Energy Efficiency at Home : Saving Money & Lowering Emissions

Lower your daily operating costs at home or work or your vehicle operating costs. Energy efficient means doing the same things with lower costs & saving money. Energy efficient like the frugality of electricity & natural gas & hot water. Thinking about how to use less to do the same or more. Negative wattage or reducing energy wasted like hot water down the drain in the winter or hot air out the window or lost through seems & gaps or lack of insulation in the attic or crawlspace or poorly efficient walls & windows that can be easily updated with Low-E film applied like clear so light moves through without wasting heat your paid money to your utility company to make in the winter. Lets explore domestic energy efficient ideas that normal people can make use of daily

So Called Energy Efficient Expert 

I am a scientist with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science from the UW & studied lots of energy efficient concepts back in early 2006 in great detail to understand the global need for greater energy efficient in buildings & homes & vehicles to reduce pollution emissions & to reduce an individual person annual energy consumption so that rooftop solar & domestic wind turbines + a small amount of energy storage could enable development of energy independent homes that only take supplemental power from the grid during extreme winter cold or peak summer heat but do not consume grid power during other parts of the year when their domestic energy production capacity sufficient to power their air source heat pump, heat pump water heater, electronics, EV charging & other loads! 

Save Money At Home

Let's explore some ideas related to real world existing & near term solution that real people can use at home daily to lower their home operating costs & enable living off grid with no reduction in quality of life! Energy efficient vehicles can go further with less energy & energy efficient buildings can stay warmer or cooler with less energy as the seasons change, while still providing hot water & sanitation & proper air exchange without heat losses & energy waste that also waste a person hard earned income or asset yield income from investments or retirement plans for people on fixed or quasi fixed incomes like many seniors in Japan, America & some parts of Europe & Israel etc 

Mini Split Heat Pump 

Air source heat pumps like Mitsubishi mini split can move 5.6 kw heat for AC or warming using 1.3kw electricity & are not capital expensive or hard to install. Watch a YouTube DIY install or call a handyman or carpenter for help with a permitted legal & electrical safe installation. Energy efficient 

Heat Recovery

Hot water in the drain from a hot shower or laundry wasted & can be recovered with a heat exchanger that runs the hot water from the drain & transfers that heat to the cold water intake of the water heater to preheat incoming water using waste heat from drain hot water /

Heat recovery ventilation units preheat incoming cool air with outgoing heated air for energy efficient fresh air exchange units in homes & RV units portable size LED lighting with motion sensor & bath fans with motion sensor can reduce those power using devices energy consumption by 95% or more vs human switch control or older less efficient lighting technology left on more or fans running constantly

One Hot Run 

Laundry loads & showers in one hot run of several hours & then leave the water heater system in a cold state for a couple of days, so the energy consumed for hot water keeps the copper heat exchanger in the instant hot water heater hot for one long run & then cold for a really long time, maximizing life of the instant hot by less thermal cycling, fewer cycles on the values & relays & switching & board logic.

Less Phantom Waste

Efficiency appliances with low phantom always on energy waste, like 1w or less when left plugged in, like power strips that turn off when loads are super low to reduce phantom power loss & energy efficient UPS systems that have low idle power consumption design signwave inverter controllers for dimmable power consumption microwave ovens & bath fans with variable speeds based on humidity of air & auto off when humidity level achieved for no mold bathroom sanitation drying. 

Micro Hydro & Wind

Vertical wind power generators or micro-hydro on properties with natural flower water. Excessing energy made at home can be consumed in an electric insulated water heater like the vacuum insulated spherical tech or heat pump water heater mentioned above or to power switch routers computer chargers or other quasi or semi always on wifi units etc // if extra power not pumped into grid with a grid intertie setup with utility company - the DC can be used to for electrolysis of water to make O2 & H2, where H2 can be pressurized into a tank for high pressure storage & later use as a fuel or in fuel cells or for experiments or materials processing if someone smelting metals at home in a otherwise propane fueled metal furnace or for electric induction melting of metals or salts for heat energy storage // depender on how nerdy & DIY & science focused the projects or hobbies at home get // 

Sunfrost Fridge 

An energy efficient fridge like the Sunfrost units made in California use super insulated doors & shells & walls to minimize heat transfer so the electric piston engine danfoss AB unit remains off more often, so the cooling refridgeration pump lasts longer & consumes less energy to keep the fridge & freeze contents cooler. They were originally making vaccine transport portable highly efficient fridges & then went on to make consumer domestic fridge units that use up to 90% less energy than comparable poor efficiency or typical refrigerators.

Magnetic Fridge

Next Gen. Magnetic fridge technology may become a diffused commercial technology if someone figures out how to make a feasible alloy that costs less than the rare earth kind used in science low volume magnetic fridge demo units in R&D & research. 

Super Insulated

Passivehaus extensively insulated homes & buildings that capture solar thermal energy & store it in concrete heat capture masses passively & then minimizes temp drift of the home or building by resisting temperature change of the buildings interior, for warmer in winter & cooler in summer. 

Think energy efficient insulation in attic & crawlspace of homes & other buildings + thicker walls with more insulation & few gaps or seems precisely made or where gaps & seams are foam filled or sealed up with epoxy foam, or moss or glass fiber to prevent gas leaking heat loss or heat gain. Energy efficient window coating with vacuum argon fill that improve insulating property of the window while minimizing heat transfer & maximizing natural light transfer. Reflective tube with simple optics skylights & fiber optic lighting to bring natural light indoors. 

Natural outdoor cold assisted fridges that use a heat loop system to take heat away from the fridge & dump it outside into the cold winter or fall or spring air while a heat rejection system prevent heat gain in the summer -- think DIY heat pump with distilled water in a insulated pipe system into an aluminum or copper radiator with a forced air fan to facilitate better heat exchange. 

Add Shade 

Using shade & shade offsets to minimize heat gain of buildings in hot regions. Painting the roof bright white with titanium oxide heavy pigment pain or bright aluminum powder paint. Painting a surface or wall black to absorb sun heat. Solar water heater units with vacuum tubes roof mounted that pre-warm incoming cool water for further water heating for sanitation, showers, laundry, cleaning. 

Think Differently 

Behavioral optimization with energy efficient lifestyle choices like using a pressure cooker to reduce food processing electricity consumption, like the Instapot that so popular today with its cool programmable electric timing interface & nifty functions Eating fresh cool room temperature foods & drinking water - avoiding beer & other engineered fluids kept in fridges or the use of ice which cause the fridge pump to run more & use more electricity. 

Opening windows at night when its cooler during the summer for semi free natural cooling instead of using electricity in heat pumps or fans or AC units Where its dry enough, a swamp cooler can use moving air & a wetted surface to lower the room temp & add moisture to the air -- this only good when humidity low enough to add water to the air // you can cool your vehicle off by spraying it with water to reduce fuel consumption from having to run the AC more to get the same temps. 

Engine Block Heating

Reduce fuel consumption & lower startup emissions of your car, mower, motorcycle or any other engine by preheating the engine electrically with a magnetic block heater or similar to preheat engine to 105F before starting it -- makes it last longer by reducing cold start wear & puts less stress on the starting battery too. 

Like a Business, Lower Operating Costs 

Thinking about ways to lower your utility bills, insurance costs, fuel consumption, operating costs, cell phone bills or other recurring costs can save you thousands. Energy efficient vehicles & homes have lower operating costs & emit less pollution during operation. This ends up costing less for people to operate over long periods of time, like the 20 year life of a car or 100+ year life of commercial buildings & homes.

By embracing an energy efficient lifestyle, you can reduce your footprint or negative externalities of your life in terms of less pollution emitted, less energy consumed, less energy wasted, go further with less, efficient devices & appliances & vehicles & even energy efficient food & drink choices. 

Meg & I cost optimized switching from State Farm to Metro-Mile per mile insurance, we each drive less than 7000 mile per year, so our insurance for both Prii about $100/ mo now, vs twice as much before // an ODBII dongle cellular device transmits our usage to the metro-mile server cloud // 

Going from Verizon to Mint Mobil lowered our cell costs from $1600 annually for two smartphones with data to $360 annually now, saving tens of thousands over a lifetime. 

We switched away from taking daily showers & now take a couple or 3 showers per week & run warm instead of hot loads in the laundry & cold instead of warm for other loads. We use all LED lighting except in the oven & microwave. Our cars & motorcycle & motor scooter are all energy efficient & run on regular ethanol free gasoline I buy from the Grange in Issaquah. 

I don't buy a lot of clothing or fashion items & try to make long term use of my toys & gadgets by keeping their li-ion batteries partially charged with short charge bursts of 20-40 minutes to avoid overcharge damaging the rechargeable lithium ion batteries. 

We use energy efficient computers & electronics & try to get the longest life out of them to save money by not needlessly upgrading. Meg is thrifty & always looks for good deals & sale prices. I try to keep my optional project costs low for fun, while 3D printing PLA & PETG on a PRUSA Mini. I only use my motorcycle for commuting mostly & Meg rarely rides our Motorscooter. We put sun reflectors in the front windows while parked to block solar heat gain & use dash cams from insurance discounts. 

We keep our phones & smartwatches & vehicles much longer than others & avoid needless upgrades. I use the extra money saved to invest in stocks & crypto & savings // since we plan to build our first home in the near future using many of the concepts from this posting in the design & appliances & the way we operate the home. I think of the space where I live like a ship & I am the captain trying to operate intelligently with less energy waste & more function! 

Cheers & thanks for reading!