Conserving Electricity

You've heard many tips before on how to conserve electricity. Shut off the lights when you leave the room. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Don't set your fridge or freezer colder than necessary. Wash your clothes in cold water instead of hot. Use a fan instead of an AC. Use a space heater to heat only the room you are in (better yet, use a wood stove). Improve your home insulation and perform an energy audit to find where you are loosing your heat. However, there are probably many more things you can do, and as you move to a completely sustainable lifestyle these tips become more and more important. If you wish to replace your electric bill with a solar or wind system you need to be able to minimize your electricity use, since the size of the system you require will depend on your power usage.  Here are a few of the lesser known tips:

Phantom Power:
You may have heard the term before. It is also referred to as vampire power. Your appliances/devices consume power even if they are powered off. For example, your television needs to be constantly ready to receive a signal from the remote to power on. Appliances like microwaves and ovens need to be ready to go at the push of a button. If you have several devices consuming phantom power (consider your television, cable box, DVD/Blue Ray player, gaming consoles) this can add up to a fair amount of power. You can measure this phantom power draw using a cheap and easy to use Watt meter, like a Kill-A-watt. This device will tell you in an instant how much power is being drawn whether it is powered on or off. Some models will even let you input the cost of electricity in your area and convert the power consumed into dollars. To avoid wasting unnecessary electricity and reduce your electric bill you can install a surge protector with a built in timer. A timer will allow you to automatically shut off your devices at night or while you are away.

Hot Water Heater (on-demand or timer):
An excellent solution for reducing the power consumed by your hot water heater is to install an on-demand hot water heater.  Most of the power wasted by your hot water heater comes from storing large amounts of hot water. Heat is slowly lost due to poor insulation or through the pipes. The water must be re-heated periodically to replace the heat lost. You can reduce this loss by insulating your hot water heater and hot water pipes. An on-demand hot water heater nearly eliminates this problem. With an on-demand hot water heater (also called a tank-less hot water heater) water is heated as it is used and you do not face heat loss. The disadvantage to on-demand hot water heaters is that they must either use natural gas, or a very large current if electric. The current required for an electric on-demand hot water heater ranges from 25-113 Amps, which is not feasible in most households unless the circuit has been specifically designed for this high load. Personally, I don't see natural gas as a sustainable fuel. Peak oil is rapidly approaching and peak natural gas is not far behind. Today, it may be cheaper to use natural gas, but what happens when that resource runs out? What happens when there is a natural disaster and the gas main breaks? If you cannot mine the natural gas from your own property then it is not sustainable. So, unless your home is already wired to support a high current an on-demand water heater might not be the best solution for you.
A good alternative to an on-demand hot water heater is to install a hot water timer. Just like a programmable power strip, you can set your hot water heater to turn off while you are away, on vacation, or asleep. A typical hot water heater only takes 30 minutes to warm up, so you can set it to turn on 30 minutes before your shower then shut off. This will not only save electricity and on your electric bill, but it will also extend the life of your hot water heater. You could also install a smaller capacity (cheaper) hot water heater since you will be heating the water just before use. Larger hot water heaters are better at retaining heat, but this is not necessary when you are only heating the water when you need it. A common myth about water heater timers is that more electricity is required to fully heat a cold hot water heater than to maintain a constant hot temperature. This is simply not true. The electricity required to provide a given amount of hot water depends on the heat lost between the time you heat it and the time you use it. The greater the difference in temperature between the water and the outside air, the faster the heat loss from the water heater. Thus, the more energy wasted when the tank is kept hot. The trick to using a hot water heater timer is to identify the best heating schedule that works for you. No one wants to be stuck without hot water just because they decided to wake up earlier or later than usual.

Thermal Mass:
Water is excellent at storing energy. It is slow to change temperature, so it will absorb heat during the day and slowly release it at night. Storing large amounts of water can be a great way to reduce your heating bill at night. As the temperature drops, the water will slowly release its stored heat to help regulate the temperature in your home. Warning: water can get pretty heavy. Before storing large amounts, you should add up the weight and see if it is reasonable for where you are planning on storing it. Water weighs 8 lbs per gallon, so a 55 gallon barrel of water weighs over 440 lbs. Storing a couple barrels of water in a high rise condo might not be the best idea. When possible, distribute the weight or add support beams if necessary. Storing water to help regulate the temperature in the garage is an excellent option. Thermal mass is an added benefit of aquaponics, which we'll discuss in future posts.

Hopefully you learned a few things from this post. I look forward to sharing more sustainability tips with you soon and hope to hear your sustainability stories and feedback in the comments. Thanks!

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