Saving a few watts - a few ideas that I use around the house
 

Just a few ideas that I use around the house to save a few watts. I don't have a killo-watt although I do have a SG for the house. All laundry is done with cold water and the dryer is on energy saving mode. A lot of time the clothes are ready to come out before the dryer auto shutoffs. It takes a few tries before you figure when to go to the next load but once you figure it out it pretty consistent. We wait until there are multiple load before we do laundry that way we can use skip the warmup mode on the dryer for the next load. With the dishwasher we run the short cycle and then let them air dry instead of letting the machine do it. There is quite a bit of heat already from the cleaning cycle so the dishes dry within an hour or so. Also a blanket for the hot water heater with the temp set about 120. Weather stripping and CFL through out the house.

Thanks for the tips, :thumbup:

If you want to save a few cents on the powercost monitor, ebay has them for sale for ~145 shipped: http://cgi.ebay.com/PowerCost-Monito...QQcmdZViewItem

If you poke around you might be able to find one on sale. I've yet to buy one but I really want to.

Too late I already have one.:)

I know, but for everyone else, :)

I actually just bought a new Power Cost Monitor from a guy in Canada for 60$ shipped, :turtle: to that, :)

Any tips for using it?

Cool. Just plug it in and start turning things on. I was shocked how much energy the oven pulled.

My oven is gas with a gas range.

I read an article on emergency preparedness that got me thinking. Not all gas appliances work the same when you don't have power.

The reason the oven uses so much power is it has a glow plug to ignite the gas. Mine takes about 300 watts! The plug glows and the gas turns on and off to control temperature.

In event of a power failure, I can match-light the range burners to boil water, fry eggs, etc. but I can't use the oven to bake a pizza!

A bit of a tip to save money on those appliances that draw current even if the appliance is "off". I have a power point that is controlled by a switch in the entrance to my livingroom. I ran an extention cord around the outside of the room with my cable modem, Sat receiver, TV, Laptop, DVD player.

Benifits are that its a pain in the ass to (A) get behind the entertainment unit to unplug these cords. (B) My receiver takes forever to download the listing information, when I come home from work I can turn on the switch, go get changed out of work clothes get something to drink etc... and by the time I sit down my listings are ready for me.

This is something I have always been trying to do. My apartment complex, being on a school campus, has the utilities included up to a point. However, once you exceed that limit you can start paying heavy overage fees. I try to minimize my use of lights and such, however, my main problem is my computer. I have many very powerful computers that are running some of those distributed computing programs, such as Folding at Home, run by Stanford University and they require my computers to be on 24/7 which obviously requires electricity so I have to find other ways to save power. Some of the things I have done is replace all the lights with high efficiency compact florescent bulbs. I also try to combine laundry loads like the OP suggested and I also try to keep lights on, only in the rooms I am currently in and even then if it is bright outside I rather open a window before I turn on the light. I never thought about the dishwasher thing though, I will try that next time I do the dishes.

More in the long term energy savings area but worthwhile and it does actually work.

I turned my refrigerator about 45 degrees from the normal "parallel to the wall" position to see if it helps.

Without altering the settings the freezer section runs cooler. Frozen peas and corn used to fall into individual pieces when tapped now they stay frozen in one lump.

The fridge part now has ice form on lettuce (Summer down here just now) where it never did before.

No measurable decrease in the electricity bill but the amount I use is small anyway. Most of the bill is supply costs and other charges.

Pete.