General Power Saving Tips

[jamescolon]

Switch off the lights at right time

 

[sumi]

Welcome to SS @katev You are exactly right. All the small things adds up nicely and makes a big difference in the long run.

The electricity saving tip I can add here is to fill your deep freeze. A full freezer needs much less power to keep everything frozen, compared to keeping air at the required temperature. Not everyone can keep their freezers chic-a-block with food all the time, us included, so we fill empty freezer space with bottles of water. Once that water is frozen the previous empty space is filled with ice, which makes the freezer's workload lighter = less electricity needed.

 

[Hinotori]

Frost free actually increase freezer burn and the food doesn't last as long in them because of it. They have to heat around the coils to get rid of the frost. I did not get a frost free when I bought my freezer even though the guy was trying to push me towards one that was much more expensive. I told him why I didn't want the frost free and he was "they can't be that bad".

I wish sometimes I could make it sound like I was stressed and panicky like Mom does. They tried to sell her an extended warranty on her fridge. She went on "Is there something wrong with this fridge? Is the brand bad? Should I not get this? Is the manufacturers warranty no good?" She had that guy going really good. The fridge was way on sale and special, she got it for less than a third of the price. The extended warranty would have cost more than the fridge did.

 

[goatgurl]

@Hinotori, i think i would like your mom. i don't really have anything else to add for energy savings. youall have pretty much covered it all. the only thing i can think of is to buy your heating oil now and get the summer rate instead of waiting till there is a chill in the air. i do that with propane and save hundreds of $.

 

[Denim Deb]

I already have all my wood for the winter. Since I have electric heat, this saves me so much on my electric bill.

While I have a chest freezer, I hate it. I know that you lose some of the cold w/an upright. But I figure w/the amount I lose trying to find stuff in the freezer, and then having stuff go bad because I don't know it's there, it probably pretty much evens things out.

 

[WendyJ]

@sumi did they have a way to bi-pass the water from the solar section for the winter or did it not get that cold there? I would be worried about it freezing up in winter here.

 

[sumi]

Yes, they did. The plumber installed a few taps allowing us to drain the pipe water into the heater, bypass the heater and drain it into the garden (when the water was cold, of course!), empty the heater when the water in it was cold, so we can replace it with "roof water" etc.

Our winters here are VERY mild compared to the States', with a hard overnight frost about as bad as it gets in their hometown. The pipes he used on the roof were of the thick plastic type that farmers use outdoors. It's tough as metal and lasts forever.

 

[goatgurl]

@DenimDeb i know what you mean about a chest type freezer and loosing things, being a little vertically challenged i would have to stand on a stool and go head first into the dang thing so when it died i got an upright and i can find things easier but now every time i open the door i worry about that cold downward rush of air. i know, i know you couldn't make me happy if you hung me with a new rope.

 

[Denim Deb]

@goatgurl, I wonder if you could put some of that plastic like they use in cold storage rooms and walk in freezers to help block the cold air. They make them for doorways, so you could probably cut it down to size.

 

[Britesea]

you wouldn't need to block off the whole doorway with that plastic-- a piece that covered maybe the bottom couple of feet would probably be enough-- you could have it attached to the sides with velcro so you could remove it if you needed to get into the bottom shelves.