Make every day Earth Day

[tomauto]

http://autos.aol.com/savetheplanet

Everything from your car, house, and lawn...check it out!

[tomauto]

Today, I took it upon myself to drop our homes' energy use. We have a old refigerator outside that we always stored our extra food in. I also noticed that my mom didn't really move anything from our indoor fridge. (freeze dried food) Basically, I asked her if I could combine all the food into the interior fridge. So we took out all the old food.

So now, I have the outside fridge turned off thus saving a little more energy for our house...Just trying to think of something free to do rather than buy more energy efficent applicances.

[kickflipjr]

I was just looking on ways to save on electricity and came across this site:

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/

It is full of usefull information.

[tomauto]

oh that's nice! Our energy bill is definately going down.

[tomauto]

Now sitting with the A/C off in my house. I am glad summer is almost over. Its 83 degress right now...

[Sludgy]

I've done some obvious things to save energy:

Most of my lamps use compact fluorescents
Automatic setback thermostats w 4 heat zones
Rinnai instant water heater (no water tank heat loss)
High efficiency A/C compressor (11 SEER)

I already see savings in my energy bill, especially gas. After I installed the tankless water heater, my summer gas bill went down by 1/3.

I'm also considering a drainwater heat recovery system. It can save 50-60% of my already-low water heating gas.

Winter heating is more problematic. I have $300 to $500 gas bills each month in winter. I'm going to do some minor weatherstripping this fall, but I wonder whether a more efficient furnace is worth the cash. I have a Utica boiler that's about 14 years old. According to the label, it's about 85% efficient. Condensing furnaces are up to 94%, but they're pretty expensive.

I'm also considering a dual fuel gas/wood boiler, but they too are expensive.

[ZugyNA]

Originally Posted by Sludgy

Winter heating is more problematic. I have $300 to $500 gas bills each month in winter. I'm going to do some minor weatherstripping this fall, but I wonder whether a more efficient furnace is worth the cash. I have a Utica boiler that's about 14 years old. According to the label, it's about 85% efficient.

You can learn to clean and maintain these. Efficiency is based on how much heat goes up the chimney vs how much heats the water.

You must be heating some serious square footage?

Methods:

* reduce the burner's BTU output...means less heat goes up the flue..but the water pump (if you have one) runs a little more

* make sure the boiler is clean...so there is good heat transfer

* be sure the gas/air ratio is correct...no excessive orange/yellow flames

* insulate any open pipes carrying hot water.

* might be able to install a heat recovery blower on the flue and route this into living area?

* if you do DIY maintenance..with some help...you save here also.

[The Toecutter]

Designing a wind generator as we speak. Can't beat $.03-.05/kWh electricity.

[Sludgy]

Originally Posted by The Toecutter

Designing a wind generator as we speak. Can't beat $.03-.05/kWh electricity.

Wind generators are surprisingly cheap compared to solar, but you need a windy site. What's your average annual wind speed, Toecutter?