Boston Gal's Open Wallet

My usage is down dramatically the past year or two from what it was previously (maybe 60% less?), but I don't think I go much less. I've already used all the convservation techniques you've mentioned, and more.

I did buy two LED Christmas light sets this week, they're not that expensive and look good, but the only question is do they last better than traditional light sets.

This report does bring up one question, are electric utilities going to be good investments for the future? I suspect so, but it make the investor in me wonder.

 

I work in the power industry, it has nothing to do with conservation. It has to do with the weather. Last year (which they are comparing it to) we had a horrible Indian summer (Ie. it was in the 80's every day into November) in the Midwest. This year, we have actually had a fall. In late August and September, it was in the 65's during the day, and in the 40's at night. It is a ton more efficient to run the furnace than to run the AC. I do have the numbers.

Just to put that into perspective, to get a 3% drop like they are stating, you have to look at the numbers. There are 1.7 million residences in the Xcel Energy footprint (not including businesses, but they said residential in the article, so I will stick with that). To get that drop, you have 51 thousand homes to completely drop off the grid. Or you have to get 102 thousand to drop their usage by 50% or you have to get 204 thousand to drop their usage by 25%. You get the picture. Do you want to know the number of people applying for solar panels in Minnesota? 12,000 homes, and only 1 thousand licenses have been granted this year. Same thing with wind power (which is much better than Solar in Minnesota).
While I like the hope, people are also pragmatic. They are replacing items (CFL, etc.) when things break. This will not show a dramatic drop in usage when people are spending less money. It is not worth it to someone who cannot cover their mortgage to run out and get CFLs for a house, at $10 a 5 pack (wal mart price) and replace every light in their house. I am replacing the ones as lights burn out for 10 years and am only about 50% through the house.

Boston Gal - while I love your enthusiasm, and glad that you provide power to the grid, I don't think the list of people doing that in the areas mentioned in the article, will be changing over anytime soon.

 

I've been able to reduce my utilities significantly in the past few months.

I recently finally got a programmable thermostat which now I wish I had done years ago. It keeps the temperature so much more even than my old thermostat. No more chilly periods before the heat kicks back on!

 

I can sympathize with hitting the wall on utility savings. That was part of the reason I went for the solar panels. But getting that first 22 - 25% savings by changing the lightbulbs, etc. is still a great money saver and something anyone can do.

 

My husband and I have definitely cut back our power usage -- and it's made a big impact on our power bill.

 

Of course this means that the utilties will be raising their rates because they won't be making enough $$.
Sorry, I'm a bit frustrated .. we've managed to reduce our usage the past couple of years, only to see the rates go up and wipe out any savings we've achieved.

 

I went to gardeners supply and can't find the 20% coupon. They don't apply it at checkout either. Do you have a code for it? I'm getting the mushroom grow kits for x-mas presents - a very practical gift.

 

Hi Indio,

Hum, unfortunately it is not a coupon code - it is a coupon link. If you click on the link to get to the website it is suppose to activate and you should see it in your checkout process.

If it is not appearing, I am not sure why. It might be because the items are already in your shopping cart before clicking on the link???

I just tried it (I clicked on the link first, which brought me to the Gardeners web site) then added three mushroom kits to my cart (I assume you are buying enough to equal $75 or more?) which cost 3@ $39.95 = $119.85 and I see the discount.

But if it is not working for you I would call Gardners and see if they will give you the 20% off over the phone.

I have never tried to grow mushrooms. Hum... That could be VERY interesting. Good idea!

 

Thanks. I'll give them a call to find out why it isn't showing up. They have some solar light snowman finials on sale that I'm also getting as a gift. Over the summer, Target had something similar for $40; they are fun to look at in the deep dark winter nights.

 

Let's hope this is a permanent change in habits and is not related to the recession.

I wanted to ask you about those smart strips - how do they work for devices (like cable boxes) that require power constantly to record shows when the TV is off? How do you turn on an appliance once its power is cut off by the smart strip?

 

Hi Shadox,

The way the powerstrips work is you have one plug port which is considered the master. If the appliance plugged into that port is turned off the strip automatically cuts the power to the other slave plug ports.

But the smart strip also includes a couple of "always on" plug ports just for your example.

So, say your entertainment center has a TV, DVD player, Cablebox with recorder, and a Wii game console. Before the smartstrip you would turn your TV off with the remote, then turn off your DVD player and game console. You would leave your cable box power on since you need to keep it on for recording shows.

This setup requires you to remember to turn off your DVD player and game console (as well as everyone else in your household who might use the entertainment center). But even though you have "turned off" your DVD player, it is still drawing power (as is the game console I assume, I don't own one so I can't say for sure). Devices like your DVD player which use a remote to turn on and off can never be fully off unless you unplug the device or cut power at the plug. Otherwise they are always drawing some power to keep the infared port which receives the remote signal "on".

So now you introduce the smartstrip. You plug the TV into the "Master" port, the Cablebox with recorder in the "always on" port and the DVD player and game console in "slave" ports.

Now, when you turn the TV off with your remote the TV goes off like normal, the Cablebox with remote stays on and the power is cut completely for the DVD player and game console. All in that one click of the remote. When you turn the TV back on the slave ports open up again and power is restored, turning those back "on" or in the normal "standby waiting for a remote to turn me on" mode (depends on how you last left the device before turning off the TV).

The beauty of the smartstrip is once you set it up, it does the thinking for you and anyone else who might be using your entertainment center (or computer station or craft area or whatever you have decided to group together and plug into the smartstrip). Of course you can instead just remember to always reach behind the entertainment center and unplug the DVD player and Wii console (and train everyone else in your household to do the same...)

Now, if you have a traditional digital cable box (one without the recording feature) you can put the cablebox into a slave port. But sometimes that results in a disruption of the "menu" or "on demand" feature. In that case, you can combine the smartstrip with a simple timer. Plug the smartstrip into the wall outlet, and in the other wall outlet port plug in a simple timer. In the smartstrip plug in the TV in master and the DVD player and Wii in slave (as described above) but plug the traditional digital cable box into the wall outlet with the timer. Set the timer to cut power at say midnight and turn on again at say 7 AM. Now, automatically, your cablebox will be off for seven hours every evening while you sleep, but when you want to use your TV at say 7:30AM in the morning it will be ready (the half hour of on time has allowed the menu and ondemand stuff to refresh itself after being off).

Anyway, I hope all of that helps!

 

Very helpful!

B'gal - did you ever post a breakdown of that 22% savings? I'm weighing the next set of "investments" and want to have a fair base level of useage to compare against. My dishwasher is on the fritz, but I do want some of those nifty LEDs for outside (and inside?) use this winter.

 

I don't know if I ever created a post breaking all of my appliances down to the Watt level and then calculating how much replacements or unplugging, etc. saved me per item or action.

I can say that I started the process by purchasing a Kill-a-Watt and spent time plugging various things into that to see how much power chargers or appliances were drawing.

If you are serious about embarking on some energy saving measures around the home I highly recommend investing in The Home Energy Diet

In general, when looking to save start with the large "always on" appliances like your refridgerator, but don't ignore the "small" stuff because it all adds up. If you went around your house and counted all of the lightbulbs and their individual wattage (most are either 60W or 40W) then grouped that by room, lamp, or switch, it is amazing what just that exercise should tell you. For example, in my dining room I have an overhead fixture with five lightbulbs which is turned on and off at a wall switch. I walk through my dining room all the time since it is between my living room and kitchen. So that light not only is used when I am sitting down for a meal, but also as kind of a "hallway" light at night as I pass back and forth between the rooms.

Now the first question might be can I replace the five 40W lightbulbs (200W combined) in the overhead fixture with 11W CFL bulbs (55W combined) resulting in a 72% savings - yes. But also, it might point out that I should find another solution to the "hallway" light problem. So adding a small lamp to the dining room sideboard and using a 13W (60W incandescent equivilent) bulb in that - means I save even more.

So basically this long rambling comment in answer to your comment is - you have to look both at the energy consumption of the individual appliance and how to best reduce that AS WELL AS how you yourself interact and live with the appliance to truly get the best savings "fit" for your lifestyle.

 

At times like this, reducing financial stress is key. Painting one's roof white is one of the cheapest yet cost-effective ways to reduce utility bills, from a total savings perspective and from a time-input standpoint.

DebtGoal

 

It's the CFLS. Changing less than 10 bulbs have dramtically cut my kilowatt usage. I need to look into the powerstrip option next.Any good source?