Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Saving Money On Home Energy

Devices that can help reduce energy usage?
1. Wrapping your water heater in an insulating blanket.
2. Surge protectors - is another great way to reduce energy.

Camille Martin (Camile): A lot of digital equipment (stereos, TV's, computers, etc) or anything with a display, light or some form of memory will use energy all the time while plugged in. If those devices were plugged into surge protectors, you can turn the strip off and reduce your energy bill.


Prince of Thrift (POT): What keeps the utility company from raising rates, because they are losing revenue, because of the reduction of energy use (that they are encouraging their customers to do)?

Tom Lienhard (TOM): Decoupling. Something that even President Obama has encouraged. Which, separates the delivery from the energy use, which forces the energy companies to find lower costs of energy production. If a company doesn't do this voluntarily, they will probably be forced to by the government.

POT: What about using battery powered devices instead of electrical?

Tom: Use of batteries would be way more expensive. Battery power would translate into about $5 per kilowatt hour (KWH), whereas electrical devices would only be (depending on your local area) about 7 cents/kWh.

POT: What about using the tankless water heaters?

Tom: A tankless, will cost about $700 more then a traditional water heater, and will save you about $80/year. Not very much, but when you consider a tankless lasts 2.5 times longer then a traditional water heater, and is paid for in the traditional heaters life span, then it is a huge savings in the long run.
Traditional water heater should be replaced every 10-years.
Tankless water heaters replacements are every 25-years.

Westar Energy in Topeka says that phantom load (or standby) accounts for ~5% of consumption in a US household.

That is why it is important to turn off computers, TV's and other devices when they are not in use. In addition, plug them into a surge protector and turn the power strip off to, to prevent using that standby energy that continues to cost us even though we aren't using it. Another tip, unplug your cell phone chargers when they aren't charging your phone(s). They have nothing to tell the transformers in them that their isn't a phone connected. Which means, it is still charging, even if a phone isn't connected.

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