13 easy, inexpensive ways to go green

pstarr

If it is easy it is not going to help with peak oil and besides these are mostly electrical issues. PO is a liquid fuel transport issue.

I like the 'Cover the hot tub' item. Hum? Is that to keep post-peak neighbors from boiling the pet retriever?
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Revi · Fusion Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 3255 Location: Maine

Great ideas!
Sometimes the simplest things save the most energy. We've done almost all of these things, and more and we save over $2650 every year. We also reduced our fossil fuel use by half and are putting half the carbon into the atmosphere.

Here's what we've done:

http://www.msad54.org/sahs/appliedarts/artlofving/Energysav/index.htm

Blacksmith

Good suggestions thanks.
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anagami

Most solutions are geographical-specific... they should be compiled and organized in categories.

LED lightbulbs are even more efficient and doesn't have mercury... and there are new developments sometimes, recently the white-light LED bulb.
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BobWallace · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 01, 2007 Posts: 187

Anyone found reasonably priced LEDs for general home lighting?

Everything that I've found so far is quite expensive.

Well, except for a very nice LED nightlight that turns itself off in daylight for about $2.... ;o)

BastardSquad · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 24, 2004 Posts: 306

Ideas "1" and "9" are in direct conflict with one another!

Dimmer switches don't work on CFL's (unless there's been some breakthrough I'm unaware of).
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Revi · Fusion Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 3255 Location: Maine

SpringCreekFarm · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 889

delete

Troyboy1208

Thanks for saving all that energy! More for me to use Smile

pstarr

HydroLuver, there isn't an entry in this list that I have not considered at length and implemented 10 times over. My entire house has been CFL for 10 years, I have solar hot water and PV on my roof, a Swedish Vestfrost refrigerator/freezer and a German Bosch washing machine. I finish heating my water with an on-demand Bosch water heater connected to my roof panels. My washer and dryers are front-loaders (and shared by my cohousing community.) I built the cohousing community and we share too many facilities to list. It is part of a walkable community. My house temp was set below 60 degrees all the time. That is until I got tired of doing the right thing in lieu of others doing the right thing.

Excuse the cynicism but it is much too late to mitigate peak oil with electrical conservation measures. That would require us divert this saved electricity to a renewable-powered electric transport system. But the infrastructure does not exist and will not in your lifetime. Or in time.
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pstarr

pstarr

yesplease · Fission Joined: Oct 03, 2006 Posts: 2316

aahala · Intermediate Crude Joined: Feb 03, 2005 Posts: 954

This energy saving list that started the thread seems pretty
much what was passing around 15 or 20 years ago.

I mislike the attitude of media that one should merely repeat
someone's else work and continue repeatly inaccuracies. Facts change!

Item (2 -- bleeding or standby loss accounts for 40% of
its electrical useage. This claim was probably never true
generally and a whole lot less likely now than years ago.
The issue was well known by the powers that be and
by the early 1990's the government told the appliance
manufacturers to either fix the issue voluntarily or
government mandates would be applied. Anyway,
appliances since then don't have much standby loss.

Item (4 -- save 40% by buying a water heater blanket.
You are not going to save anything close to 40% if your
heater was already built insulated. Most heaters were required
to be insulated as the result of the 1988 "National Appliance
Energy Conversation Act". The first insulation regulation from
that was 1990.

In your particular case, you MAY have one or both of these
problems but you are fairly likely to have neither. I think it
almost deceptive not to mention this in such a printed list.
(The author probably didn't know better as he used the
copy and paste button. Why waste time checking the facts?)

I also don't like the idea to get greener by saving one third on
your hottub! I have a much easier suggestion, how to save
three thirds.

Ludi

Yeah, just not bothering to have a lot of these luxuries is the easiest way to conserve both money and energy. Because of Jevon's paradox, we know that conserving energy, unless you generate your own, probably won't do much good in the big picture, but conserving money by not investing in luxuries like hot tubs and AC can enable one to reduce the need to earn, thus reducing production and consumption on the wider scale.
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