[CarlinsDarlin]

Not as much as I would have liked, but better than the past...

Replaced many bulbs in the house with compact flourescents.

Increased insulation in some of the house (north wall), and as a temporary measure for the winter, we put plastic over the windows to help with lost energy through our very old windows. One of my future projects (money allowing) is to replace those windows.

While we own two vehicles, the one with poor gas mileage has not been driven since we bought it more than a couple times. It's basically a work truck for around the farm, and we have plans to sell it anyway. My other car gets about 40 miles to the gallon, as opposed to 20something in the one that is not used.

I quit my paying job, which formerly had me communting 1.5 hours one way to work 3 times a week. Now, I'm mostly at home, and if I need to do any errands "in town" I ride in with my husband when he goes to work. His employer is a mere 10 minutes drive to work, so I figure we've saved substantially in energy used just by my staying at home.

Since we're in a very rural and non-bike-friendly location (many hills and curves make it dangerous to ride on our road), and there is NO public transportation - that's about the best we can do for now, but we have consolidated trips greatly, and only travel when necessary. For example, my husband will do any shopping we need done on the way to, or from, work, so we rarely use the car on weekends at all.

We grew much of our own food this year, and we're still eating off much of what I canned over the summer. During the next year, since I'll be at home, I hope to be able to garden more intensively, and produce a greater amount of what we need.

We added on a deck using entirely salvaged materials from another deck that a family member tore down. In doing so, we saved a few trees, and the energy used to transport the lumber to the store, so I felt good about it. We also used mostly salvaged materials to build our new chicken house and coop. The 8x8 stud building, with metal roof and insulation, and 16x24 chicken run only cost us $150 in new materials. I would have built it entirely from salvaged materials had I had the time to scrounge, but our 25 new laying hens were coming quickly and we had a deadline to have housing for them.

My goals for this year include construction of a greenhouse (I believe I have enough materials scrounged that I won't need to buy much), improving more insulation in the house, and re-doing our roof. The roof will be all new material, of course, but it will help with our energy efficiency. As I mentioned before, I also plan to garden more intensively and see just how much I can manage to contribute to our yearly food supply.

Great thread... I'd like to hear more. I've gotten ideas from other posts.
Kathy

[katkinkate]

[quote="JoeW"]
Your comment about the insulation on the hot water heater exit pipe has gotten me to thinking... I have hot water heat, and our basement is always warm because of the hot water pipes running down there. I wonder if our system would be more efficient if we insulated the sections of pipe in our basement.
Fuel oil is now $1.69/gallon in our area.[/quote]

Or keep the door to your basement open to let the heat circulate throughout the house.

[nznutter]

Insulated hot water pipes in house.

Weather Stripped Windows to block draughts.

Replaced all incandescant light bulbs with CFLs.

Bought a heat pump for heating, ducted thoughout the house. Much more efficient than convector heaters.

Sold one car. Down to one which is only used for necessities.

Take the Bus to work.

Walk rather than take the car when travelling less than 2km.

To do in 2005 ....

Solar water heating

More insulation in the ceiling

More insulation under wooden floors

Purchase a more energy efficient car - current one gets 30mpg

[mindfarkk]

when i lived in florida most of my apartments used electric hot water heaters. i used to save a TON of money (i.e., energy) by 1) throwing a blanket around thte tank and 2) flipping the breaker off when i left the house, then turning it back on when i got home. took about 20 minutes to get hot water back, but that's not too long to wait.

[everything-is-fine]

I've almost completely given up lying around the house all day in shorts and a T-Shirt during the winter time with the heater blasting to keep me warm. Now I wear a layer or two of sweats around the house when I'm trying to be comfortable.

I control the heat, -and pay for the electricity, for my house and the basement apartment below. Even so, -the other day, my downstairs tenant went out and bought his own wood so that he could build a fire to keep warm. OK, so, you can see that I'm a crappy landlord, -but I have certainly reduced my electricity bill.

And I constantly drag the company I work for in the direction of paperlessness. By simply convincing them that we could use scanned PDFs instead of hard copy back-ups of all our signed documentation, I conserved at least 400,000 sheets of paper last year.

I've also given up those wasteful drives to the gym and back every day. I could have used the exercise, but the earth comes first.

[Bytesmiths]

I converted Veggie Van Gogh to run on waste vegetable oil (WVO), which I harvest for free from restaurants. We used over 300 gallons of WVO while crossing North America last summer!

<i>Unfortunately, that was only about a third of the total fuel use, due to unforseen circumstances. Next year, the goal is 100% fossil-fuel-free!</i>

We got rid of two gasoline vehicles and replaced them with diesels that we only use biodiesel in. That took us from 21 mpg average to 32 mpg average for our 'round town' vehicles.

We strive to do most driving in the 85 Jetta, which gets 40+ mpg, unless we need to move something big, then the 89 Dodge Cummins (24 mpg) gets used, or if we're staying overnight, then we use Veggie Van Gogh, which gets 13-17 mpg, depending on how patient you are (at 65 and 50 mph, respectively).

I just rescued a fine 1982 diesel Vanagon that I'm planning to convert to WVO.

[eastbay]

Rather than start another thread... there are really too many duplicate topic threads here...

We just received our PG & E bill for February and spent $12.55 on the gas component of the bill for the month. I realize we live in a temperate cliamte so this may mean little to those in colder areas, but a typical family in our area spends well over $100. We wore sweaters and hung the clothes to dry rarely using the heater or dryer. We made it just fine and will do the same next year.

The big natural gas use in our house is the hot water heater. It's turned down as far as I dare. I looked into replacing it but it would take 15 to 20 years to re-coup the initial investment in gas saving, so early replacement isn't going to happen... maybe when the one we have quits.

I'm sure others have made significant reductions in their home energy use... this is ours so far. We plan to not use the home AC this Summer even though it often gets over 100 in this valley.

EastBay

[Bytesmiths]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'T')he big natural gas use in our house is the hot water heater... I looked into replacing it but it would take 15 to 20 years to re-coup the initial investment in gas saving...

[eastbay]

The small electric water heaters used in Asia and Europe would be ideal but the cost of installing them in all the places hot water is used would be really high.

Certainly an 'energy efficient' stand-up replacement water heater is the way to go... but I'm not too sure how 'efficient' they are. The one we have came with the house and is 10 years old. Maybe technology has improved on them since then. It's certainly wasteful to have all that hot water constantly being heated whether we use it or not. I would like to get away from that nonsense.

EastBay

[Licho]

- didnt use car, walking and train instead
- eating less meat
- didnt buy any extra stuff (basically i'm saving, spending means I'm wasting more energy)

and my ecology footprint is down to 1 planet

[Madpaddy]

I sit all day in a darkened room and eat no food. I don't go to work anymore thereby saving fuel in the car. The wife and kids think I am so odd that they have left me which has reduced the foodbill to zero. No heat on or lights day or night. I wrap myself in a blanket and tinfoil. I turn on computer once a day to check on this website. This consumes about 200watts of power. So approx 73kwh per year of electricity. I would buy a solar panel to supply this but as I have no job I have no money and it's only a matter of time before the house is repossessed.



Hmmm, I shouldn't tempt fate.

[JBinKC]

I now replace my 60w incandescents with 15w CFLs. I bought them on ebay for a $1.20 with shipping apiece. Not a bad deal.

I used 25% less natural gas than in the previous year and I don't think the heating degrees varied much from the prior year either. I did really nothing but lower the temp to 60 F and wore layers of fleece clothing bought at a thrift store. I figure the clothing was a great return on investment. I also turn off my gas off a little earlier and later in the year too and I use oil filled space heaters which I figure use as much energy as the blower on my furnace.

One thing I am going to do is move from where I live eventually. The house is old and so inefficient and any low cost fixes to improve efficiency really hasn't helped much in savings.

[pea-jay]

I replaced but all but two bulbs with CFs and got a woodstove to replace the 1940's era floor furnace (gas). I also sold one of my two cars and did not replace it.

[PeakOiler]

In 2004? I planted more trees. One apple, one pear, and two peach.
This year I planted three more peach trees and a grape vine. I now have over 19 trees, including pecan, lime, and lemon. I plan on planting about 80 more trees over the next few years.

Last year, I also bought my first solar electric panel, only 36 watts, and I have used it to power one 23 watt CFB nearly every night for a few hours.
This eliminated the need to run two ceiling CFBs over my computer/workstation/stereo/synthesizer keyboard. Total cost for the PV, including the inverter, charge controller, and battery: about $700.

Since I first started learning about PO in 1999, I have managed to reduce my home energy use (a 3-2, all electric--no NG, propane, or fuel oil), by about 55%.

In 2004, I averaged 430 kw-hr/mo. In 1999, I averaged 942 kw-hr/mo. Power down. It's not that hard to do. Only buy "Energy Star" rated appliances. Use CFBs. The woodstove has been largely fueled by recycling aluminum cans and buying firewood. The small swimming pool reduces the need to run the AC in the summer.

The solar water heater reduced the home electric use by about 25-29%.

My house is so energy friendly that the energy savings allows me to further invest in even more things such as the rainwater collection system that has so far supplied my house with water since before Christmas, 2004.

The hybrid Honda Insight has been great for the pocketbook too.

My income? Just under $50K/yr.

No kids.

[ECM]

I become a vegan for 3 months during 2004. I currently eat meat/fish about once per weak and live a vegan diet 5-6 days most weeks.

I rarely ever run the heat/air conditioning.

I recently started recycling my plastic bottles and some glass jars myself. That means fewer trips to the store and less waste other than water/soap for cleaning.

I exercise 30+ minutes 4-6 days per week so as to improve/maintain my health and be less of a burden (medically resource intensive) person.

I have cut my consumption of non-necessities to almost nothing.

I buy much of my food from bulk bins. Far less packaging waste that way.

[nailud]

I haven't done this yet, but check out this website:

Cool N Save

I saw an ad on TV, and my first impression was, "Yeah, right.", but after reading how it works on their website, it makes sense. Has anyone ever tried one of these?

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

I moved to a place where the kids could use a school bus instead of being driven.

I wrapped my hot water tank in insulation and replaced all the insulation in the bathroom area. I also insulated under my bath tub and put up a moisture barrier.

I left my car when I moved and plan to use public transportation and my bikes (scooter and pedal). Which isn't actually much of a change for me.

My next step is to put flow regulators on the shower head, and to switch to an electric furnace from natural gas (my city has its own hydro electric dam).

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nailud', 'I') haven't done this yet, but check out this website:

Cool N Save

I saw an ad on TV, and my first impression was, "Yeah, right.", but after reading how it works on their website, it makes sense. Has anyone ever tried one of these?

[Revi]

What we’re doing to get ready for peak oil:

We use energy in our household in many ways. Our strategy is to cut our energy use through conservation and efficiency and to replace as much of our fossil fueled energy with renewables as possible. It makes sense, because the price of the fossil fuels will go up as they get more scarce. Our efforts have kept our bills stable even though the price has gone up considerably.

1) We shrunk both our cars. I went from a Toyota T-100 to a Ford Ranger and my wife went from a Subaru Outback to a Toyota Echo. We both saved 10 mpg. We figure we save $2000 a year in reduced operating costs, insurance and gas.

2) We insulated our basement and wrapped the hot air ducts. We replaced windows and tightened up any places air could get in. We can keep the cellar cooler and use the woodstove more, because we’re not afraid of having the pipes freeze downstairs.

3) Electricity costs- Unplugged vampires, installed new high efficiency washer, replaced several parts on our oil burner and put in compact fluorescents.

4) We switched our energy to Green Power. This was not entirely for cuteness. The power is from renewables, and is locked in at 8 cents a kilowatt hour. This is one cent more than this year, but it’s locked in for 3 years. The price may go up.

5) Installed a very efficient small woodstove with its own installed fluepipe.

6) Bought a woodlot and have harvested it sustainably for the past 5 years. One cord of wood is worth about 200 gallons of heating oil. We also make maple syrup that is used as bicycle fuel.

7) Built a small woodshed to hold one cord of wood for household heating.

We are installing solar hot water heating. It should supplant about 40% of our water heating costs. Works best in the spring, summer and fall.

9) We installed a small DC solar system which powers nightlights, a radio and other small things. It could charge a cell phone or a laptop if needed. We had a power outage and were the only ones with lights in our neighborhood.

10) Our small garden provides some veggies and our compost feeds the soil.

11) We live in town and walk downtown for most of our needs.

12) We bought a moped which gets about 100 miles a gallon. Even if gas goes to $10 a gallon we’ll use it to get groceries. It has baskets.

All of these things are fun and save energy. We’ll see what happens!

[Revi]

Broke a spoke on the moped. Hard to find somebody to fix it... Maybe a regular bicycle would work better...