substitutions

Substitutions for energy hogs.
This page as incomplete as it may look now,
will eventually have a wealth of information available to help us get rid of the energy hogs that at one time made our life sweet and now have made our life a living hell trying to pay to keep them powered.
We also offer tips to reduce power where you can.
Not in order of importance.

Clothes dryer alternatives:

Hang your clothes outside is best .
Hang your clothes inside too.
Gas dryers are better then none.Clothes dryers that work from hot water heating, they still use 120 volts to turn the clothes, but no longer need the 20 amp electrical heating element to warm the clothes as they dry. I understand this as a retrofit for the dryer you already own. We have not purchsed one of these but offer it as a suggestion.
http://www.outdoorfurnaces.com/beforeyoubuy/clothesdryer.html

Solar water heating for space heating and potable hot water

check out Home power magazine every issue someone like you or me builds their own solar water heater, it has detailed diagrams for the setup ,coloured pictures, and story.
You can also purchase one of our efficient solar water heaters that let the sun heat your water.
It is normal to get hot water even on cloudy days and on winter days.
The super heater can heat your home when you use in floor water heat.

12 volt electrical elements

We do sell 12 volt electrical elements great for diverting exess power you have made to a useful cause, like water heating

Refrigerators

At present there are actually some manufacturers of AC refrigerators, that do use less electricity.
Avoid the manufacturers of "low watt" fridges who want $3000.00 for a small low watt appliance they are ripoff artists and prey on small markets.
Avoid ice makers, water dispensers, side by side units they are all just about convenience and show. And use way more electricty then what an alternate system can handle.
There are some *energy star* fridges that do actually have a low consumption of power, try the bottom freezer units, they make sense, since cold air falls.....hot air rises.
But for reference to what is low consumption...a true low watt fridge or freezer is one that uses less then 100 watts /hour. It is very possible for all main stream fridges to use those amounts of power but the companies who usually sell these appliances also sell power in the USA. So the last thing they want is a fridge that looses them money on power bills.
We hope to have some low watt fridges and freezers some time this year that are priced the same as any regular fridge or freezer on the market.
Propane units use little or no electricity. and have been around for a long time.
Look in the future for amonia appliances that work by heating the amonia and the natural cooling process works to keep the appliance cool too.

Stoves

Replace your electric with gas or propane. Or the best is a solar cooker, or barbecue in the summer. We use propane for cooking, they are reliable, very cheap it costs us $120. year to operate. My wife uses it at least 2 hours a day. Sometimes she uses it for 4 - 6 hours.
Works with no hydro if we want, cooks foods faster, and is cooler in the kitchen then the electric stove that takes so long to heat up.
Just pay attention to how much electricity the oven ignitor uses ..some stay on through the whole oven "on" cycle and use 600 watts/hr. Mind you this is still far better then 9600 watts for an electric stove but if you want to use no electricity don't be fooled by this. You may have to have your oven altered to operate like a RV oven.
Wood cook stoves are nice but not for everyone.

Well pumps

There are many companies that do make deep well 12v and 24v DC water pumps.
Some of these are very efficient and will go along way when trying to save power when converting to wind and solar.
Do your homework and don't settle for anything less...it may take longer to find one but in the end it is a item that you don't replace everyday. So big energy savings is the way to go.

Water heat

Water heating is on its way back in for a prime heating method for your home office or workspace.
Heating from solar panels, wood fired water heat , propane or oil fired (bio diesel).
In floor heating is the best as the temperature needed to heat your home is much cooler then that of the water radiator.
in floor water heat = 80 -90 F degrees.
water radiator heat = 140 -180 F degrees.
This means savings when paying to heat the water, or buy a device to heat the water which will keep you warm.
Solar water is now a viable in-floor heat option as either a suppliment or mainstay for the entire season.

Lightbulbs

This should be a commonly known thing by now but just in case it isn't.
Change your bulbs from incandescent to low watt florescent.
This 1 single act of conversion can reduce your light power consumption down to 1/5th of what you were using.
Also the low watt AC bulbs last for years.
We are still using low watt bulbs from 1992. We have never had one burn out yet.
We have broke some but never had one burn out.
So they do pay off, in many, many different ways.

Power bars

These handy little units are sold everywhere now and have replaced the standard extension cord we all used to use.
These are very useful for "phantom loads".
Phantom loads are loads such as flashing VCR or DVD lights, clocks, TV's, (they use power as we sleep and they are turned off).
By plugging all these items into a powerbar (some of us have these with lightning protection for our expensive toys..satellite,TV,stereo, computors etc.) we can then control the phantom loads by shutting the power switch off on the entire bar when we are not using the devices that are plugged into them.
Flashing VCR or stereo lights that use 15 watts or more each may not seem like much but X that by 24 hrs =360 watts.
Then take 10 devices that have those phantom loads and that is 3600 watts or 3.6kw of waste that does not do one thing for you. That is now a large amount of power to produce, store and invert to AC for nothing.

Mechanical timers do not use on power bars ...some fail to work properly.

Everyone has seen these in the junk section of Zellers or Canadian tire.
They are a programable timer that plugs into a standard wall socket and you plug lamps or appliances into them.
Yes they do use some electricty...........
But on items such as freezers, they can help you reduce the power and keep a freezer around till its ready to be replaced by controlling the consumption it uses manually.
Some of you already know that when you have a power outage you were able to power your freezer by a generator for only a few hours a day and the contents did not thaw.
Since the freezer in most cases in the common home is opened very rarely(once a day or less).
We are able to program that freezer to run lets say 3 or 4 times a day for 1 hour.
( this needs to be determined by monitoring your freezer to see how long the actual run time is...some run for 30 minutes some for 1.5 hours....and how long it really needs to run to keep things frozen over a 24 hr period).
Then it is up to you to see how little you can run that appliance without ruining its contents(frozen meats, etc).
This is best when the freezer has little or no valuable contents.(nothing or very little in it)
Once you have established that this unit can run on "X" amount of hours per day you then plug it into an appropriate timer and program the freezer to run at the times you specify.
It would be advised to spread these times out evenly over 24hrs.
Example: 4 times a day = every 6 hours, (also factor in the run time in your overall spacing)...so actually every 5 hours if it runs for 1/ hr per time.
This may be also possible on air exchanger motors??? that run 24/7. make them run for 1/2 time everyhour...or 6 times a day????
This can be a good use of a simple device(timer) to keep around some energy hog things that we are not yet ready to part with or can't replace.

Comparative shopping

Next time you buy a TV, VCR or anything.
Check the silver sticker at the back or underneath... (and make sure you remember how to calculate watts used/ per hour for that device or appliance...write it down if you have too).
If it is something you will use regularly, (daily) try to buy the model that will use the least amount of power as well as give you the best service / pleasure.
On a TV if one model saves you 50-75 watts an hour, all of a sudden your satellite and /or VCR are running for free............things to keep in mind.
Do this enough times and you have just saved yourself alot of money in extra wind/solar/batteries/extra inverter capacity. Thats what its all about.

By trimming that fat ( non-required or wastefull consumption of power means thousands of dollars less to buy your alternate system....money that can go to more fun things in your life).

Any suggestions please send them.