SamSpade said:
Has anyone tried saving electricity by:
Upgrading appliances?
Replacing heat pump?
Adding wood stove?
Replacing water heater with one of devices that heats it as needed?
Covering windows with those ugly thermal things?
Getting a programmable thermostat?
Replacing windows?
Use flourescents?
Anything else?
Well, I did replace an old AC system with a new heat pump and new ductwork a couple of months ago. I'm hoping this will drop both heating and cooling costs (I had baseboard electric heaters). But it will take awhile to recoup my $10K expense for this (granted, 40% of that cost was the new ductwork).
I like to use compact flourescents where I can, but it is hard. I have dimmers on many of my lights, which are incompatible with compact flourescent bulbs. Also, annoyingly, the compact flourescents take about 30 seconds to reach full light output. This is bad for lights you switch on and off a lot.
I do have a wood stove, and I do like to use it to keep electric heating costs down. Whenever I have an opportunity to use "free" wood in it, I do. Isabel brought me two nice oak trees, a neighbor had a few trees taken down this spring, and there will be other trees I'll have removed as time goes on. Sure, the chain saw costs money, and the wood splitter rental costs money. But that must reduce my heating costs somewhat.
I like the idea of the inline water heater or whatever it is called. My parents have one, and it works fairly well.
I do have programmable thermostats, but to be honest, I don't utilize the programability. I'm not convinced that for short periodicity it makes sense to cycle the set point up and down. In addition to air in your house, all your "stuff" must be heated and cooled. There is so much thermal inertia in that stuff that I don't know that it makes sense to kick the temperature down in the winter when you aren't home for 8 hrs at work (for example). Maybe I'm wrong.