Saving money around the house

Since we're all feeling the pinch of gas prices (gas, propane, fuel oil, etc), what's everyone doing to help out? I've been spending more time on ecomodder.com and some of the other sites people have posted on there for solar, wind, geothermal, and other energy sources. Trying to soak up info and plan some changes to the house to help cut down heating and electric bills to help out. Of course I used fuel oil to heat, so anything I can do to reduce that cost will help a lot.

So far I have:

• switched almost all light bulbs to CFLs
• replaced 8 windows
• foam sealed cracks in the basement
• caulked around windows
• stuffed insulation and weather stripping where ever I can

I'm planning on:

• new doors (metal, insulated, framed) to replace ALL of the current ones
• dehumidifier to dry out basement and maybe get rid of the dampness cooling the house/making my water heater controls short out
• replace more windows
• new roof (not sure what kind would be best: shingle, metal, etc)
• some sort of solar setup to reduce electric or produce hot water. not sure yet on that
• researching geothermal
• maybe switching to an electric on-demand water heater so I can shut the furnace off spring through fall
• maybe heating with biodiesel made myself

Anyone else have good ideas or things they've done themselves and know work? I've noticed a difference in how much cooler the house is with new windows, but I'm waiting to see how much of an improvement they make in the winter.

Cheap ideas would be great! lol I'm looking at 10g's to have someone do my roof, 11g's to "encapsulate" the basement (hell, I'll try a $100 dehumidifier first), and the list goes on.

 

yup.
i dont run the AC as much only at night when people are at the house.
replaced wheater stripping on all outside doors.
run fans alot more often.
compact flouresent bulbs in all the house.
and sealed the attic crawl door off with some more insulation.
theres a few more but i always lose track
oh yeah and the hot water heater is set to stop making hot water after a certain time of day.

 

How did you do that? I've been thinking about getting a different controller for my furnace. Not the standard one it came with, but one with indoor and outdoor temp sensors so it'll adjust the set point to be most efficient. I wonder if I could make it ignore calls from the water heater at certain times.....

You made me remember my AC! We bought a new one from Lowes this summer. Energy Star rated, thermostat control, fan-only mode, and a vent to recirc air, recirc/draw in fresh air, and exhaust inside air/draw in fresh air. It turns itself on and off to maintain temp, will auto-select the required fan speed (low, med, high), and only kick the compressor on if needed. It's kinda cool hearing it kick on low, then speed up the fan, then kick on the compressor when fan-only isn't enough. Nice part is it cools our entire upstairs, and dries out the whole house enough to make it feel cooler. All that and it doesn't run 24x7 until shut off like our old one.

 

well you can buy a hot water heater. avaliable at lowes. pretty good actually. we have one and a device that came with our water heater. and as for the thermostat is it electrically controlled? thats what we have. its set to come on during certain times of the day and night. its all programed. pretty easy to do once ya read the manual. and its got an override feature if anyone in the house gets too hot at night.

 

Go to all of your newer appliances and set them on the "eco" mode that a lot of them have. It's not much, but every little bit helps.

 

yeah forgot about eco mode. that will help some too.

 

on demand, tankless water heaters are the way to go

google it

 

the ones ive seen at lowes are mostly for 1 person but i guess it could help out alot

 

I've been reading up on them. Seems like there's conflicting info though. Some say you need X amount of water pressure, some say no hard water (we have city water, but lots of buildup on an electric tea kettle from it), and there is a big range in power draw from what I've seen. One I saw at Lowes would've required me to upgrade the main electric service to the house! I have 100amp, and I think it needed/recommended 150 or 200. Not to mention running 220 wiring for it. Seems like a lot of initial costs if I do it:

• upgrade house electric
• run wiring for heater
• water softener
• other misc plumbing

I'd really like to do I think, but there seems to be so much work involved I want to do it right ya know? And I can't get a straight answer about what's required.

 

Our new window AC is the only thing with an "eco" mode.

I find myself paying more attention to Energy Star and similar logos when buying things now though.

 

best bet would be to ask a sales rep. one thats been there a good time with experience. dont ask any new guys. they wont know jackshit

 

I was thinking an installer would be better. How many times to salesmen really know everything about their products? Look at car salesmen!

 

well they have gas and electric

http://www.rheemtankless.com/content/

you could go with a heat pump, ac in summer and heat in winter
some electric co. will let you finance (added to monthly bill ) when you upgrade



timbaland - the way i are

 

I put up curtains in my bedroom and computer room. That's about it. I rent so I didn't even want to do that, but the curtains dropped the temp in the computer room by 5 degrees. I still have to run the A/C all day long while I'm at work and it will still be 80+ degrees when I get home. I'm used to it though since I work outside the majority of the day and it's been like this since I moved in. First summer I moved in it would hit 100+ inside my place.

 

• CFL's throughout
• Follow the kids from room to room, shutting off anything they turn on
• I stay outside as much as possible (uses less electricity)
• I run the ceiling fans constantly

 

I had the Blown in Cellulose Insulation put in the exterior walls along with the attic. Makes a huge difference on my heating & cooling. House is all electric with an energy effieceint heat pump. My power bill every month has been $95-$110 (not on budget billing). All lights were replaced with the CFL bulbs. My new frig is energy star compliant, So is the front load washer, & my LCD TV.

Installed a honeycomb celular shade in my bedroom. It insulates the window.

To get my shower hot, 2 gallons of water were being wasted (we are on strict water restrictions). So now I fill 2 empty gallon jugs from the bathtub hot water spicket. I use the water on plants in my yard.

I subscribe to e-newsletter Low impact living. Good info on this site. http://www.lowimpactliving.com/

Check this out also:
http://www.energystar.gov/

 

I yell at the kids to turn lights off too. lol

The people that lived in this house before must have never left at night. Only 2 outside lights: front door and side door. Nothing on the barn, deck, or screened porch. Rather than drill holes, run wires through the walls, and mount fixtures I've thought about doing some low voltage lights off a couple car batteries with a solar panel or two to recharge the batteries. Put lights around my deck without adding to the electric bill.

 

yeah man just use solar lights. they are great.

 

I've been reading up on things at these sites:

http://www.builditsolar.com/
http://www.homepower.com/home/
http://www.solarhome.org/solarpowerforum.html

I had a nice writeup by a guy using low voltage lights (since they use 12V DC) to light up a fire pit, recharge a car battery via solar, come on when the sunset, and go off a few hours later. Be damned if I can find it now!

 

If you have central heating and cooling replace the filters often. You'd be surprised how clogged up those things will get over a short amount of time.