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I've had a guest staying with me the last few days, and she's had to adjust to things that for me have become routine. She's used to all her creature comforts, hot water from the tap, toasters and ovens and kettles, in short, the highly inefficient, wasteful way of living. I don't do it quite like that at my place. To start with, it can get humid here in the tropics.
Most people have air conditioning, not me, I have a couple of desk fans. You actually have to go and get one from where ever you used it last and face it towards yourself, but it's very effective and uses 1/20th the amount of power an air conditioner uses.
I disconnected my hot water system, because it ran constantly, always boiling water so there's always hot water, not just when it's needed, but all the time. Instead, I have three 20L solar camping showers that have to be lowered and filled in the morning. The water is hot in two hours, scalding by noon, and still hot enough to bathe with for a couple of hours after sunset.
I'm actually really starting to enjoy waking up and having a cold shower in the morning with tap water from my regular shower, and scrubbing down properly in the evening with hot water from the solar showers with a loofah and tea tree soap (which is made organically locally, by the way.) And my sheets stay cleaner because I'm cleaner when I go to bed. Simple stuff. If you get your day's grime all over your sheets every night, you've got to use more power washing them more often. Little things.
I have a propane camp stove with a kettle on it to boil water quickly and fairly efficiently and rather cleanly if I need boiling water in a hurry, though it's mostly used to boil a kettle in the morning for shaving and washing and making a cup of tea or two. You can't just flick a switch, you have to unpack the stove, set it up, use it and pack it up again.
There's no conventional stoves tops, microwaves or ovens of any sort at my house. I have a solar oven I used to use for camping that sits on a window ledge for the afternoon, slow roasting whatever I want for dinner, using the most consistent source of free energy in the tropics, sunlight. Ever had fresh caught fish baked in foil, swimming in butter, lemongrass, limejuice and course black pepper? It tastes good, but slowroasted in a solar oven it's something else again, it melts in your mouth. Everything does. And you can live halfway to artic circle and a solar oven will still work for you, just so you know. Think how much money never using your oven again would save.
Then there's all the simple things, like converting your incandescent and halogen lighting to either long life fluro bulbs or LEDs, these are pretty simple DIY jobs that millions of people have already done for themselves that don't require any extra work once they're done, they just use less power and save you money.
If you think about it, there's so many ways you can save money by reducing the amount of power you use at home, with the added benefit (some consider it the most important benefit,) of reducing the amount of energy you require to run your house. I'm just curious, for a forum with so many people who're investigating free energy, how many of you go to extra lengths to reduce your dependence on and use of grid power at home? How many of you do think about your energy consumption? What gear do you have/use at home? What tips do you have on how to save power? What devices use the most power in your home? Got any fuel saving tips? Anything at all to get people thinking about how they use mains supplied electrical energy in and around the home, and ways to cut back on their use.
(Although it needs to be said, domestic energy use isn't the biggest offender where waste is concerned, but anyway, lets be accountable for ourselves and our domestic use before we point the finger at industrial waste.)
Most people have air conditioning, not me, I have a couple of desk fans. You actually have to go and get one from where ever you used it last and face it towards yourself, but it's very effective and uses 1/20th the amount of power an air conditioner uses.
I disconnected my hot water system, because it ran constantly, always boiling water so there's always hot water, not just when it's needed, but all the time. Instead, I have three 20L solar camping showers that have to be lowered and filled in the morning. The water is hot in two hours, scalding by noon, and still hot enough to bathe with for a couple of hours after sunset.
I'm actually really starting to enjoy waking up and having a cold shower in the morning with tap water from my regular shower, and scrubbing down properly in the evening with hot water from the solar showers with a loofah and tea tree soap (which is made organically locally, by the way.) And my sheets stay cleaner because I'm cleaner when I go to bed. Simple stuff. If you get your day's grime all over your sheets every night, you've got to use more power washing them more often. Little things.
I have a propane camp stove with a kettle on it to boil water quickly and fairly efficiently and rather cleanly if I need boiling water in a hurry, though it's mostly used to boil a kettle in the morning for shaving and washing and making a cup of tea or two. You can't just flick a switch, you have to unpack the stove, set it up, use it and pack it up again.
There's no conventional stoves tops, microwaves or ovens of any sort at my house. I have a solar oven I used to use for camping that sits on a window ledge for the afternoon, slow roasting whatever I want for dinner, using the most consistent source of free energy in the tropics, sunlight. Ever had fresh caught fish baked in foil, swimming in butter, lemongrass, limejuice and course black pepper? It tastes good, but slowroasted in a solar oven it's something else again, it melts in your mouth. Everything does. And you can live halfway to artic circle and a solar oven will still work for you, just so you know. Think how much money never using your oven again would save.
Then there's all the simple things, like converting your incandescent and halogen lighting to either long life fluro bulbs or LEDs, these are pretty simple DIY jobs that millions of people have already done for themselves that don't require any extra work once they're done, they just use less power and save you money.
If you think about it, there's so many ways you can save money by reducing the amount of power you use at home, with the added benefit (some consider it the most important benefit,) of reducing the amount of energy you require to run your house. I'm just curious, for a forum with so many people who're investigating free energy, how many of you go to extra lengths to reduce your dependence on and use of grid power at home? How many of you do think about your energy consumption? What gear do you have/use at home? What tips do you have on how to save power? What devices use the most power in your home? Got any fuel saving tips? Anything at all to get people thinking about how they use mains supplied electrical energy in and around the home, and ways to cut back on their use.
(Although it needs to be said, domestic energy use isn't the biggest offender where waste is concerned, but anyway, lets be accountable for ourselves and our domestic use before we point the finger at industrial waste.)
after posting this thread and seeing that photo, I've just had the best idea for a rooftop solar powered small scale 240v AC and hot water system 
Cheers, universe!
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