What is the easiest way to save money and help the environment? I had to learn this because I live in a house that gets all its power from solar panels and a wind turbine. I'm not connected to any utility - I live off-grid. When I consume more energy than I did I produce the commissioning of the noisy Emergency Generator - which also uses fuel. This
is something I would rather not do, so here are some things I have
learned about energy conservation from the life in my off-grid home.
Save energy - a necessity if you live off-gridMy husband and I built our off-grid solar and wind-powered home in 2003, when solar panels, which is still quite expensive (about 3 times the price that they in 2012), so the easiest way to make money for the was to save initial costs, to find out how we wanted to do all the things we do in our house on the minimum amount of power.
The
way to do this is to write down all equipment (including things like
the water pump) that you want to use and for how many hours a day do you
plan to use them. This information is in a load-analysis that the performance you need every day estimates entered. It also gives you an insight into where you can save electricity. Whatever you do not use, you do not have to pay to produce or store it in the battery bank.
Some surprisesSome of the biggest culprits for energy use will surprise you. For example, if you leave a 60 watt light bulb on the whole day more power than a modern refrigerator over the same period. Really? Let's look at the numbers. Our refrigerator uses 404 kWh per year - that's what the Energy Star sticker on it says (and I've actually tested it and found that it is correct). Share this. By 365 days in a year, and you get 1.1 kWh per day Now let us find out the bulb - one day you will receive 1.4 kWh per day, 60 watts times 24 hours. Are you surprised? We were when we found out and it actually down.
It is clear from this example that you turn off your lights when you will not use them to make a big difference in how they work and replaced with more energy efficient as compact fluorescent or LED bulbs.
Energy Saving HabitsShutdown of things when you're not using it is a good habit to get into. Things like televisions and computers a lot of energy if left all day, though no one with them.
Then there are the so-called "phantom loads". These seem to be gone, but still draw a significant amount of energy. A typical example is the remote for your TV and other entertainment systems. For the remote control to be able to turn on your TV, the sending and receiving still works, so they draw power even when the TV is off. The easy way around this is to eliminate them stuck in a switched power strip or into a wall outlet controlled by a wall switch the plug. If you are not careful and do not need the remote control anyway, just flip the switch to OFF.
Sometimes you can get a more efficient appliance that you already own, for some jobs. Here are some examples:- A toaster uses less power (900 watts) than a toaster oven (1300 watts), so if you're just making a couple of pieces of toast using the toaster.
- A slow cooker is much more efficient than turning the ordinary furnace and you do not have to worry about burning your meal.
- A laptop is much more energy efficient than a desktop computer, and is compact and portable.
- Internet connections also come with different energy requirements. A modem and router requires more power than a USB internet stick connected to your computer.
Select New appliances carefullyWhen it's time to replace your appliances look at the energy use of what you are as well as the purchase of other functions. Many devices have an assessment of how many kWh per year shows they use. Select the lowest number on the model that has all the other features you want. You may even be willing to trade some features for lower power consumption. Government regulations and manufacturing innovations have great improvements in the energy efficiency of appliances made so that you notice a significant difference when your old unit is pre-1992.
What difference does it make to us?For us, the end result of attention to all these details that we work on our house 150 kWh per month to use about a fifth of the power most homes. But our lifestyle is not much different from other people and we do not know without anything we want.
