Saving electricity at home.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

All the sinks in the house have 1/2 gpm needle spray aerators, which are awesome.

Well, until you want to fill up a few gallon jugs to take on a camping trip, anyway :-)

[JacobAziza]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Well, until you want to fill up a few gallon jugs to take on a camping trip, anyway :-)

Tub, or outdoor spigot. No problem.

[j12piprius]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Well, until you want to fill up a few gallon jugs to take on a camping trip, anyway :-)

I don't use tap water for drinking. RO water is used for trips, and jugs are prefilled. I usually empty the 3 gallon tank once a day.

The bathtub faucet works fine for filling things, and I put a tub faucet in the shower, for rinsing my running togs and hanging them on a bar up above.

The kitchen sink has a big gooseneck faucet, which works fine for the little water used there. I put goosenecks in the bathroom sinks too, as they're easier to use anyway.

[sid]

How do you determine the temperature, just by feel the way it comes out?

Another thing will be trying the cold water laundry, and using less laundry soap.
Do you have a particular recommendation for brand?

I step in the shower. If I'm comfortable, the temperature on the water heater is set right.

I presently have Ultra Sun laundry detergent. I think Consumer's Reports recommends Cold Water Tide as the best they tested.

I also have flow restrictors on all my faucets and my shower head. The county I live in gave them "free" (our tax dollars/water bill dollars at work) to every household.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Something that's not really true. If you look at some of the comparisons, you'll see that they've set them up to use as wasteful a method of hand-washing as possible, doing things like running multiple sinks of hot water to rinse the dishes, or leaving the hot water running continually.

I believe you, and yet... when I see various people washing dishes they DO leave the hot water running continuously! But since pointing something like that out leads to me doing the dishes, I keep my trap shut.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I believe you, and yet... when I see various people washing dishes they DO leave the hot water running continuously!

Sure. I don't think I ever claimed that there's not a plentiful supply of idiots in the world. But since I'm not an idiot - or at least don't wash dishes like one :-) - then for me a dishwasher is much less energy-efficient than washing by hand. And indeed, I don't think I've ever used the one in my kitchen.

[RobertSmalls]

I purchased a compact countertop dishwasher last year, and it's my favorite kitchen gadget by far. It can hold service for four, and I run it every four or five days.

To test the water consumption, I let the dishwasher discharge into a plugged sink, which it filled about a third full - much less water than it would take me to do it by hand, especially when you consider that I no longer rinse dirty dishes after using but before washing them.

The dishwasher saves so much time and dry skin, and improves the cleanliness of my kitchen, so I'd be happy to have it even if it didn't save water and energy (which it does).

[Christ]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Something that's not really true. If you look at some of the comparisons, you'll see that they've set them up to use as wasteful a method of hand-washing as possible, doing things like running multiple sinks of hot water to rinse the dishes, or leaving the hot water running continually.

YOU convince my wife that hand washing is better.

She uses a single bowl (dual bowl sink) of warm water, washes all the dishes, puts them in the other bowl, then rinses them in cold or mildly warm water.

Wash all, rinse all. Every night. The dishwasher won't get full for 3-4 days. I don't remember the number of gallons the dishwasher is supposed to use, but I know for a fact she uses 3 gallons of water just waiting for the tap to get warm, another gallon to fill the sink with warm water, then at least 2-3 more gallons to rinse. Daily. So calling it 5 gallons, each day for 4 days, 20 gallons... does the dishwasher use 20 gallons?

Even if it does - it has it's own electric heater to heat the water when necessary, and uses less soap than hand washing. (my wife thinks there needs to be suds everywhere... lol)

[Frank Lee]

You can get away with soooo much more when you're bachin' it!

Same goes for laundry: I read somewhere that the vast majority of laundry-doers greatly overdo it with the soap. There does not need to be huge frothy piles of bubbles on the water! I know when my laundry gets done at G.F's place the strong scent of the detergent almost makes me gag.

[roflwaffle]

Does anyone know how much more resistance a back-stabbed connection has compared to a side-wired connection? If it's something as small as a .05 ohm increase then it would add a couple bucks per year to someone's bill, plus whatever increase in AC motor losses if one was hooked up.