Wanna know how much energy something in your home uses?

[donrhummy]

http://www.bettergeneration.co.uk/ideas-for-saving-energy/smart-electricity-meters.html

[gerv]

I didn't see an actual price for the device, but I use a little cheaper method of figuring this out. I save all the electricity bills and compare previous years with the current year. I'm always trying something new out. First it was curly light bulbs, now the clothes dryer is my target. I am also experimenting with "navy" showers, which aren't nearly as bad as they sound and save a bunch energy to heat water + the water itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower

My trick is to visit a site like this
http://www.psnh.com/Residential/ReduceBill/ApplianceUsage.asp
to calculate the average use per month. Then see if there's some way you can cut down or curtail

Here's a suburban Mom who decided to use a high-tech device called a clothes line.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/garden/12clothesline.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[dynodonn]

I didn't see an actual price for the device, but I use a little cheaper method of figuring this out. I save all the electricity bills and compare previous years with the current year. I'm always trying something new out. First it was curly light bulbs, now the clothes dryer is my target. I am also experimenting with "navy" showers, which aren't nearly as bad as they sound and save a bunch energy to heat water + the water itself.

No "navy" showers here at my homestead, I installed a low flow shower head and then turn the water down low as possible and I calculate I'm using less than a gallon a minute of water, and besides, a man needs some other vice besides bicycling. :D I also replaced our old top loader washing machine with a front loader type, and that equates to a 28 gallon savings for every standard washing load, which dropped our water usage considerably. I haven't quite got the clothes line thing down yet, but I did replace our old gas stove with pilot lights to a newer version with electronic start, which will help in offsetting our gas dryer.

[LandLuger]

My strategy involves eliminating any electrical appliance that generates heat as these are usually the big offenders. Beyond that one might get one of these just to get a handle on where you need to focus your efforts:

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

They can be had for around $20 US.

I'm currently using a natural gas "tankless" water heater, but I'll be selling it when I finally get around to putting in a passive solar water heater. The unique architecture of my house makes implementing a solar water heater very difficult for a DIYer--so difficult that sometimes I think that I would rather heat water on my woodstove and truck it across the house to the bath.

[wahoonc]

My strategy involves eliminating any electrical appliance that generates heat as these are usually the big offenders. Beyond that one might get one of these just to get a handle on where you need to focus your efforts:

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

They can be had for around $20 US.

I'm currently using a natural gas "tankless" water heater, but I'll be selling it when I finally get around to putting in a passive solar water heater. The unique architecture of my house makes implementing a solar water heater very difficult for a DIYer--so difficult that sometimes I think that I would rather heat water on my woodstove and truck it across the house to the bath.

Landluger,
Get or make a "water jacket" for your wood stove. It can be plumbed into the house plumbing system. My grandparents had one on their basement coal fired furnace. It gave plenty of hot water in the winter time. In the summer you just took a cold bath:eek: :D

Aaron:)

[gerv]

Landluger,
Get or make a "water jacket" for your wood stove. It can be plumbed into the house plumbing system. My grandparents had one on their basement coal fired furnace. It gave plenty of hot water in the winter time. In the summer you just took a cold bath:eek: :D

Aaron:)
My parents had a contraption that was a tank on the back of the wood/oil stove. A copper pipe ran between it and the stove. I think it worked OK, but I remember that hot water was never the commodity that it is today. You always had to be thinking about when the water would be sufficiently hot for a bath.

[dynodonn]

My strategy involves eliminating any electrical appliance that generates heat as these are usually the big offenders. Beyond that one might get one of these just to get a handle on where you need to focus your efforts:

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

They can be had for around $20 US.

I'm currently using a natural gas "tankless" water heater, but I'll be selling it when I finally get around to putting in a passive solar water heater. The unique architecture of my house makes implementing a solar water heater very difficult for a DIYer--so difficult that sometimes I think that I would rather heat water on my woodstove and truck it across the house to the bath.

Whenever our power goes out and we have to go to the backup generator, we have found out that our biggest power users were not the big appliances as we might have thought, but learned that the electric coffee pot and microwave oven were the biggest load factor on the generator.

[LandLuger]

Landluger,
Get or make a "water jacket" for your wood stove. It can be plumbed into the house plumbing system. My grandparents had one on their basement coal fired furnace. It gave plenty of hot water in the winter time. In the summer you just took a cold bath:eek: :D

Aaron:)

If I were to install a centralized wood heating system that would be fine, but remember those units are very smoky due to inefficient combustion--probably due to the tremendous heat loss to the encompassing water jacket. Any EPA certified non-catalytic, high-efficiency wood stove like I own has to get hotter than hell to successfully latch into HE mode. This may not be true for a catalytic wood stove, but I haven't seen any catalytic--or for that matter EPA certified-- centralized wood furnaces in all my research.

If this whole global warming theory plays out like some are predicting, a smoky woodstove with its high amount of particulates might serve in a capacity to combat this phenomenon. But right now I have to consider my neighbors' needs:rolleyes: so a centralized unit is out.