Instant Energy Savings

The latest issue of Mother Earth News has an interesting article on ideas to reduce your carbon footprint:

8 Easy Projects for Instant Energy Savings

Some of them are going to be familiar to everyone here, but others may not be. This is what the author achieved:

Here are the details: We cut our total energy use from 93,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year to 38,000 kWh per year. This is saving us $4,500 per year in energy costs, and has reduced our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 17 tons! Our rate of return on the money we invested in this program is more than 50 percent — tax free.

Altogether, we took on 22 different projects, including two solar heating efforts that have already appeared in Mother Earth News. (See Build a Simple Solar Heater, December 2006/January 2007, and Solar Heating Plan for Any Home, December 2007/January 2008.) You can find details about all the projects we’ve done at our home in Montana on my Web site. But those I’ll explain in the following pages are the fast, simple ones. These eight easy home improvement projects cost us about $400 and will save us at least $9,000 over the next 10 year

Here were a couple of the projects I found most interesting:

1. Personal Computer Power Management

Computers and all their related equipment, such as printers and wireless routers, consume a lot of power. Together, our two computers and related equipment used 270 watts whenever they were switched on, but we found there was an easy way to reduce this amount. We put all the computer junk on a power strip, so that at night we could turn off everything with one flip of the power strip switch. We also started using the energy saving settings on our computers. During the day, we have the computers set to hibernate if they are inactive for 15 minutes so that the computer stops consuming power. This saves a total of 1,780 kWh per year, 3,560 pounds of greenhouse gas, and $178 per year! Recently, we also started using a new gadget called the Mini Power Minder that automatically powers down all our peripherals when the computer goes into hibernate. At only $15, it’s a bargain.

Energy savings/year 1,779 kWh

Initial cost $20

DIY labor 1 hour

CO2 reduction 3,557 pounds

$s saved/year $178

Energy source Electricity

1st year return 890 percent

10 year savings $2,834

This next one was something I had never heard. I have had my dryer accidentally vent inside the house, and it steamed everything up. But I guess if you are in a dry climate, and you have an electric dryer, it may make sense:

5. Vent Dryer Inside During Winter

We have started to route the clothes dryer heat vent to the inside of the house in the winter. We live in a very dry climate, so the added moisture is a benefit, not a problem. There are two major advantages of venting inside. First, you recover the heat that was added to dry the clothes (about 2.2 kWh per load). Second, you avoid bringing in cold outside air to make up for the air that the dryer is pushing outside. To vent to the inside, you need to have a dry climate, an electric (not gas) dryer, and a way to catch the lint in the dryer exit stream. The cost of this project was $20 for some tubing and a lint filter.

Caution: Gas dryers should never be vented inside, since toxic combustion products are in the vented air. Electric dryers should only be vented inside if your climate is dry — be alert for any moisture problems.

Energy savings/year 630 kWh

Initial cost $5 to $20

DIY labor 2 hours

CO2 reduction 286 pounds

$s saved/year $63

Energy source Propane

1st year return 315 percent

10 year savings $1,002

The article is a good read, and at the end the author lists his next 8 projects. There is probably a bit of something useful in there for everyone.

40 thoughts on “Instant Energy Savings”

  1. Robert – do you know this guy? He is from Montana, it’s a small state.

    Anyway, the article is a bit misleading. He claims his family’s energy use is 93,000 kWh per year, implying that is electrical use. It isn’t. He converts their gasoline and propane use to kWh for comparison, kind of odd. He could have done it in BTUs.

    Roughly his electrical use was 10,000 kWh, propane 43,000 kWh and gasoline 40,000 kWh. His biggest reduction was in gasoline by buying a Prius (that should make Odograph happy).

    His next biggest cut was in propane use from a number of solar heating projects. It is much cheaper and easier to do solar heating in a cold climate than cooling projects in a warm climate.

    I’ve wondered for some time if it better for the environment to live in a warm place with higher cooling bills than in a cold place with higher heating bills. I use a lot of electricity in the summer. But very little natural gas.

  2. As a computer guy and an energy … hobbyist(?) I’ve done a fair amount of investigation with a (Kill-A-Watt) power monitor on various computers.

    It is certainly obvious if you test desktop computer that running them 7×24 costs money.

    Running just a cable modem and wireless hub might not be so bad though.

    We are verging on much better technology, to allow desktops to sleep at very low power, but in the short term notebooks are kings. They have had market resons to be energy efficient, where the desktop vendors haven’t really cared.

    I like my ultra-small Eee PC, but I’d say anyone who is near replacing a desktop should consider at least a conventional notebook instead. They are cheap (www.techbargains.net), use much less power than desktops, and can be left running (plugged in) 7×25 without worries.

    … you can even leave a notebook computer on a desk top … you don’t have to move it.

    (Notebooks verge on even greater power savings as the features in things like the Eee PC and now Apple Macbook Air percolate outward.)

  3. Just a word of caution. While venting your drying inside is a great energy saver, it can be a hazard. You will want to put a lint trap on the outlet to keep from making a mess, but be careful. Lint is flammable and if the trap becomes full it can over heat and catch fire. Most of the traps you can buy are set up to have a pool of water in the bottom that holds the lint. That works great as long as you removed the lint and refill the water as needed.

  4. While venting your drying inside is a great energy saver, it can be a hazard. You will want to put a lint trap on the outlet…

    Nothing so fancy is needed. I used to just put one of my wife’s discarded knee-hi’s over the end of the dryer hose. When it filled up with lint (after a few weeks or months), I returned it to the trash (from whence I had plucked it) and replaced it with another. Simple, low-tech, and free.

    Now I just hang everything. After the initial expense of a couple of indoor clothes racks, it doesn’t get much cheaper or more energy-efficient than that. Clothes last longer, too.

  5. I was doing the dryer thing until yesterday, when the furnace man came to do maintenance and said the filter was dirtier than normal. My wife freaked out, so I had to put it back outside. I think I will put a filter on as suggested above.

  6. I use the air to dry my clothes. I live in L.A., so it is easy.
    But, the article again highlights what is true: At these prices, energy consumption will start going down, not up.
    Look for the built environment to use less, not more, energy every year as LEDs and high-quality HVACs replace older technologies. Jeez, people might even use their clothes dryers a bit less.
    Look for autos every year to use less, not more gasoline.
    Incredibly, the world has obsessed about supply. The doomsters can think only about supply. What about demand?
    I have seen a pick-up truck in Thailand carry 8 people, in somewhat reasonable comfort, by putting slats across the wheelwells (the long way). My guess is that works out to 160 mpg per passenger.
    Right now, China subsidizes gasoline. Along with Oil Thug States, it is about the only place in the world where there is increasing demand for crude.
    In a few years, you will see China become much more independent.
    Oil is down below $90, and looks lifeless. I suspect $100 a barrel was the record for a generation. Today, I feel there will be a long, long secular decline in prices for about 15 years. Tomorrow I may change my mind.
    The good news is that we have seen the worst in oil prices.
    Would that we could solve other problems so easily.

  7. The cost of each of his energy sources is not the same. There are 26.76 kWh energy equivalent in propane, and 36.6 kWh equivalent in conventional gasoline.
    At $2.00/gallon of propane and $2.85/gallon of gasoline, that makes his propane costs $0.0747/kWh, and gasoline $0.0779/kWh. He actually pays more ($0.10/kWh) for electricity.

    In his case, the CFCs may not be saving as much as he thinks. The extra energy used by incandescent light bulbs ends up as heat. So in the winter time the lost heat energy from the CFCs is replaced by propane heat. He does save a little money since propane is cheaper than electricity.

  8. He converts their gasoline and propane use to kWh for comparison, kind of odd. He could have done it in BTUs.
    Ouch! He could have. But why go back to the stone age? Half the planet does not know BTU anyway. Time to work on the other half.

    So in the winter time the lost heat energy from the CFCs is replaced by propane heat. He does save a little money since propane is cheaper than electricity.
    Wow, that’s a sharp observation. Of course, in warm climates, like TX, you’d pay twice for those inefficient light bulbs: once for the power, and then for the cooling.

    So King, have you stocked up on CFCs yet? What’s the return on investment?

  9. Optimist – jeez give me a break. I didn’t know you wanted to go all SI on me! Why not Joules or Newton-Meters then? Most people don’t think of energy that way. For your amusement, I filled up with 657 kWh of E10 gasoline this morning and paid 7.94 cents/kWh. I’ll send a note over to marketing to change all the pumps.

    Yes, I’ve replaced most of my lighting with CFCs except those on dimmers. I don’t like paying twice for the heat. My kids have a bad habit about leaving lights on. I’m thinking about going the next step to LED lighting. But for dimmers you need to provide a resistive load, so I would end up putting at least 1 40 W bulb in on each circuit. It would be about the same as CFCs.

  10. King and Everybody

    I think it is pretty well agreed that wives and children regard any sort of frugality as Dad’s pedantic cheapness.
    Long, long hot showers and baths, and steam rooms, and jacuzzis, and the entire house a toasty 80 degrees — this is what women dream of.
    We men are there to provde those, and other, creature comforts.

  11. King’O K: It’s misleading to count input kW/h from propane/gasoline when not used directly for heating. An electric heater is 100% efficient, a high efficient furnace burning propane is 80-90% efficient and input kW/h is at least close to output kW/h. Any kind of heat engine running gasoline (or propane) is in the 20-30% range. An electric motor is very close to 100% efficient and these can’t be compared by input energy and make any sense at all.

    Your comment:
    At $2.00/gallon of propane and $2.85/gallon of gasoline, that makes his propane costs $0.0747/kWh, and gasoline $0.0779/kWh. He actually pays more ($0.10/kWh) for electricity.

    Ballpark numbers for electricity generated from a diesel generator are $0.25-$0.35 kW/h and a gasoline engine would be less efficient than diesel and have an even higher cost per kW/h of output power.

  12. Come on, King!
    SI would be a huge step forward and save the country quite a bit of money.

    I suspect we agree on this much: energy plans and discussions would be easier to follow if everybody used the same units, regardless of whether those would be BTU, kWh or J (=Nm).

    The logical step forward would be to use SI units. Joule (or MJ) makes as much sense as anything. Thanks to the electric power companies kWh have taken root. Now 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ, just because the hour does not (yet?) consist of 1,000 seconds, but the odd 3,600 seconds.

    Nothing personal, Bob, but there is no such thing as kW/h, unless you are talking about the rate of change of power, as in “he increased the power supply from 50 kW to 100 kW in two hours”, i.e. a rate of 25 kW/h.

    Note that Watt and its multiples (kW, MW, etc.) are units of power (1 kW = 1.34 hp). As King demonstrated, kWh is a unit of energy (1 kWh = 3,412 BTU). You apparently meant to use “kWh” throughout, instead of the rarely used “kW/h”.

    For some reason kW and kWh confuses the heck out of many Americans, including EPA Senior Project Engineers. Expect EPA estimated mileage figures for plug-in hybrids to take a while…

  13. There’s a key problem with incandescent bulbs used to heat a room: most light bulbs are high up in a room and the heated air will do little for the occupants down below. While the electricity is directly transferred to the air’s heat, much of that heat will eventually be wasted through conduction in the ceiling and walls.

  14. For your amusement, I filled up with 657 kWh of E10 gasoline this morning and paid 7.94 cents/kWh.
    Hey, I’m jealous. Out here we are still paying about $0.089/kWh. Admittedly, that’s still way cheaper than the $0.133/kWh I just paid for electricity, although not as cheap as natural gas @ $0.039/kWh. Both electricity and natural gas include all the applicable local charges and taxes. Still, when was the last time you compared those three so conveniently. That’s the benefit of SI. If you find it amusing, good for you!

  15. I think it is pretty well agreed that wives and children regard any sort of frugality as Dad’s pedantic cheapness.

    Man, I hear that! 😛

    On another note: I’d love to make the jump to LED bulbs, but I have to say, the color temperature of the ones I’ve see in stores has been nothing shy of garish. I hope that improves the same way it has from early-gen CFCs.

  16. Anyway, the article is a bit misleading. He claims his family’s energy use is 93,000 kWh per year, implying that is electrical use.
    Only in the land of opportunity would the choice of units imply he was using electricity, or whatever.

    My personal favorite is dry volume, you know barrel, bushel and peck!!!

  17. Errr, I think in kWh & Newton Meters.

    The only fuel I think of in volume is petrol, and thats because its the way its priced.

    Gas, elec, propane, etc is all done in kWh. Makes it easier to convert.

    Andy

  18. Well at least he didn’t convert his energy usage to gallons of gasoline. When I saw the 93,000 kWh figure I knew he couldn’t be talking electricty only. You need to go to his website to figure it out. In fact I had to go to a chart to make the connection.

    When I see kWh I naturally think of electricity.

    As for incandescent bulbs, I would say it depends on the type of lighting you have. Most of our lights are chandeliers, wall sconces, and recessed lighting with reflector floods. So a lot of the radiant energy stays in the room. Even our ceiling lights have insulation with a radiant barrier designed to reflect back into the room. The reason is safety, so that the ceiling doesn’t overheat. I’ve replaced nearly all the ceiling lights with CFCs. I found that in my daughters bathroom (they don’t last nearly as long). Our bathroom vanities use clear decorative globes. Those are all on motion sensing switches.

  19. What are these “CFC”s that people are talking about here? I’ve replaced my incandescent lamps with CFLs, compact fluorescent lamps.

    I thought CFCs were chlorofluorocarbons like the Freon that was replaced by other refrigerants in the air conditioners.

  20. I never heard of an “electric mattress pad heater” before, but it might solve my main problem with electric blankets…namely, the dog chews on them!

  21. My wife is actually stricter than I am about energy usage. She wasn’t always that way, but for some reason whenever I have the right idea about something, she latches onto it and makes it her own. Now she yells at me whenever I turn up the thermostat downstairs.

  22. Energy obsessed girlfriend here; I might get cold but that’s what sweaters are for. Your assumption that women are less concerned with efficiency and frugality is maybe something that is disappearing in younger generations? Maybe not, and it’s just a given concern for engineers. I have also noticed that there are few female commentators on your great blog, Robert.

    I also know compact florescent bulbs by the term CFL’s. The province of Ontario has some great initiatives to push people to do simple things like this right now; a free CFL, weather stripping, a low flow showerhead, and pipe insulation, coupons for timer power bars, all delivered to your front door. It has made these changes to our rented house possible even as students.

  23. I have also noticed that there are few female commentators on your great blog, Robert.

    That seems to be the case with energy sites in general. Even pure environmental sites like Grist have males dominating the comments. Not sure why that is.

  24. And while I realize this is an energy blog, it’s only a matter of time before we start realizing significant water savings by dividing our plumbing into “split” systems. The concepts of water for drinking or cooking being handled separately from “gray” water used in sinks, bathing, and laundry, and that apart from the septic water from toilets are inevitably due for a comeback, along with the venerable cistern, as fresh water shortage becomes more of a reality nationwide. These and ohter methods will reduce the energy needed to produce more fresh water.

  25. Maybe we just like to hide in the woodwork and only comment when provoked! I have read your blog for over a year and only just posted a comment now. Definitely a good read, but most of my discussion happens in person rather than online it seems.

  26. These and ohter methods will reduce the energy needed to produce more fresh water.
    Water treatment is pretty low energy. Moving water can take a lot of energy, especially when you are fighting gravity.

    As energy get more expensive, I expect two things to happen:
    1. More energy recovery from wastewater – wastewater treatment plants have the potential to become mini power plants.
    2. More direct recovery of wastewater (aka toilet to tap). It means minimizing the moving the water around. And the supply is drought-proof.

  27. I keep my thermostat for the heater set to 55F most of the time. It’s part cheapness, and part stubbornness. I grew up in the Northeast and I don’t want to get soft living in California. This way I can still roll my eyes when CA friends complain “It’s freezing!” when it’s still well above 32F.

    As to the gender gap, the guys in the household haven’t complained much about the cold, and they don’t seem interested in learning how to set the thermostat.

    P.S. Why does this blogger thing get rid of capital letters in names?

  28. As I reported earlier, I am working our electrical consumption down. We ended the year using 37,468 kWh of electric power, down 8% from the previous year. Every month was better than the previous with the exception of September, which was unseasonably warm this year, we used 130% more power compared to 2006.

    We have a 4,500 sq ft 5 BR home with a pool. Our A/C load accounts for about 60% of the bill, 10% is the pool and 30% everything else. I have 2 teenagers and a wife that really doesn’t like to be hot.

    Still have a lot of work to do. I still have quite a bit of attic to add radiant barrier and additional insulation.

  29. 37,468 kWh of electric power…
    We have a 4,500 sq ft 5 BR home with a pool. Our A/C load accounts for about 60% of the bill, 10% is the pool and 30% everything else.

    Wow. We used 15,400 kWh in 2007, about 30% A/C. We’re NW of San Antonio in a 25% bigger house. Your non-A/C, non-pool load is pretty close to ours, but your A/C load is about 5x ours.

    Which radiant barrier do you buy? My sister and parents could probably use some in their houses.

  30. Which radiant barrier do you buy? My sister and parents could probably use some in their houses.

    Here is the vendor: href=”http://www.atticfoil.com/” > Attic Foil They are in the Dallas area.

    Good prices, quick service. I placed my order in the morning and had the foil delivered the next day to Houston via UPS ground at no extra charge.

    It isn’t difficult to install yourself. The website above has a DIY section. I bought an electric stapler, which makes the job easier. The foil is more like thick paper with holes in it to let moisture through. It is pretty strong. My attic looks a lot like their pictures. But I’m a bit less than 1/2 finished. I also installed an attic tent to cover the attic door.

    What temp do you keep your house in the summer? The wife is home all day and likes it at 74 F. Our A/C units are builder grade and only 12 SEER. 5X for A/C is a lot. I’m trying to figure out what we are doing wrong.

  31. Better link:

    Attic Foil

    From their website there is a possible explanation for my higher bills:

    WINDOWS – I hate to tell you this, but windows and especially West facing windows are a brutal source of heat gain. AS A RULE A home’s heating/cooling bill is always directly proportional to the percentage of “Glazing” or window surface area. The best window has about an R-Value of 3-4. Even low-e double pane windows are a gap in the thermal envelope that allow heat to enter or excape. What can you do? If a window catches DIRECT SUN then solar screens or really good window film (not the stuff from the home improvement store) like a nano-ceramic window film like http://www.HuperOptikUSA.com will make a HUGE difference.

    We have a number of very large windows which face the South and West and get direct sunlight. I am considering adding solar shades to these windows to cut down on the heat.

  32. What temp do you keep your house in the summer?

    76 downstairs, 77 upstairs all day and night. I’ve read each degree adds 7%, obviously just a rule of thumb. We use ceiling fans extensively.

    We have 15 large windows on each of east, south and west faces, plus numerous little ones. Our south face gets minimal sun in mid-summer due to our low latitude. Windows are low-e and we have Polywood shutters which claim some insulative effect.

    Our house is 2005 EnergyStar. It’s somewhat cube-like, except for MBdr which juts out on its own. The small MBdr A/C runs much more often than the two main units. All A/Cs are standard 12 SEER. I did not upgrade to 14 as it was a couple grand per unit, but in hindsight upgrading the MBdr unit might have made sense.

    I did pay almost two grand to upgrade to a built-in radiant barrier which I think helps quite a bit. We also have a temp-sensitive powered attic fan, which may or may not help. We have no exterior trees, which definitely hurts.

    I open windows at night if dewpoint is 65 or less. This almost never happens in July/Aug, but can help a lot in the shoulder seasons. An overnight low of 65 with a breeze can bring the house down to a “true” 68, in which case I can keep the A/C off all day no matter how hot it gets. Decent night breezes aren’t common, though, so I’ve considered a whole house fan. This trick probably wouldn’t help as much in Houston due to higher humidity even in the shoulder seasons.

  33. Doggy – OK, that helps clear it up. I try to keep it around 75 F in the summer. My wife and kids suffer from allergies so opening the windows is a non-starter for us. I can get away with it maybe for a few weeks. Our home was built in 2003 and has NO radiant barrier on the exterior walls. We do have low E- windows.

    I am thinking about zone cooling, at least for the downstairs. There are some new systems coming on the market for retrofitting.

    Depending on where we live, our next home will be much more energy efficient. I may even opt for geothermal heat pump. I’d also do the blow in foam exterior walls.

    I should probably have an energy inspection and a positive pressure test on the HVAC and the home itself.

    This is why I’m not a doomer. There are lots of things we can do to reduce energy consumption that didn’t make sense at $80/MWh and $2/gallon gasoline, but do now. I see it from the industry side, we are doing lots to improve efficiency. Once these improvements are made, we won’t go back.

  34. Our home was built in 2003 and has NO radiant barrier on the exterior walls.

    We have radiant barriers in the attic but I’m pretty sure not in exterior walls.

    I looked into geothermal heat pump since my parents’ and sister’s A/C bills led me to think I’d be paying $500/month. The estimate came in around $50k due to rocky ground, though, so I didn’t do it. Kind of glad now, since my A/C bill is more like $500/year.

  35. Hi — while people are talking energy savings, I’d like to relate savings in natural gas usage related to updating furnace and water heater equipment.

    Former setup:
    120,000 BTU Trane forced air furnace ca 1975 “80% efficient”
    1985 Trane AC
    gas sidearm water heater ca 1945 (30 gallon steel non-insulated tank)

    new gear:
    Carrier 94% efficient natural gas furnace
    Infinity controls
    14 SEER AC/heat pump
    Rinnai tankless water heater

    Total cost for the setup was about $9800. This included about $1000 worth of ductwork improvements to make a new addition work. I did the install on the Rinnai myself, which saved a lot. Cost about $1100 for the water heater, vent, and needed gas line extension. The installer of the furnace is also the Rinnai dealer so as a courtesy he inspected and certified my install.

    Total gas usage change

    2005-06 113.10 MCF
    2006-07 115.9 (old system)
    2007-08 58.7 (new system)

    That’s a 49% reduction in gas usage! Worth a cool $900 per annum at going market rates (Dominion Gas)

    The trade offs — the heating system performs 100% better than the old one. Better air delivery was the key. Only downside was the basement has a bit of a “chill” now in winter. The savings on water heating are way more than I expected — guess that old water heater was really heating the basement! We now use about 0.4 MCF/month in summer, before it was almost ten times higher!

    Morale of story — replace the old stuff now. There were tax breaks of about $600. Not counting the time cost of money, within ca 10 years it will have paid for itself, with way improved performance in addition to the “green” payoff

    We live in the area south of Pittsburgh — substantial though not biting winters, heating season November-March

  36. I am a fan of the air cell foil products which I used in our attic over the solid foil. After doing some research, the results suggest it does a better job at slowing the heat gain process. buyreflectiveinsulation.com offers the reflective foil insulation with adhesive strips that made our install quick. Lots of similar products out there but this was the only product I was able to find with the strips built on it so you don’t have to use tape.

  37. Radiant Barrier works very well in both warm and cold climates.

    During cold winter months, up to 75% of your home or building's heat can be lost through your attic area. You may already have fiberglass or cellulose insulation in your attic but these types of insulation only RESIST heat transfer. Radiant barrier REFLECTS up to 97% of radiant heat back toward the living space, keeping your home warmer and saving you on energy costs

    Radiant barrier installed under the roof rafters in your attic can reflect up to 97% of the sun's radiant heat waves away from your attic keeping your home cool in the warm summer months.

    One thing that is very important to look for in foil insulation is the passing of the new ASTM E84-2009 test. As far as I know, EcoFoil radiant barrier is the only radiant barrier being sold online that is both made from metalized aluminum and has passed the most recent ASTM E-84 testing requirements as a Class 1 / Class A radiant barrier. This means if there is a fire, EcFoil will spread less flame, less smoke, and ultimately perform better compared to a product that does not pass under the new ASTM standard.

    Product Link: Radiant Barrier

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