[Revi]

Great ideas!
Sometimes the simplest things save the most energy. We've done almost all of these things, and more and we save over $2650 every year. We also reduced our fossil fuel use by half and are putting half the carbon into the atmosphere.

Here's what we've done:

http://www.msad54.org/sahs/appliedarts/ ... /index.htm

[Blacksmith]

Good suggestions thanks.

[bodigami]

Most solutions are geographical-specific... they should be compiled and organized in categories.

LED lightbulbs are even more efficient and doesn't have mercury... and there are new developments sometimes, recently the white-light LED bulb.

[BobWallace]

Anyone found reasonably priced LEDs for general home lighting?

Everything that I've found so far is quite expensive.

Well, except for a very nice LED nightlight that turns itself off in daylight for about $2.... ;o)

[BastardSquad]

Ideas "1" and "9" are in direct conflict with one another!

Dimmer switches don't work on CFL's (unless there's been some breakthrough I'm unaware of).

[Revi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('HydroLuver', 'R')evi, great website !!! It gave me a few ideas that I need to look into for my own house.

1) I have a wooded lot and could easily create my own wood temple. I also could add a wood stove.

2) I have not yet done the solar water heater, but I should. There is a local solar company that is advertising about the state and federal tax credits.

[Troyboy1208]

Thanks for saving all that energy! More for me to use

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') have come to understand that increased 'efficiently' and technical 'elegance' within this suburban/automobile system will use up remaining fossil fuels just as fast. Check out Jevon's Paradox.

[aahala]

This energy saving list that started the thread seems pretty
much what was passing around 15 or 20 years ago.

I mislike the attitude of media that one should merely repeat
someone's else work and continue repeatly inaccuracies. Facts change!

Item (2 -- bleeding or standby loss accounts for 40% of
its electrical useage. This claim was probably never true
generally and a whole lot less likely now than years ago.
The issue was well known by the powers that be and
by the early 1990's the government told the appliance
manufacturers to either fix the issue voluntarily or
government mandates would be applied. Anyway,
appliances since then don't have much standby loss.

Item (4 -- save 40% by buying a water heater blanket.
You are not going to save anything close to 40% if your
heater was already built insulated. Most heaters were required
to be insulated as the result of the 1988 "National Appliance
Energy Conversation Act". The first insulation regulation from
that was 1990.

In your particular case, you MAY have one or both of these
problems but you are fairly likely to have neither. I think it
almost deceptive not to mention this in such a printed list.
(The author probably didn't know better as he used the
copy and paste button. Why waste time checking the facts?)

I also don't like the idea to get greener by saving one third on
your hottub! I have a much easier suggestion, how to save
three thirds.

[Ludi]

Yeah, just not bothering to have a lot of these luxuries is the easiest way to conserve both money and energy. Because of Jevon's paradox, we know that conserving energy, unless you generate your own, probably won't do much good in the big picture, but conserving money by not investing in luxuries like hot tubs and AC can enable one to reduce the need to earn, thus reducing production and consumption on the wider scale.

[BobWallace]

Jevon's paradox doesn't hold when considering a commodity that is decreasing in supply. It assumes a constant supply and no external pressures that would increase cost.

Oil supplies are going to decrease. Demand is going to increase (at least in the short/mid term). The few countries that do have significant amounts of oil are going to crank up the price to what the market will bear.

Forget Jevon and all his doxes. He's just a smoke screen thrown up by the severely pessimistic.

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'Y')esplease you made a blanket statement that ignores the defintion you presented. How does the definition imply that "ever increasing resource availability is the only way Jevon's Paradox can always apply" Rather greater efficiency can overtake modest declines.

[yesplease]

Hey, you said it, not me. Course, I'm not surprised that someone who openly comments about such things is a cornocopian.

[Laughs_Last]

I agree with Manu.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'L')ook back 100 years go, and it was American architects, along with structural engineers, who led the world in building innovations.

[dooberheim]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Waterthrush', 'G')reat article. I think that Republicans have so practiced the politics of demonization that every issue has become political - i.e. that even support for "green architecture" implies some implicit value for the environment and also some caution about fuel use. That cannot be conceded by Republicans. Also, there was a paragraph about the good work done by government agencies in passing regulations and planning benchmarks - quelle horreur! This so totally goes against 30 years of propaganda whereby anything originated by governments is wasteful and horrible.