More Ways To Conserve Energy?

berniecase asks: "I live up in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm trying to find more ways to conserve electricity. Thus far, I've installed compact fluorescent lights from Lights of America in the most heavily used fixtures in my apartment and I've tried to use less lighting and heat to keep the bills down, and keep the Californians with electricity. I'm curious as to what others are doing? What about LED lighting and such? Are there other things I can do to conserve electricity and what kinds of suggestions would /. readers have for me and others?"

Comments

Leaking power

[Anonymous Coward]

Many devices leak power (have standby power use). All those AC adapters (even when the gadget they power is off), your instant-on TV, the cable box, and your VCR use electricity even when they are "off". So, don't just turn it off, unplug it too!

Ref: http://eetd.lbl.gov/Standby/Articles/Purdue.html

Printed Material

[bluelip]

Is reading printed material a true saving of energy? How much power is really saved? It seems that printing would use more energy(and resources),

Power saving (fp too?)

[FLaMeBoY]

Probably the biggest amount of energy could be saved by using a solar water heating setup. This of course might not be possible (say in apartments/rental property) but saves a huge amount of power. Here in New Zealand where we have pretty cheap electricity solar water heaters pay for themselves off in a year or two in most places. The initial cost can be a bit off putting but your local government/power board might offer incentives. Some of the newer ones here are pretty awesome and need absolutely stuff all maintaining (most use anodes inside them which need replacing every few years, depending on water quality/ plumbing/usage etc). If this is too much get some thermal wrapping for your existing hot water piping and adjust the thermometer. Hope this helps a bit. I studied efficient housing last year, and know people who install this stuff incase you are wondering.

Check out HomePower

[OlympicSponsor]

It's a magazine and a website. It's mostly about how to setup your own renewable (largely solar, some wind, a little "other") energy generation. But they've also got some tips/tools for reducing usage.
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