switches on only during the day. Keeping it filled and switched of at night saves about 50% without noticeable difference in temperature inside. At night it will never be opened anyway. The challenge will be to get the fridge and freezer running on solar. The 50% savings i have reached sofar will make it easier to accomplish. The best way to to use these bottles is when you buy groceries then take out a few bottles to make room and place them in the freezer. When you use the food and it gets more empty transferring the bottles from the freezer to the fridge will help to cool down the interior a lot quicker after you have opened the fridge. The freezer has 2 lids on top, opening the smaller one will keep the cool air in, not wasting much. The fridge has a large door in the front causing all the cool air to rush out quickly. I am still trying to figure out if i can use a second freezer as a fridge by regulating the temperature myself. I think it will be more energy efficient then the fridge. Time and experience will tell.

Lighting is florescent already so not much to save there, maybe change a few to LED as the light is more comfortable to the eyes.

I use a very small desktop computer using max 3 amps on 12v through an 220/12v adapter. The 32" screen uses 120 watts on 220v. Not much to save there anymore except making sure the screen switches of quickly when not used.

Insulating the roof saved about 20% on the aircon bill that is used only at night. I just used the bubble foam with aluminum backing to reflect most of the heat. Installed a fan to extract the hot air from the attic and made sure air could raise through convection out of the rooms to the roof, sometimes with a little help from a fan. It lowered the temperature in the house by 4 degrees Celsius. That was in our case enough to get it from uncomfortable to comfortable most of the year. In hot season (april/may) a few fans are used to help evaporate the sweat.

My current project is building an air conditioning using ice water to cool and extract moisture from the air using a simple water pump, heat exchanger and a fan. It will use about 30 watts. Ice is very cheap to get here otherwise this would not be possible. I expect the air conditioning bill to be 80% cheaper this way. In western countries it is currently being used in large buildings by making ice at night and using that to cool during the daytime using the lower rates at night to save money.

While this may not seem germane to the subject, bear with me for a moment. Most of the wind and solar programs require you to be grid tied to get rebates. Out in the Antelope Valley, the county of Los Angeles is harassing off-grid people. With the new smart meters it's possible to calculate the values of the sun and wind as far as energy goes.
Now that they can be assigned a value, government can tax them. This may come as a surprise, but shouldn't. Governments are the equivalent of people farmers. Like any farmer, they're going to get the most out of their flock that they can. All of the infrastructure built has as its core purpose, the making of a more productive flock.
When SecState Clinton went to Afghanistan she complained that the level of taxation was not high enough. Basically putting forward some of the tenets of the IMF, if Afghanistan hopes to get any money to develop the country.

Bcroe, not to take anything away from the idea of wasting energy.. but i wanted to lower my energy bill about 3 months ago and did so by using solar and wind power and now the electric company is paying me and i didnt have to change any of my energy habits... just saying.