[Cynus]

I agree that we should all do these things, however, if doing all these things simply allows another billion or so people to live on the planet the net gain will be zero.

[TheSupplyGuy]

Yeah, I don't personally agree with all of them(such as the things KillJOY pointed out), but I figured the list as a whole was too good to mess with.
And excellent point Cynus. I just hope these things will keep a billion people from dying that don't have to when energy becomes scarce, not increase the population.

[53convert]

I think there are sufficiently good pointers to justify a bump on this.
Use a reel lawn push mower. Great exercise and no gas.

[eastbay]

I think there are sufficiently good pointers to justify a bump on this.
Use a reel lawn push mower. Great exercise and no gas.

I agree with the 'bump'.
Funny, I was thinking about this just today. I waste plenty of water (and gasoline) keeping the backyard grass green during the hot summer and was pondering the future removal of portions of the lawn area.
I think push mowing will be a phase many will go through before those with grass lawns skip the mowing altogether and convert their grassy areas to vegitable garden areas.
The sooner the better... but not this week.

[Madpaddy]

eastbay,
Leave the small grassy areas for a goat which will give you great milk. If you don't have enough space for a goat then convert to vegetable garden like you said.

If you are in a suburb then maybe a goat is a bit of a nono for now but not for long!!!!

[53convert]

actually, for lawn mowing, if your so inclinded, get a couple of sheep. Evan if just minitures. They clip the grass, not pull and they, like chickens, make great garden tractors.
I do agree about the lawnmowing th9ing, I would much prefer a small veggie garden and orchard to sterile grass, but....... maybe tomorrow. though I would point out that I have started my orchard on my small wood lot.
Does that count.

[Kfish]

What really gets me is the way a number of posters here use Jevon's Paradox to counter any argument on conservation. Or the common argument, it'll only delay Peak Oil, not stop it.

Both these arguments, I think, miss the point. The point is that we need every second of delay we can get to prepare for a world with less oil. And the sooner we start conservation efforts, the more time we have to get used to living with less oil.

Who cares if China burns the last barrel of oil instead of the US? The greenhouse effect doesn't care - the last barrel is going to get sucked out and burnt no matter how much we conserve. And if we've learned not to use that barrel, what impact does someone else burning it have on us? Unless, of course, there's a "it's not fair! we're conserving but no one else is!" element to the argument.

The conservers are still the lucky ones, because they've gone through the social and cultural changes voluntarily and at their own pace, rather than being forced to change abruptly in a hard landing scenario.

[birchm]

For PC's, I'd say at least setting the monitor power-saving mode helps a lot, especially for cheapos like me who can't afford (and don't want) LCD panels and have stuck with CRT's. Set to 5 or 10 minutes, and it's off.

The PC itself takes a lot less power than the monitor especially if you're running anything newer/better than Windows 95/98. Windows NT and XP (and 2003 should as well) come with a "System Idle Process" that issues the HLT instruction (HALT, actually) when doing nothing in particular.

Oh, and if you're actually going to buy a new CPU, avoid the Intel Pentium 4's, *especially* the P4E's - they're the V8 energy guzzlers of the processor world nowadays. The AMD64's are cheaper, run faster in most applications except XVID, MP3 encoding (who does that all the time anyway), run cooler and use much less energy.

Mine's an AMD64, it runs at 41 degC idle, 44-46 degC running 3D games, and up to 56 degC XVID encoding. Intel P4E's typically run at over 50 degC *while idle*. And heat up over 60-70 degC, guzzling way over 100W at full throttle.

Newest generation Pentium chips (Pentium D, and Core Solo/Duo) are much more power efficient than previous generation Pentium 4s and Athlon 64s. Major things which will eat power alive in computers besides processors include cheap power supplies, monstrous video cards, and high-speed hard drives. This can be mitigated (like with major appliances and most electronics) by purchasing name brand components, going for value-edition video cards which are based on modern small-channel processing yet don't have massive clock speeds, and sticking with modern drives with fluid bearings. Newer hardware is much more energy efficient.

Also, the statement about a computer's tower taking up less power than a 100-watt CRT is just plain false. This link can help you calculate just how much power your computer uses. Changing to an LCD will save you a good amount of power. They use somewhere on a range of 1/3 the power as a CRT. Like a CF lightbulb, it saves you money in the long run.

As a general rule with semiconductor electronics, power consumption is controlled by the following factors:

channel width (smaller is better)
clock frequency (lower is better)
die size (smaller is better)
source voltage (lower is better)

[Steam_Engine]

Here's a suggestion that doesn't require any increased work on your part and in fact saves you time (and loads o' money): a new style pressure cooker. Well designed new pressure cookers, being perfectly safe, aren't like the ones of old. They cook food two to ten times faster than ordinary cooking methods and, as a result, cut the energy used for cooking by about 70%. Unlike microwave cooked food, the meals taste superb, and pressure cookers cook food in a fraction of the time compared to slow cookers.

[nocar]

I checked the link, and it looks exactly like the one I bought in Estonia three years ago. On a vacation trip.
Yes, pressure cookers save in many ways. Shorter cooking time, cheap cuts. Tough meat gets tender and tasty, like old hens - a favorite of ours, that we can get at a local small farm. Inexpensive meals.
Dry peas and beans ccok fast too.

[oil4u]

Here's a suggestion that doesn't require any increased work on your part and in fact saves you time (and loads o' money): a new style pressure cooker. Well designed new pressure cookers, being perfectly safe, aren't like the ones of old. They cook food two to ten times faster than ordinary cooking methods and, as a result, cut the energy used for cooking by about 70%. Unlike microwave cooked food, the meals taste superb, and pressure cookers cook food in a fraction of the time compared to slow cookers.

Hmm....looks good. I haven't thought about these since my Grandma moved into the retirement home, 15 years ago. Is this "new style" Fagor cooker the best one to get? I sure can remember that old pot, just hissing away!!! Can you get other ones at places like Canadian Tire or Sears? What's the best size for a family of 4?

Thanks everyone for the tips on this thread. I've put a lot into practice already, but it's always good to get more tips.
This weekend I'm picking up 2, City subsidized, rain barrels at 35.00 (CDN) a piece. A wise investment I think. Any comments on rain barrels?

[Aaron]

Ackbar Has Spoken

[nocar]

I think the one I bought in Estonia, looking like the picture, was French made. As to size - buy a big one. You should leave a good space to the rim. A stew for a family of four gets rather big. Meat with bones, like a chicken, fills a lot in the pot. I get two retired laying hens (small) into mine, if I cut one in half.


nocar

[WildRose]

It's a good list. I'm happy to say that we have been doing many of these things in our home for a while now.

I have another tip re: clothes drying. If you live in a climate like ours in Alberta, you have to use a clothes dryer for much of the year because it's too cold to hang your laundry outside; and, if you have lots of laundry (large family) you can't hang it up inside or you will have a problem with mold. So, organize your laundry in loads according to how much drying they need - towels may need a full hour or 50 minutes, but many things only need 20 minutes and you can take them out and hang them up.

Another tip for those who use plastic Ziploc bags for freezing and storage is to reuse them. We wash ours out with warm water and soap, give them a good shake, and hang them on our fridge with fridge magnets to dry. My daughter thought of this, and we've been doing it for months now.

[strider3700]

I think push mowing will be a phase many will go through before those with grass lawns skip the mowing altogether and convert their grassy areas to vegitable garden areas.
The sooner the better... but not this week. EastBay

Heh It's interesting to read a post predicting the future from way back in 2005.
I had just purchased my house and that summer starting roughly in April or May I mowed my lawn with a gas mower that came with the house. Christmas of 2005 I picked up an old push mower from my grandpa's when we moved him. It worked good but you had to mow regularly or the grass got tall and hard to cut. This past winter I turned half of my front yard into garden.

So it seems like the prediction has come true however I'm doing all of this when there is abundant energy to assist. Waiting until after the cheap oil is gone and this would go from an annoying hard few weekends to backbreaking labour that your life depends on.

[Steam_Engine]

Look for a pressure cooker that is 15 psi, made from stainless steel and doesn't have a complicated (and ugly) lid clamping mechanism. They are the best, fastest and most energy efficient. You can find a brief pressure cooker price comparison on the same website that has the pressure cooker energy savings details. Get a size that's 6 liters (6 quarts) or larger as you can't fill a pressure cooker more than 2/3 full. The French T-Fal pressure cookers are only 12 psi and, therefore, aren't as fast or energy efficient as a 15 psi one.

I'm probably alone on this, but I try to avoid big box stores. (1) Their sales staffs aren't very knowledgeable. For example, try to find someone who works there that has actually used a pressure cooker. (2) Big box store operations aren't very energy efficient when you consider their long distribution chains. (3) They push hard for the importation of low cost, energy intensive Chinese made products that cost a lot of jobs in the local economy both directly through manufacturing losses and by employing a lot less total support workers like bookkeepers, accountants, bankers, retail staff, etc. compared to a small business. (4) They have too much political influence. What's good for them isn't necessarily good for us longterm.

[strider3700]

32. Run your dishwasher only when full.

isn't it better to wash the dishes by hand?
Why not stop spending resources on useless decorations?

A good modern dishwasher will use less water then washing by hand. Since that water is hot it also uses less electricity assuming your water is heated by electric. You also have to turn on the air dry option not the heated coils.
Old dish washers may use more water and therefore more energy.

[nella]

From the tales of a indiffernet housekeeper : I never understood why anyone would run a dishwasher unless it was full. Ditto on a clotheswasher.

[AbbieT]

http://peakworld.org/blog2.php/2008/04/ ... y-reducing

This article talks about not only buying less stuff, but also about urban sprawl and what to do about it. It also has a link to the full Affluenza PBS documentary which I found interesting.

[patience]

AbbieT,
Great article for hopefully reaching a wide audience. We desperately need the MSM to cover these ideas, and start to reverse the advertising/brainwashing that promotes consuming!

Our family has lived well below our means, and a fairly frugal life forever, but we have relatives that think we're either poor or weird for doing so. One has filed bankruptcy twice, and continues to spend flagrantly, to the point she is in trouble with paying her taxes. AGAIN!

How about printing it off and circulating it to friends? Think I'll try that.