My lowest usage month to date. (unoffical)

Since I won’t actually get my bill for another week, this is an unofficial record. Depending on when they gather the reading, I will be very close to 600 kW hours. This is a nice improvement. From my previous rant we know that I have removed some vampire loads. I think this has helped reduce it to the current level. Additionally, the HVAC is not running but for maybe 30 minutes in the morning.

Unless I replace my fridge and dishwasher I don’t think it is going to get much lower. My current fridge is a 25 cu. ft. model. It has been averaging right at 2 kw Hours a day. With a new fridge I could knock that down to 1.5 kW hours a day. Sadly, if I got cold water fish I could save more. My 55 gallon aquarium heater uses more than 500 Watts. If I had understood energy usage more back then I  would have passed on it altogether.

600 kW hours is about 20 kW hours a day. I feel for a family of four with someone always home all the time, that this is a really good number. As always, I will continue to reduce my usage. I just have to think about what to do next? I maybe at the point of diminishing returns. But, then again I am not doing this for the money. I am doing this because I find it to be like a game. And who does not like to win!

 

Trying to calculate heating requirements of my house.

So I was trying to calculate heating requirements for my house. I was using this site for a little reference. I have R-19 walls and had R-38 ceiling. I run the numbers and I kept getting about half the BTUs. I was racking my brain and then it hit me. What about the windows and doors. You mean to tell me that I need 100% more energy just because I have windows and doors. Not to mention any air leaks. The short answer. YES!!!

Well, that is humbling. I guess when I replace the windows and doors I will look at getting the best I can buy. Also installation is key too. A great window installed incorrectly is just as efficient as a cheap window that has been installed perfectly. Weather sealing and expanding foam can make a huge difference. (IMHO anyway)

 

 

Country Save laundry detergent, worth a try?

Amazon.com has quite a few review on this product. Most are very good. Only a few are 1 star. So I thought I would give it a try. Since I have a front load washer. One box should last for 160 loads. At the rate I do laundry, one box will last half a year.

How does it measure up? Well, I notice no difference at all. So in my book, that is a good thing. I took a risk buying it because I got four boxes. That would last almost 2 years. I figured if I did not like it I could sell it on eBay. For me, I just add it to the dispenser. The machine adds water and the mixture does not go on the clothes. It goes into the tub. This is good because the powerful mixture can ruin clothes. I’m safe!

Seventh Generation Claim

I can’t find any info about Country Save not using petroleum, but it is a powder!

New LED light at Menards!

It is a 25 Watt replacement. A15 bulb style. (normal bulbs are A19) This one is going into the freezer.

Here is a picture of a 40 Watt incandescent.

Original 40 Watt incandescent

Here is a picture of the “25 Watt” LED replacement.

"25 Watt" replacement LED

These are without flash and the same shutter speed. As you can see the LED is dimmer but it is also rated lower. The LED light is also directed out the front of the bulb. How does it look in the freezer? It looks just fine and the wife has not complained. Perfect!

Which is worst, CFL with mercury or incandecent run with coal electricity?

First assumption is that you will throw away the CFL instead of recycling it. I am not going to do that and most likely neither are you. Let say you did. The biggest difference is that the mercury would be in a landfill and not in the air. Then after it rain it gets into the water way and …

While googling I found a great mercury coal resource for Indiana. I mean perfectly wonderful. The average amount of mercury in Indiana Coal is 0.11 mg/kg.

How much energy is in one kg of coal? According to Wikipedia. 2kW hours / kg.

If a CFL lasts 10,000 hours and it is a 23 Watt (100W incandescent), you would have to burn;

CFL >> 10,000 x 23 Watts = 230 kW hours

Incandescent >> 10,000 x 100 = 1000 kW hours

Difference of >> 770 kW hours or 770 kW hours / 2 kW per kg x 0.11 mg

42 mg of mercury

That seems to jive with what ours have calculated. Basically, it is better to use a CFL for reducing mercury then to stick with an incandescent. It is even better when you recycle the spent CFL.

You could go solar if you used gas for heating!

I think if people used more gas appliances in their homes they could make “going solar” much easier. My last months bill was for 800 kW hours. I know that 100 kW hours is from my hot water heat pump. (If I had a resistive water heater it would have been at least three times that much) I also know that by removing some loads I have reduced my daily usage by about another 3 kW hours. That is almost another 100 kW hours. That would put me at 600 kW hours.

I have been running my gas furnace for over a week now. The furnace fan does not use as much wattage as I  feared. Somewhere around 600 Watts. This has kept my daily usage well below 20 kW hours for this billing cycle. (below 600 kW hours for the month)  If I could stay below the 600 kW hours mark during the winter, maybe that could help with the summer AC demands. (A new AC unit would really help that. Also a nicer blower fan too.)

I know that my electric stove uses around 2 kW hours a day to cook with. That is another 60 kW hours. (down to 540 kW hours) Now If I had a new fridge and dishwasher I bet I could reduce even more. Say 20 kW hours a month. (down to 520 kW hours) Now I would be really close to my 500kW hour goal.

If I could keep my month average to about 700 kW hours. I could get away with a 6 kW system. Still very expensive and not really doable. Even with prices on solar panels coming down, it would still cost at least $7 a watt installed, or $42,000. Minus the 30% incentive, $30,000.

What about gas assist solar air conditioning. That would be another blog.

Did you know they don’t make 80 gallon water heater blankets.

I looked but I can not find one anywhere. So I made my own. I had an extra roll of R-13 insulation. I cut the roll into strips and taped the end together. Looks okay, but you have to remember this is in the utility room anyway.

Not Pretty, but not an issue.

I will have to watch the kill-a-watt and see if I get any better? Now with winter coming maybe my kw hrs won’t go up that much.

Recent news about lack of CFL interest.

I heard on NPR the other day that purchases of CFLs are down again this year. They peaked in 2007. Some say that there needs to be more incentives for CFLs so more people will buy them. I say no. Why, you ask? Because I just replaced my second CFL in six years inside my house. (Notice I said inside) I have CFLs in just about everything. I mean everything. I just purchased some Cold Cathode CFLs for the refrigerator.  (More on the later) The only fixtures that don’t have a CFL are the oven (on brainer!) Dryer, (again no brainer), and above the stove (Still working on that one). In all that time I have replaced two. So yes, I have purchased less this year and last year. Because I am not replacing burnt out ones!

Outside, I have replaced my two garage lights three times. This is because they are one all night averaging 12 hours per night. The first thing I did when I moved in was replace them with CFLs.

I know that having the CFLs is saving me money. I like the fact that it takes a few seconds to come to full brightness. I still have the problem with what to do with the good used incandescent light bulbs. Maybe in a few years they will be worth money since you won’t be able to buy them.

When something is hot, it is wasting electricity.

That is my new rule of thumb. What made me think about it? I have a UPS (Uninterpretable Power Supply) for my computer. Because this one was plugged into a difficult outlet I have not checked it with my kill-a-watt meter. Today I made time to check it out. When I first plugged it in, I got 15 Watts. Not too good or too bad. Then about 15 minutes later it went up to 45 Watts. Not good. Now, two hours later, it reads 30 Watts. Not good either. Now I am thinking about just getting a plain old surge protector strip and calling it good. I don’t need a smart strip because when the computer is off the monitor uses only 1 Watt and the printer uses about the same.

At 30 Watts, for 24 hours. That is equal to 720 Watts. From my last blog, I know that this is about equal to 7% of the minimum daily usage. Sadly, this is equal to 22kW hours a month. Two things to note, the unit is off, and it only trips on about three times a year during thunderstorms. Power strip, here I come.

Minimum Daily Electric Usage.

I went out-of-town this past weekend. The house was all by itself doing nothing. No lights, no dishwasher running, clothes washing, TV, computers, or anything really. I used about 11 kW hours on Saturday for nothing! That means my house will eat over 300 kW hours every month regardless if I am home or not!

I just want to say that is stinks. As it has been my goal for many months, I need to reduce my “standby usage”. What is really bad (or good) for the last couple of weeks I have noticed my daily usage staying around the 16 to 17 kW hour range. This means with the family in the house, we only add 5 or 6 kW hours to the “problem”. (note: No AC or heat running!!!)

With this new “minimum usage” I am going to map out what is going on. (24 hour usages) This will help me to pin point where to look next.