Smaller house = forced savings

[Christ]

...cuz we had to leave the freezers outside on the porch... and since we live in a trailer and don't cool it, having them outside means they'll run less often [and not at all here shortly], so we're saving money on our food storage requirements.

They're under a carport that covers the front patio area of our house, against the wall as you walk out the door. They're shaded, in an area with plenty of airflow, and as cold as it gets here during the cold months, they'll pretty much just quit running for a few months once winter actually sets in.

Granted, it doesn't cost that much to run two freezers [one upright and one chest], but I'll be dad-gummed if I'm gonna pay for stuff I don't have to.

[Cobb]

Eating fresh food or growing your own out of the question? Growing your own you can compost, recycle your water with a grey water setup.

Trailers arent necessary insulated that well depending model and up keep.

[Sven7]

That's pretty awesome actually, but I'm not sure I'd want to step outside in my pajamas to get some ice cream on a cold January night!

Taking the small house thing even further, people like me who live in second floor apartments can sometimes save on heating because the first-floor people's heat rises right into my apartment. I don't even have to heat the place until late December. $15/mo electric bills.

[redneck]

Granted, it doesn't cost that much to run two freezers [one upright and one chest], but I'll be dad-gummed if I'm gonna pay for stuff I don't have to.

"A penny saved is a penny earned."

Benjamin Franklin



>

[solarguy]

1. A penny saved is usually much more than a penny earned, because of taxes.

2. Growing your own veggies almost always produces a glut of excess food that would be impossible to eat at the time. Freezing is the fastest and easiest method of food preservation, with dehydration a close second. Canning is more work, but lasts a lot longer and doesn't care about the electricity going out. Losing all your food in a blackout sucks...


3. On the third hand, if you keep the freezers inside, the "waste" heat helps heat your house. So yes, you now have to pay for electricity, but none of the electricity is "wasted" so to speak.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by solarguy

2. Growing your own veggies almost always produces a glut of excess food that would be impossible to eat at the time. Freezing is the fastest and easiest method of food preservation, with dehydration a close second. Canning is more work, but lasts a lot longer and doesn't care about the electricity going out. Losing all your food in a blackout sucks...

Did you know that at least 6 groups of people and a bunch of machinery touch your raw vegetables before you eat them?
I am shocked a lot more people aren't sickened by them.

[cowmeat]

Did you know that at least 6 groups of people and a bunch of machinery touch your raw vegetables before you eat them?
I am shocked a lot more people aren't sickened by them.

One of the nice things about living in central Florida is that I'm just getting ready to plant my winter garden, which will produce all the way through until March, when I plant my summer garden.
Summer was rough this year, I didn't have much time to work in the garden, and it got burnt pretty bad.
But my winter garden will have tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, peppers, green beans, lettuce, onions, carrots, squash, maybe corn if I feel like fighting the caterpillars, and winding throughout will be cantaloupes and watermelons. I still have some green and red peppers producing from the summer planting, although they're looking pretty scraggly.
My garden is 16' x 28', and I am getting ready to cover it with shade cloth this season, so I'll be able to grow year round, and it supplies us with most of our veggies.

I also have a grove of bananas, which produces more bananas than we can eat.

Nobody touches my veggies but me and my wife! Gotta save money where you can!

[basjoos]

Another advantage of growing your own veggies is you know exactly what chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.) your plants were exposed to. Also you can build up the micronutrients in your garden's soil so the veggies growing in them will be nutrient dense. Most store bought veggies are grown in soils that haven't seen anything except NPK synthetic fertilizers since the 1940's and modern veggies have been documented by the USDA to be much lower in vitamins, etc. than similar veggies grown in the 1950's.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by solarguy

3. On the third hand, if you keep the freezers inside, the "waste" heat helps heat your house. So yes, you now have to pay for electricity, but none of the electricity is "wasted" so to speak.

I've thought about this, quite often... and it's really not worth the extra expense.

See, your house will /always/ be warmer than the freezer, which, in turn, makes the freezer not as efficient at cooling it's interior, and also makes it run more often.

So it's running longer, and more often inside the house, almost regardless of the outside conditions [unless you live in the Mojave, perhaps].

Now, for the few bucks a year difference, it probably doesn't make any difference to even some savings-minded individuals, but I prefer to leave them outside for the cost savings and life-extension of the units.

This place isn't the greatest insulated, but heating shouldn't be too bad... maybe $200/month in gas for the 3 worst months, less so if we focus more time on cooking at lower temperatures and using the oven more frequently, which helps to heat the living space. I don't bother heating the bedroom fro the most part because we're sleeping and don't care about what temp it is.

[solarguy]

Yes, it gets a bit complex.

On a similar point, if your house is air conditioned, a dollar's worth of "waste" electrical heat (like from a freezer, or incandescent bulbs) take 2-3 dollars worth of AirCon electricity to remove.

But on the third hand, it's hotter outside in the summer (vs aircon indoors) , so the compressor has to work a bit more compared to being inside.

On the whole, I think your solution is the best, but having them indoors does come with some not-so-obvious advantages.