How Much Energy Does it Take to Dry America’s

Clothes?

For those of you in energy conservation mode – or would like to be – here’s an interesting information tid-bit from Kilowatt Ours.

Question: How much energy does it take to dry Americans clothes per year?

Answer:    Eleven (11) power plants worth!

Please join me at the clothesline!

For other great energy-saving ideas and a community of energy conscious folk, visit the Kilowatt Ours Community. The site includes:

•    access to their community forum,
•    ways to be involved with energy issues,
•    Energy saving tips and support, and
•    A way to track and compare community members energy savings

Solar Energy on a Limited Budget

How do you afford the purchase and installation of a solar energy system in these economic times? I certainly want to but I am limited by financial constraints.

To make solar more affordable, we are limiting our current home energy consumption. The thinking goes like this: the less energy we use, the fewer solar panels we will need to install, the less expensive solar panels will be. Once installed, our reliance on fossil fuel greatly diminishes.

All this has got me thinking about limits. Actually, this article by Wendell Berry encouraged these “limit” conversations I keep having with myself.

Mr. Berry reminds us what we in our arrogance tend to forget, that the very nature of life on this planet is defined by limits. “Any definition is a limit” which suggests ecosystems, geographies, and fossil fuels have boundaries, have ending points, are limited.

Solar energy makes sense for two reasons:
1.    Reduced reliance on a limited fossil fuel supply (coal and oil)
2.    Solar energy is not diminished by using it

This seeming unlimited supply of solar energy could be fanciful delusion. Just because solar energy seems inexhaustible is not permission to use it without limits. The materials from which solar panels are made come from a limited source.

As with every resource at our disposal, solar energy should be used thoughtfully, reverently, with restraint.

So when you do use solar energy primarily, how much is enough?

That’s the question.

How much energy is enough?
How much do you really need?

We have been on a home energy diet, of sorts for the last five (5) months. Our goal is to reduce our energy consumption through conservation (first) and efficiency (second), to determine just how much we really need for physical (and fiscal) comfort without being wasteful.

Join us here at Simple Home Solar Energy for the Energy Conservation Challenge. We begin with the Challenge details on Wednesday, February 4.

Our Home Energy Reduction 2008 Progress

This week I paid my last electric utility bill for 2008. As mentioned in Monday’s post we went off our “energy diet” during the holidays, so the monthly bill was higher than usual.

Still, in spite of our holiday energy binge, we used fewer kilowatt-hours (kWh) than the previous December (2007). Almost 5% less than last December, in fact.

We have been paying closer attention to our energy consumption for six (6) months now. Only four (4) months ago we began implementing some changes.

The news is that comparing our 2007 and 2008 home kilowatt-hour (kWh) use, we reduced our energy consumption in 2008 by more than 10 percent! This may seem like peanuts to some, but to me this is nothing short of amazing!

Really, our efforts have been minimal not extreme by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, if we had made this same minimal effort the whole year, I estimate our reduction over twelve (12) months would be at least 20 percent.

I have not calculated how my 10 percent reduction translates in carbon footprint terms.

Does anyone know how to make this calculation?

If so, please leave a comment. Thanks!

Programmable Thermostats for Home Energy Conservation

On this solar energy journey, one of the most helpful gadgets to help reduce home energy consumption and thereby reducing the size of the solar energy system required, is a programmable thermostat.

The Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) estimates a programmable thermostat can save the average American household up to $170 just over the course of this winter alone.

The ASE explains how these thermostats work to save your money without sacrificing comfort in Save Energy 101.

If you haven’t switched to a programmable thermostat yet, install one now and start saving energy dollars now.

Reducing energy consumption begins by knowing how much energy you consume in the first place.

Having acquired our electric power monitor, a Kill-A-Watt meter, we are learning where the high-energy consumers are in our home. First, we plugged our refrigerator into the monitor. The results were posted Tuesday, the 16th.

Next, we checked the energy use of our stand-alone freezer. Here are the results.

Over a 24-hour period, our freezer used 3.29 kilowatt-hours of energy.

That means I am paying $144 per year to keep my bulk and bargain shopping trip finds preserved until ready to use. Maybe that’s a good deal. Maybe it isn’t. Since the freezer is 28 years old, I am guessing it isn’t.

I’ll be checking new energy star rated freezers soon and compare.

Home Energy Efficiency and Major Appliances

Eventually, I want a net ZEH , a house that produces as much energy as it uses.

We are taking the small steps toward that end goal. Our initial goal is to reduce our energy consumption by 25%. For us that means reducing energy use to 38 kWh/day. Reliable sources, like my energy provider, declare our major household appliances huge contributors to our energy consumption.

Using our handy new Kill-A-Watt meter, we are now testing our major household appliances—the refrigerator, freezer, and hot water heater.

Today we have our refrigerator plugged into our Kill-A-Watt meter. The refrigerator is a GE 18.2 cubic foot, frost-free, refrigerator/freezer. It was here when we moved into this house ten years ago. I estimate it to be a 1996 model. I find no energy-star rating on it anywhere.

After twenty-four hours, I will check the reading and see how many kilowatt-hours my older GE refrigerator has used. Multiplying that number by 365 days in a year will give me an estimate of the refrigerator energy requirements over a year’s time. This information will help me decide if buying a new, energy efficient refrigerator would be a wise investment.

Perhaps leaving the refrigerator plugged into the Kill-A-Watt meter for a week or thirty days would give a truer estimate. Maybe I’ll do that another day.

But just now I am anxious to find out what I am paying for my stand-alone freezer which is 28 years old! That’s next!

I’ll let you know how this turns out.