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Technology

How Are You Conserving Energy? 380

Posted by Cliff from the erg-preservation dept.
ThosLives asks: "With oil again pushing historic nominal prices and all sorts of articles on alternative power, what are people doing practically to reduce their energy consumption? It's fairly clear that conservation is an overlooked solution to the 'energy crisis'. Has anyone come up with really nifty ways to cut their energy consumption without sacrificing their technical lifestyle? What methods work best for you? At what point (price of gasoline, electricity, etc) will you start to change your behavior?"
"Take me, for example. I'm looking to cut much of my consumption, including moving closer to work to cut my commute, possibly putting a throttle restrictor plate in my car, buying fluorescent lights, and even trying to build a small wind/solar generator. I love technology, and I'd love to see how it can be used to reduce demands for power rather than just being able to make more power more cheaply (conservation arguably being the better side of the energy coin). I'm even interested in how folks conserve other things too - I'm always amazed at how many plastic (or paper) bags the grocer insists on giving me every week and how much waste society generates in the form of packaging."
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How Are You Conserving Energy? More

How Are You Conserving Energy?

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  • CFLBs (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:40PM (#11845523)
    Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs [energystar.gov]. Not only do they save you energy/money, they're still pretty geeky! I've been replacing my traditional bulbs as they wear out, and these have much longer lifespans (which more than makes up for initial cost). The only thing I noticed when I first got them was a slight delay turning on, but I've gotten so used to that I no longer even notice.
    • Why are they geeky? Are they new in the US?

    • Re:CFLBs (Score:4, Informative)

      by Muad'Dave ( 255648 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:39PM (#11846126) Homepage

      I beg to differ on the lifespan part - I've had 5+ CF bulbs die within a year or two. I think their _theoretical_ lifespan is long, but in practice they're cheaply made and croak early.
      • That may be a sign of badly made CF bulbs, but it could also be a sign of bad electricity in your home; you might want to check on that.

      • Re:CFLBs (Score:3, Interesting)

        by N3Bruce ( 154308 )
        It is actually worth replacing the incadescents before they wear out. Assuming that for ease of calculation, a 100 watt incadescent bulb lasts 1000 hours, and electricity is $0.10/KWH. Over the life of the bulb, the incadescent bulb will use 100 KWH of electricity. At the going rate of 10 cents/kwh, which is actually on the low end of the scale in the northeast, the bulb will burn $10.00 worth of electricity during its life. A CFLB with the light output of a 100 watt bulb burns 25 watts, and can be purchas

    • Re:CFLBs (Score:3, Insightful)

      by FroMan ( 111520 )
      We just recently built a house and looked into energy saving ideas. Going with CF bulbs was a good idea for energy savings, but there are some drawbacks.

      First, and most obvious, is cost. To outfit our house with all CF was nearly $350. While in the long run they should save quite a bit, they still are expensive compared to incandecents.

      Another drawback is that they do not fit in all fixtures. We broke a couple bulbs by trying to get them into smaller fixtures. Also, the swirly bulbs look terrible in

    • How about LEDs? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by stu42j ( 304634 )
      I just found these online: 12 LED fits in bulb socket [gaiam.com]

      Don't put out a lot of light but might be good for some situations.

    • compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) (Score:5, Informative)

      by GreenSwirl ( 710439 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:07PM (#11847146) Homepage Journal
      If you've had problems with CFLs burning out after less than two years, or with them not starting right away when switched on, or with them being too dim when they are first switched on, then TRY A DIFFERENT CFL.

      Unlike incandescent lamps, which are pretty much all the same regardless of manufacturer, CFLs vary widely in their performance. CFLs from the major lighting manufacturers have been proven in independent studies to last at least as long as they claim under standard conditions. (We did those independent tests here at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/ [rpi.edu].)

      CFLs from the dollar store work about as well as you'd expect them to. But even different CFLs from the same known company perform differently in terms of start-up delay, warm-up time, color appearance, and whether or not base-up light output differs from base-down.

      The best way to buy CFLs for your home is to pick out 3 different ones from companies you've heard of. Try them out side-by-side and observe their performance -- you will see differences, especially in the color. Then go back to the store and buy a bunch more of the one you like best. Put the other two into your porch lights.

      Make sure that whichever one you choose, it is at least as small as a regular light bulb, so that it can fit anywhere. If you have any of your light circuits on dimmers, make sure you get CFLs that say they are dimmable. They even make 3-way CFLs.

      I have CFLs in every light bulb socket in my home, including the one in the stove hood. Unfortunately, I still have one of those dimmable halogen torchiere floor lamps that uses a 300W halogen bulb, even though there are "fluorescent torchieres" now available that use one-fourth the electricity.

  • Conserving electricity (Score:4, Funny)

    by PhiznTRG ( 261350 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:42PM (#11845538) Homepage
    I have all my electronic equipment on five minute timers to conserve electri.....


    [no carrier]

  • Sure people will be annoyed, but bigger and more the blackouts are, the more power everyone will save. Right?

    • Unfortunately that is the solution the government here in Hangzhou, China uses. During summer 2004 when the temperature was over 100 every day and everyone was using air conditioners, many factories and residences had their power cut off three or four days a week. Most of the larger factories I work with have generators, but when all the factories here have their generators running it makes the air pollution even worse than normal.

      Things might be even worse this coming summer due to El Niño. Perhaps

  • Wear warmer clothing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by chris_mahan ( 256577 ) <chris.mahan@gmail.com> on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:43PM (#11845556) Homepage
    I wear warmer clothing (sweaters, etc) and thick socks, and eat more, and I use the house heater a lot less.

    Also, accelerating like an anemic grandmother does wonder on your car's fuel consumption. That and using a stick shift (manual transmission for the SOTBE)
    • This drives my girlfriend nuts. Durring the cold depths of an Oregon winter, I won't turn the heat on.

      "It's cold, can we turn on the heat?"
      "No, gotta save energy! If you're really cold, to curl up behind the server."

      I'm really amazed she's stuck around as long as she has. :)

    • Manual Transmission (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Marxist Hacker 42 ( 638312 ) * <seebert42@gmail.com> on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:18PM (#11846560) Homepage Journal
      You don't have to put up with accelerating like an anemic grandmother, if you've got a manual transmission. Use the fuel for acceleration, then shift to neutral for downhill/flat coasting will really decrease your car's fuel consumption- though I'm in Western Oregon, we have more hills here to take advantage of, might not work in the plains.

      Manual tranmission all by itself will increase your energy-to-movement conversion by 50% as well, as we found out the hard way when my brother converted my grandmother's Datsun 720 to electric (we wondered why it only got 26 miles to a charge- then realized that the electric engine was never generating low enough torque to get the automatic to shift out of first gear).

      • Re:Manual Transmission (Score:4, Interesting)

        by molo ( 94384 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:44PM (#11847635) Journal
        FYI, in modern cars, using engine breaking on the downhills can will use less gas than putting it in neutral. The inertia of the car moving keeps the cylinders turning with minimal fuel. Of course, this might not be helpful if you're just going to have to go back uphill.. but if there's a stop sign or light at the bottom of the hill, its probably worth it.

        -molo
        • Sorry, you're wrong. Take it from an automotive guy: the engine is controlling its fuel-air ratio to be stoichiometric for the catalytic converter. If you are turning the engine faster by driving it with the car, not only are you increasing the inertial forces on the pistons and the drag against the cylinder walls, but you are pulling more air past the throttle body and having to burn more fuel in it to maintain the correct mixture for pollution control. The only exception to this is if the engine computer
      • Use the fuel for acceleration, then shift to neutral for downhill/flat coasting will really decrease your car's fuel consumption

        this was true in the days of carberators. now with electronic fuel injection, coasting does nothing, and actually may increase fuel usage. the engine computer is constantly monitoring the engine speed and the throttle position. there are presets in the computer that if the engine speed is too high compared to the throtte position it will quit firing the injectors until the sp

      • Re:Manual Transmission (Score:4, Informative)

        by ponos ( 122721 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @09:42AM (#11851854)
        then shift to neutral for downhill/flat coasting will really decrease your car's fuel consumption- though I'm in Western Oregon, we have more hills here to take advantage of, might not work in the plains.
        All modern cars turn fuel consumption OFF when you are going downhill without pressing the gas pedal with any gear except neutral. This is because the energy of the car keeps the engine rotating. When you use neutral you consume SOME fuel simply in order to keep the engine revolving (however, with neutral the car does not decelerate). Also, moving with low speed in the plains (~55 mph?) is very energy efficient, much more than going up and down hills. You simply cannot get back 100% of the energy that you spent to climb the hill.

        P.

    • driving (Score:3, Informative)

      by LordMyren ( 15499 )
      i just did a 180 mile round trip to the ski resort wednesday and did a little experiment. i drove 62 mph the entire way (plus or minus, usually minus going uphill). my `84 Volvo wagon got an astounding 28 mpg! normally I get about 21 mpg, but normally i'm driving at least 75. i never accelerate hard at all, to conserve fuel.

      the extra 13 mph would've saved me ~20 minutes. instead i saved over two gallons of gas (180/28=6.4 180/21=8.5).

      you get diminishing returns for speeding. you have to travel twice

  • I conserve energy... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by LordEd ( 840443 )
    ...by sitting back and doing nothing.

    Oh, you mean electrical energy? Well, 90% of the lights in my house are compact florescent. Maybe 15 bulbs x 70Wh savings = 1050 watt reduction.

    I have to drive 1h/day (no choice), but my car is decent on gas. I want an electric-hybrid car. Solar panels would be nice too. Its sunny here a good % of the year.

  • Ten simple tips (Score:5, Informative)

    by elid ( 672471 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .dopi.ile.> on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:46PM (#11845588)
    available here [mtpc.org]

  • I've cut down (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:47PM (#11845598)
    On Slashdot. Now I only reload every other second.
  • I try and sleep instead of working, but sometimes I forget to turn off the monitor, so maybe it doesn't count?

    From the fell-asleep-at-the-keyboard department
  • that would require flying.

    sitting most of the days at home on a computer(no fossil fuels used, although i can only hope that my electricity comes from nuclear powerplant).

    walking to nearby grocery store to get the food.

    thats about it.

    had i more disposable income i'd certainly use more energy.

  • Almost nothing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Just Some Guy ( 3352 ) <kirk+slashdot@strauser.com> on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:54PM (#11845691) Homepage Journal
    moving closer to work to cut my commute

    Unless you're significantly shortening that drive, the upfront costs of relocation will burn through years' worth of fuel savings.

    possibly putting a throttle restrictor plate in my car

    Are you insane?!? If you want to drive slower, then drive slower. That's a good thing. Do not make your car drastically more unsafe by removing its ability to accelerate quickly when the need arises. When an out-of-control semi is bearing down on me, I'd rather lose an ounce of gas to my foot on the floorboard than a gallon of blood to my face on his grill.

    buying fluorescent lights

    I'd do this if I could find a nice brand that didn't flicker and had a spectrum reasonably close to an incandescent (or better, the sun). I can't stand that 60Hz strobe or the washed-out colors. Any suggestions?

    I'm always amazed at how many plastic (or paper) bags the grocer insists on giving me

    OK, I'm with you there. Basically, I'm one of those greedy, selfish jerks who refuses to compromise his lifestyle. However, I was also raised with "waste not, want not" and I hate the gratuitous use of resources. If I'm only buying one or two things at a store, I tell the cashier that I don't want a bag. I turn the lights off when I leave a room. I use DPMS on my monitors so that they're not painting a picture while I'm asleep. I keep my tires properly inflated. I have an electronic thermostat that's set to 68F during the day (in winter) and cooler at night. In short, I've configured my environment so that it doesn't try to make me comfortable when I'm not around to enjoy it. If everyone took those simple steps, I think we'd save a lot without sacrificing a bit of the creature comforts.

    Oh, and if you're one of those "free heat because I'm on Welfare" people who leaves the heat cranked and the windows open, I hope you catch pneumonia and die.

    • Re:Almost nothing (Score:3, Interesting)

      by pclminion ( 145572 )
      Unless you're significantly shortening that drive, the upfront costs of relocation will burn through years' worth of fuel savings.

      Is it so inconceivable that some people want to save energy regardless of how much it costs to do so? I actually pay a higher rate on my electric bill for "green" energy -- yes, I'm aware that I'm not actually purchasing "green electrons" but that money is directed to sustaining and developing renewable energy resources in the state.

      I just bought 500 watts of photovoltaics,

      • Re:Almost nothing (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Just Some Guy ( 3352 ) <kirk+slashdot@strauser.com> on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:24PM (#11845986) Homepage Journal
        Is it so inconceivable that some people want to save energy regardless of how much it costs to do so?

        Sure. Did it occur to you that some people go about it in really stupid ways that cause more problems than they solve? For example, you just trashed the environment to get your photovoltaics so that you could feel good about self-powering your computer. Your pollution-per-watt is much, much higher than the equivalent coming out of your wall.

        I want to live on a nice planet, too, but realistically speaking that means centralizing production to a few good, clean resources (read: nuke) than building hundreds of millions of dirty plants across the country. Short-term "solutions" that make us feel proud of ourselves without actually helping the overall situation are wasteful and not something to aspire to.

        If you're trying to live off the grid to see if you can or as a personal challenge: good for you, and I wish you the best of luck! If you're trying to do it because you think it's making the world a cleaner place, then you've wasted your time, money, and our natural resources.

        • Re:Almost nothing (Score:4, Informative)

          by pclminion ( 145572 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:32PM (#11846057)
          For example, you just trashed the environment to get your photovoltaics so that you could feel good about self-powering your computer. Your pollution-per-watt is much, much higher than the equivalent coming out of your wall.

          Utterly wrong. Check your facts, which are about 15 years out of date. Energy payback time for photovoltaics is under two years these days. And I buy PV cells which are manufactured out of reprocessed semiconductor waste from the chip-making industry. The majority of the environmental impact from producing those semiconductors already happened, when they were refined in order to make Pentiums (or whatever else they turned into).

          You're straining to find excuses for being an energy slob, and going about it in a very dishonest way. Get your facts straight. I spent over three months researching all the environmental aspects of this decision. You clearly have invested about 5 minutes of Googling, if even that.

          I want to live on a nice planet, too, but realistically speaking that means centralizing production to a few good, clean resources (read: nuke) than building hundreds of millions of dirty plants across the country.

          We are in agreement about nuclear, but what does that have to do with photovoltaics?

          • Guess why PV panels cost hundreds of dollars: they take LOTS of energy to make! If they didn't require lots of energy to make, they would be dirt cheap.

            As far as solar panels paying for themselves: a $600 solar panel that puts out a hundred watts (that's how much they cost) is not going to pay for itself in its lifetime. Assuming the solar panel gets a yearly average of 6 hours of max power output a day (VERY optimistic), it will only produce about 219 KW-h per year. Assuming perfect conversion efficien
    • On the topic of flourescents, there's a really wide range of products out there. You can get full-spectrum compact flourescents, and they do save you money - the bulk costs more, but it uses sufficiently less energy to produce the same light that it's still cheaper. Full-spectrum CFs are not the same as incandescents, BTW - they try to be close to the same spectrum you'd get from direct sunlight, which is a little less warm than incandescent light.

      If you have flourescent tube fixtures, you can also get
      • One thing that somewhat limits my flexibility is the model of fixture used in my basement. The guy who finished out our basement used lamp with a built-in ballast that can't be changed (AFAIK) without replacing the entire unit. Even worse, I'm sure that a few of them are going bad, so I expect to be in for a mandatory upgrade in the near future anyway.
    • "I can't stand that 60Hz strobe or the washed-out colors. Any suggestions?"

      Actually, any good brand-name compact flourescent bulb is fine, IMO. They sell them for like $2 a piece, now, which puts the break even point close enough to be worth it.

      Just don't skimp. I made the mistake of buying a cheapo bulb at a closeout a while back and soon realized why they were on closeout (harsh nasty light).

    • I'd do this if I could find a nice brand that didn't flicker and had a spectrum reasonably close to an incandescent (or better, the sun). I can't stand that 60Hz strobe or the washed-out colors. Any suggestions?

      Yeah, go to Home Depot and buy the natural light or full-spectrum ones. They're good for indoor plants as well as people. They also use less energy and produce less heat (here in Texas, that's GREAT).

      Secondly, don't just use DPMS. If it's not a server, turn off the computer. <rant>It pisse

      • Secondly, don't just use DPMS. If it's not a server, turn off the computer.

        There are sound arguments on either side of that one (largely regarding component life, thermal issues, etc.). On a newer computer with on-demand CPU throttling, I don't see a clear advantage to shutting them down completely.

        At any rate, all of my computers are either servers or iMacs, so leaving them on isn't that big of a deal. FWIW, I used to have a FreeBSD server sitting next to my Debian desktop at home. Since I didn't re

      • I mean, you don't leave your car on all night and day just so you don't have to start it.

        Hey, that's a great idea, thanks for the tip! :)

        I think I need to buy some gas today - reports have it increasing in the US by around 25 cents per gallon over the next two days, FYI. :(
    • The other issue with compact fluorescents is polluction from manufacturing and disposal -- the bulbs themselves have an, albeit small, amount of mercury in them. As it stands now, we have a looming (and present) environmental mercury problem, globally, so disposal of compact fluorescents must be considered, especially as their numbers grow.

      Second, the fluorescents must have a ballast [wisconsinp...ervice.com] to function -- ballasts found in compact fluorescent bulbs are of either the magnetic or the electronic varieties. The m

      • Bah. "Toxic" metals do not cause pollution, as much as various environmentalists would like you to believe. Let's see, what's worse, a drop of mercury in a landfill or a few thousand tons of CO2 in the air? Besides, where the hell do you think mercury comes from? All heavy metals are naturally occurring minerals.
    • I've yet to see a compact fluorescent bulb that flickers at 60Hz. Modern bulbs run off of switching inverters with frequencies in the 20KHz region. The only ones I've seen that had 60Hz flicker were cheap shoplights.

  • I live walking distance from work. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aoteoroa ( 596031 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @01:55PM (#11845695)
    Some people might argue that 20 minutes is too far to walk when I can drive it in 5 and parking is free at my office.

    But the way I see it is that programming does not provide my body with the excercise it needs. Fresh air and a brisk walk in the morning helps wake me up.

    I also walk to pick up small things like milk, bread, or a bottle of wine.
  • ... to find a dealer that would sell me a 35w version of mobile athlon64 and a desktop motherboard that would work with it. Kinda difficult around here.

    Next, I have no air conditioning. I live in the nice cool basement in the summer and one of the two heated rooms of the house in the winter. Good windows (with vacuum inbetween two glass panels) also reduce your heating bill tremendously. Flourescent lights are double edged sword - just ask anyone in the power distribution business. They tend to shift phase
    • I'm trying my best to find a dealer that would sell me a 35w version of mobile athlon64 and a desktop motherboard that would work with it. Kinda difficult around here.

      I hear tell that people will sell you stuff over that new-fangled Internet thing if you know who to ask...

  • Using a clothes line... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by n1ywb ( 555767 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:03PM (#11845766) Homepage Journal
    instead of a clothes dryer.

    Oh yeah and shooting assholes who enforce CC&Rs or other restrictions on clothes lines.

  • I've never given it a thought.

    I have 4 computers that run constantly... I tend to leave the lights on all day...

    My air conditioning stays at 65 (I like it cold)

    and I pay my bill when it arrives.

    does it make me a bad person? Not really, just lazy.

  • Got a mac mini! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Drakker ( 89038 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:03PM (#11845771) Homepage Journal
    Thanks to the mac mini, my pc can stay off pretty much all the time, and the power consumption of the mac mini is like 1/20 of what my pc with tons of hard disks and pretty demanding video card needed. :) (9.5w vs over 190w for my pc...) Having an LCD monitor will also lower the bill as it use 1/3 of the power of an equivalent CRT. Not to mention all the time saved since I dont have anything to do with OSX compared to linux constant need of time consuming administration.

    Also, I use the subway / bus, much cheaper than owning a car, and I actualy get to work faster with the subway than in a car waiting in line in a traffic jam. I use my bike during the summer.

  • Thermostats (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SunFan ( 845761 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:04PM (#11845781)

    Probably the biggest thing is to turn down thermostats in winter and up in summer. Electricity/Heating Fuel are the biggest bills aside from debt payments, it appears.

  • New Technology (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nstrupp ( 51933 )
    I don't mean computerize your home.

    I'm betting most people live in older dwellings. My house was built in the 50's when no one cared about energy. This will only apply to people that own homes, but here goes.

    Windows:
    I've replaced my windows. It was a large expense ($10,000+) and I won't get my money back in increased home value or energy savings for as long as I live here, but I will save energy in two ways. First, and most obvious, I have more energy efficient windows. The original windows were single pa

    • Re:New Technology (Score:4, Interesting)

      by HeyLaughingBoy ( 182206 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:26PM (#11846646)
      My house was built in the 50's when no one cared about energy

      My first house was like this. Built in the early 50's, 1,000 sq ft. I added insulation under the attic floorboards, and the house had brand new HVAC system and electronic timer thermostat. With all that, a $200 heating bill in winter was average. I thought that was normal: it gets *cold* in Minnesota.

      Then we moved to a house built in the mid 80's. Twice the sq. footage, plenty of big windows, old HVAC... and the highest heating bill in 2 years is $80! In summer, the cost of A/C is barely noticeable. It's insane how much difference insulation everywhere and good sealing makes.

      Of course I do have an 18 mpg SUV to make up for it ;-)

  • Stop using so much water... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by phallstrom ( 69697 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:08PM (#11845819)
    Okay, I know it's not electricity exactly, but...

    - install low flow toilets or those kits that limit the amount of water per toilet flush.

    - consider a front load washing machine.

    - and stop washing your car every freaking weekend for crying out loud! Especially those of you who live in Seattle. It rains every couple of days anyway!!!! Same goes for your lawns. Brown is okay. It will grow back.
    • First thing I thought about when I saw this Conservation item was to "take showers with your significant other." My wife and I do most every morning, and on the weekdays, we do save time.

      On the weekends however......
    • and stop washing your car every freaking weekend for crying out loud! Especially those of you who live in Seattle.

      Since it's rained a whole bunch more in LA then in Seattle this year, you have to use LA as your "city where it rains a whole shit load".

    • consider a front load washing machine.

      Dang! I can't believe I forgot to mention that earlier. I have a Kenmore HE3 washer/dryer set and they rock like no appliances I've ever bought. First, it barely sips water - the advertising is completely accurate. Second, the spin cycle is awesome. The radial velocity of the edge of the barrel on the "high" setting is something like 170 miles per hour. Third, my wife, three small children, and I use almost exactly one 5-gallon tub of soap every six months. At

  • stabbed, hitchiking is great way to...

    No, I don't want to see that

    save on fuel and potentially meet...

    I don't think you should be doing that while driving

    sorry, where was I, oh yeah, meet interesting people who will even let you use their cell phone to connect to the .....

    OH GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY HAND?!?!

    internet while driving.....is there a scream tag on /.?
  • Lets face it. A large chunk of the gas used in this country is used in ever increasing commutes to work. More and more people are spending increasing amounts of time on the road, often at low or single digit speeds. Fear not though, for there is a solution. A solution that not only will help you save money on fuel expenditures, but reduce congestion on the freeways of America, and increase the amount of liesure time for all participants. This solution is so elegant, that it can be summed up in three me

  • We live in a climate-appropriate house. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mellon ( 7048 ) * on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:13PM (#11845871) Homepage
    Not an easy thing to do, and not everyone can do it, but one thing that really surprises me about Tucson, and this is true for many cities, I think, is how incredibly inappropriate the building materials are that people use. Most of the houses in Tucson are made of wood, with minimal insulation and huge black roofs to collect maximal solar energy during the long summers. Many houses are cooled with swamp coolers, which typically go through 100 gallons of water a day, even though this is a desert climate. Many people have lawns, which of course have to be watered daily throughout most of the year.

    When we moved to Tucson, we knew we weren't going to buy a wood house, because wood is simply a lousy material for this climate. Back in the days before massive cookie-cutter developments, houses in Tucson were made of 12-18" thick adobe or 6-8" burnt adobe/slump block masonry. This material is good for the climate, because it has a lot of thermal mass. This means that if you get the thickness right, the outside temperature at night will be coming through the walls during the day, and the outside temperature during the day will be coming through the walls at night. So if you open the windows at night, and close them during the day, you can be fairly comfortable even in the heat of summer, without using any heating at all, and in the winter you might want to put on a sweater, but you'll basically be warm enough, again without any heating.

    However, it turns out that buying a house built this way nowadays is quite expensive, unless you buy an older house, and older houses have the problem that most of them have wood floors, meaning that you're very vulnerable to termites.

    We were very fortunate to find a builder who is working on renewable-energy housing right in downtown Tucson - our house is made of concrete masonry, but is insulated on the outside, so rather than depending on the diurnal cycle, it is isolated from the outside temperature swings. The thermal mass of the all-masonry construction and the 10" thick concrete floor mean that once you get it to a certain temperature, it tends to want to stay there. So it's quite cheap to keep cool, even in the dead of summer.

    On top of this, there's a solar hot water heater and 1500WDC solar panel on the roof, so that although we still draw energy from the grid, we draw a lot less of it, and our air conditioning can run mostly off the solar panel during the day, when energy is in most demand. To back up the solar hot water heater we have an electric instant-hot-water heater from Seisco that works really well - the hot water out of the tap has a really consistent temperature with no pulsing.

    That's really our big way of saving energy. We'd like to have a hybrid car, because unfortunately we aren't quite able to go cold turkey on automotive transportation, but for now we're making do with our Honda Civic, which gets pretty good milage.

    As for computers, unfortunately I think the best solution is to always buy newer ones, but it costs energy to make them, so this isn't perfect. Newer computers do seem to use less energy as long as you're not pushing them to extreme clock speeds. Probably using just a laptop would help, but for work it's really handy to have a faster disk and processor.
  • My wife and I drive a Jetta Wagon with the TDI (diesel) engine. We do our best to drive it smoothly with no hard acceleration or braking and are averaging 46 mpg. There are a few biodiesel stations in our area (NC Triangle) that offer 80/20 fuel. Here is a website with details on the benefits of biodiesel and the location of pumps in the triangle [trianglecleancities.org].

    Other than that we: keep the a/c high and the heat low, use energystar ratings as one of our primary shopping factors, and generally don't use more energy than w
  • link [climatechange.gc.ca]

    It's focused on gas emissions, but most of the suggestions are about reducting the energy we use. There is a nice GHG calculator to get an idea were you are starting from.

  • What high energy prices? (Score:2, Informative)

    by 0x69 ( 580798 )
    It's an easy 2-mile walk from home to where I work. I drive a small diesel car anyway.

    The landlord pays the heat & A/C for my modest 1-bedroom apartment...but with few exterior walls & appropriate clothing, my thermostat is almost always set to "OFF".

    I turn off unneeded lights, shut the 'fridge door, don't run a home server farm, etc. - my electric bill is usually about $15 per month.

    I don't know if a 400% jump in energy prices would bother me that much. If the rest of America lived like I do,
    • The landlord pays the heat & A/C for my modest 1-bedroom apartment.

      Don't they teach economics in high school anymore? No, 0x69, you pay all of your utilities - your landlord just does you the "favor" of lumping your bills in with everyone else's, dividing by the number of renters, and incorporating that into your rent.

      See that jackass across the hall who leaves his windows open because the A/C and heat is "free"? Guess what: you are paying his bills, while he gets a discount because you're using l

  • His non profit site has lots of information: Rocky Mountain Institute [rmi.org]. I would also search around the web for webcasts or interviews [buildings.com] with him.

  • slashdot in lynx (Score:5, Funny)

    by wdr1 ( 31310 ) * <wdr1&pobox,com> on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:23PM (#11845967) Homepage Journal
    I read Slashdot in lynx. Does that count?

    -Bill
  • My roomate and I have a long standing battle over control of the lights in our apartment.

    he wants them all on, I don't.

    I have sensative eyes, and can see just fine by starlight, and I don't see the need to waste the electricity on lights when I'm not in the room.

    He wants the lights to be on when he enters the room. He doesn't like entering a dark room.

    So, our lights go on and off a lot. :)

  • I chose to ... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Muad'Dave ( 255648 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:35PM (#11846085) Homepage

    ... replace my ancient oil-fired furnace with a much more efficient one (still oil-fired). I went from a 1.0 gph nozzle to a 0.7 gph nozzle, and the furnace still runs less than before.

    I also consolidated many of the 6 servers I had running on old hardware onto 1 or 2 honkin' servers. The power required went down by a 1.25 kW. Over a month, that was 915 kW-hr. At 8 cents/kW-hr, that's $75/month right there.

  • Energy is always conserved (Score:4, Funny)

    by waynegoode ( 758645 ) * on Friday March 04, 2005 @02:46PM (#11846194) Homepage
    I don't have to do anything. Don't you remember your physics?

    Energy is always conserved, [wikipedia.org] without a bit of help from anyone.

    Now if we could only find a way to conserve entrophy. [nous.org.uk]

  • Lots of ways (Score:4, Informative)

    by linuxwrangler ( 582055 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:00PM (#11846357)
    1) Replaced all my lights with flourescent.

    2) Insulated (my 1940s era house had no insulation and now has it in the ceiling and walls).

    3) Replaced my 1960s aluminum sliders with Pella double-pane argon filled low-e-coated double-gasketed windows.

    4) Replaced my water-heater with a Noritz on-demand model.

    5) Ride my bike to work about when practical (about 50% of the days annually).

    6) Keep my car in good repair and drive it gently. Not only directly saves fuel but also the components, all of which require energy to manufacture. For example, I've only replaced the front brake pads once, at 140,000+ miles.

    7) Replaced my 20 year old fridge with a new energy-star model.

    8) Got rid of a second freezer.

    9) Replaced top-load washer with energy-star front-loader with high-speed spin.

    10) Replaced electric dryer with natural-gas dryer.

    11) DISCONNEDTED IDLE EQUIPMENT!! I got an energy meter as a present and in true geek fashion started measuring the usage of everything in the house. It wasn't too hard to kill about 100 watts of 24/7 energy use. Some of the 24/7 power-eaters (these are all idle power in the "off" state):
    Subwoofer: 15 watts
    Livingroom stereo: 18 watts
    TV: 8 watts
    2 VCRs: 12 watts
    UPS: 20+ watts
    etc.

    But does this make sense? Certainly not from an economic standpoint. I don't really get cold or spend much time at home during the week so my total energy bill before I got married was generally around $50/month. Even if I could reduce it to $0 I couldn't justify many of the purchases. Now that I have a wife and daughter (with home-washed diapers) at home the equation has shifted but energy savings still don't justify the purchases - they are mostly side-benefits of other activities:

    1) Replaced all my lights with flourescent.

    OK this one was intended for energy savings and easily justified on a cost/benefit basis. It's also nice to change lights a lot less frequently.

    2) Insulated.

    I live near Berkeley. We don't have/generally need air conditioning. I don't know if the insulation will ever payback the $1800 cost but it makes the house much more comfortable and adds a bit of sound insulation as well. The benefit is most noticable on the few very hot summer days when insulation is the only thing keeping the house from getting into the 90s like it used to.

    3) Replaced the windows.

    We were looking at shutters and blinds (funny thing about getting married - matching sheets are no longer acceptable window "treatments") and decided that we should get rid of the hideous aluminum inserts before spending $$ on window coverings. After much hunting we found we liked the Pella windows the best. At around $26,000 to replace all the windows and buy wood shutters and drapes we will never, ever, recover the cost on energy savings. But like the wall insulation, the double-pane windows make the house much more quiet and pleasant, both thermally and visually.

    4) Replaced my water-heater with a Noritz on-demand model.

    The water heater was getting old and I wanted to replace it before it broke on its own. The on-demand allowed me to put the heater in the crawlspace and free up room in the house. It won't pay for itself in energy savings but at typical construction costs per square foot it has already paid for itself in increased floor space. It is also nice to have unlimited hot water and the flexibility to leave the heater at 106 so all we have to do is jump in the shower and turn on full-hot (no adjusting necessary) but also be able to push the button to temporarily get 160 degree water to run the diapers. Of course I did all the work myself including trenching and running a new 1.25" gas line, running the power and control connections and rerunning the plumbing. The cost equation would be vastly different if I had hired the job out.

    5) Ride my bike to work about when practical (about 50% of the days annually).

    I just like bike riding and get my exerci
  • Even though I'd rather live in the country.

    Plus: I walk to work. It takes about 20 minutes. Energy: zero, plus I get part of my daily exercise.

    Plus: I rarely drive. Public transportation is great here (Boston). When I do drive it's usually with friends on a weekend, so the per-person energy cost is lower.

    Plus: As far as embodied energy, shopping etc. go, there's economies of scale: more people are fed, clothed, etc. with less energy spent per unit on transportation to the stores (yet somehow everything c
  • I used to live in a condo out in the suburbs. It was about a 40 minute drive to work. I moved into an apartment that is about a 20 minute walk to work.

    My rent went up by $300, but I spend $300 less a month gassing up the car.

    My electricity and heating bill went from about $75 a month to about $20. Not a big deal, but hey, whatever.

    And the 20 minute walk means I'm like less fat and stuff. And walking is much less stressful than putting up with fucktards in traffic.

  • my monitors for light, and my processors to make coffee...

  • simple, inexpensive things (Score:5, Informative)

    by NaturePhotog ( 317732 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @03:21PM (#11846583) Homepage
    We've been following the 10 simple ideas that elid [slashdot.org] linked to, and while our energy usage wasn't that high to begin with, it's definitely cutting our energy use further.
    • As bulbs burn out, we've replaced them with fluorescents. These days there are even 3-way fluorescent bulbs and fluorescent exterior flood lights (which coupled with a motion sensor are even better at saving energy).
    • When it was time for a new clothes washer, we bought the most energy-efficient one we could, a front loading model. They use less water, get clothes cleaner, put less wear on the clothes in the process, and leave clothes dryer, leaving less work for the clothes dryer (or the sun in summer).
    • When it was time for a new water heater, we spent the extra and got a tankless model with electronic ignition so there's no pilot light and not 30+ gallons of water being kept hot whether any is being used or not.
    • I no longer leave my computer on over night. Takes longer to get started in the morning, but boot time is now go pour myself some coffee time :-)
    • We've had a programmable thermostat for the furnace for years. Turns down when you leave for work (before I started working at home), turns up when you get back, with different schedules for weekends versus weekdays. Not only do you use less energy, but the house can be warming up when you wake up in the morning.
    In addition to those ideas:
    • We've had a Toyota Prius [toyota.com] since 2001. Simply put, it's the best car my wife or I have ever owned. Great mileage, low emissions, low maintenance, and the newer model is even better. Plus there's a $2000 federal tax break.
    • Trip-linking. Plan your errands so you can do a number of short, connected trips instead of heading out every time you need something. Or better, figure out how you can skip the trip altogether :-)
    • Rather than buy an air conditioner for the couple of months a year we'd need one, I installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom.
    • We have a couple of cloth bags we use for shopping instead of getting new plastic or paper ones every time we go.
    • I'm in the process of replacing the old single-pane windows with dual-pane. This is more expensive and/or difficult than some people can do, but Marvin makes the Tilt-Pac [marvin.com] for replacing just the window but leaving the existing frame. They're cheaper than a whole new window, and simple enough to install that people with some home improvement experience can do it themselves.
    • I'm also in the process of adding insulation to our house, which was built with exactly none to start with. The attic was easy enough to add insulation to, but insulating existing walls is a bit harder. Blown in loose insulation tends to settle over time, and doesn't fill in small gaps very well. I'm looking at alternatives such as soy-based spray foam insulation [biobased.net].
    • I'm in the process of designing, permitting, and hopefully in a couple of months, building a small addition to our house (going from about 1000 sq. ft. to about 1300 sq. ft.). The design incorporates as many green building [mtpc.org] techniques as possible, including more insulation than required by code, south-facing windows for solar heating in winter, large roof overhang to avoid solar heating in summer, natural lighting via well-placed windows, and a large south-facing roof for the future addition of solar panels. That's in addition to stuff like low/no-VOC paints and bamboo flooring which don't necessarily use less energy, but are better for the environment.
    Besides the construction, none of these things is that difficult or expensive compared with their alternatives. And most if not all will save you money in the long run if you're in your house any length of time.
  • I got rid of my car, moved closer to work and my kid's school, fix and reuse, recycle more, and spend more of my time now with my family than working harder to be a good consumer.

    I'm also now completely out of debt.

  • Fairly clear? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Brandybuck ( 704397 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @04:08PM (#11847165) Homepage Journal
    It's fairly clear that conservation is an overlooked solution to the 'energy crisis'.

    It's not fairly clear. In fact, I think the opposite it true, that conservation is the first solution looked to. It's the solution that's been used for the last thirty years.

    How many times have you heard your mother say over the years: "Turn off your lights when you're not using them! Do you think electricity comes from a well or something?"

    We could conserve more, but a lot of us don't really know where our energy goes. Do you know how much energy your computer consumes? So why don't you turn it off when you're not using it? I see far too many "environmentally concerned" citizens that keep their computers on all the time. At work I turn off my computer on the weekend and people actually look at me as if I'm nuts for doing it. I've got a friend who's in Earth First, and owns an NVidia card with more fan horsepower than my Hoover vacumn! Where's the sense in that?

  • Dimmable Fluorescents (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LordMyren ( 15499 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @06:23PM (#11848638) Homepage
    There's a couple major problems with fluorescents, a lot of which have been pointed out. But I havent seen my #1 beef:
    1) Its impossible to find dimmable fluorescents.

    They used to make em, a reasonable premium, but they're completely AWOL now.

    Other grievances:
    2) 60 hz DEATH TO EYES magical powers
    3) hideous spectrum: what is it, like 3 different narrowband peaks?

    Can someone recommend a dimmable full spectrum non-flickering fluorescent? cause that'd f'ing rock.

    -Myren
  • With oil again pushing historic nominal prices and all sorts of articles on alternative power, what are people doing practically to reduce their energy consumption? Has anyone come up with really nifty ways to cut their energy consumption without sacrificing their technical lifestyle?
    You do realize the conserving energy affects the amount of oil imported almost not at all? Most of the electrical energy (99%+) generated from fossil sources in this country comes from domestic gas and coal. (Most of the responses in this thread are about saving electricity.) That's not to say that conserving those isn't important, but that your concerns and your solutions are somewhat disconnected.
    It's fairly clear that conservation is an overlooked solution to the 'energy crisis'.
    I wonder where you've been through the last three decades, conservation has been high on the list of solutions since the early 70's. Don't you ever wonder why those excess grocery bags are getting so thin? Why we have 'green' PC's, and the push for electric cars? Why soda cans are thinner and lighter? Conservation. (Which is a long term solution, not a short term one.)

  • Brain dump of things that really work (Score:3, Informative)

    by Yonder Way ( 603108 ) on Friday March 04, 2005 @07:36PM (#11849282)
    * Replace all of your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent. Use the lowest wattage that you are comfortable with, reserving higher wattage for task lighting where you need the most clear illumination. This alone can cut your energy costs for lighting anywhere from 66%-75%.

    * Wrap your hot water pipes and heat vents with insulation.

    * Spray expansive foam insulation into your exterior facing walls.

    * Replace any appliances that heat with electricity. Natural gas is the most practical replacement.

    * Consider a passive solar water pre-heater so that warm/hot water goes in to your main water heater.

    * Switch your car. Skip the hypebrids... I mean hybrids... and go straight to a good turbodiesel. Volkswagen has done wonders with their TDI. Add a chip and you can get great performance and still do better than 40MPG. Volkswagen TDI is known to run well on 100% biodiesel, also, if you ever consider going that route.

    * Hang heavy curtains over your windows. Keep the curtains closed at night.

    * Consider putting a small awning over your windows to block the summer sun from coming in directly, but inviting the winter sun which sits lower in the sky.

    * Don't let your dishwasher dry the dishes. Dry them by hand.

    * Hang your clothes on a clothesline to dry them whenever possible.

    * If you live in an arid region, consider using a swamp cooler to augment or replace your air conditioning.

    * If you live on a nice chunk of land, consider augmenting your heat and hot water with a wood burning furnace. This is impractical if you have to buy wood. But a godsend if you live on a managed woodlot.

    * Replace all CRT monitors and televisions in your home with LCD's.

    * Get yourself a "killawatt" device which will allow you to measure the actual energy consumption of everything you have that plugs into a standard 110VAC outlet and determine what appliances you need to replace with more efficient ones.

    * Subscribe to Home Power and Countryside magazines to stay plugged into what other people are doing.

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