What Else Are You Doing To Promote Energy Efficiency?

Everyone I talk to seems to have a good understanding of what we all need to do to get off foreign reliance for energy. That is the obvious solution. However how many of you are using energy saving methods to reduce our overall use of energy? While wearing one of my own hats as a Sr. Energy Consultant, I show neighbors, friends, relatives and potential clients simple easy to implement energy saving measures to reduce their use of energy. Simply it requires that people implement common sense conservation techniques that reduce your monthly bill for whatever energy source you presently use. The percent of savings that can be realized, depend largely upon your own present wastefulness of energy, through undisciplined practices to actual installation of devices to further reduce your monthly costs. Further it is the effort you are willing to put forth that largely determines what those savings will be.

Tags: applications, devices, energy, saving, techniques, tips

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Permalink Reply by John T on July 9, 2009 at 8:50am: Energy efficiency is a major opportunity for everyone.

a) Savings can be realized as quick as you can screw in a lightbulb.
b) Require no permits, public opinions, hearings, legal battles, and in a lot of cases not even technology development.

Point in case.

I reduced my electric usage by 40%.

1) I started reading the meter myself and plotted the usage by week.
2) I installed ceiling fans in each room. Fortunately since it was a new house, I had ceiling fixtures prewired.
3) I have a coffee maker that preheats and holds hot water so that we can get a pot of coffee quickly (Bunn). I put a timer on it. It only heats the water in the morning, not all day.
4) Installed CFL's in about 10 places, those that we use most often. I did not bother with the other ones
5) With the ceiling fans on hot days we run the a/c with a setpoint of 78 versus 73 or 74 like before, and rarely need it to run at all at night.
6) I practice closing the blinds on the sunny side of the house during the daytime to block the sun. In the winter we do the opposite, let the sun in in the day, and close them during the night.
7) I taped all the seams in the ductwork. Fortunately I was able to access most of it. It was amazing how much air leakage there is in ducts.
8) We have a timer on a power strip that we plug in our computers and TV. This way there are no loads during the night. Often times we tend to forget to turn off the printer or other electronic devices, including the cable box.

There are other things we have done as well. I did all the above in about a week, and immediately saw a reduction in electric usage, and all it cost was a few rolls of duct tape, a few timers, and the ceiling fans.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Luane Todd on July 9, 2009 at 1:33pm: I just added a blog post that might interest those of you interested in conservation possibilities.; ▶ Reply to This