Saving Energy: A Vintage Concept?

[randooch]

What do you folks do, energy-wise, to hearken back to the days of thrift and economy?

Or, as a parallel concept with echoes of times past, how do you cut your energy costs?

 

[scottyrocks]

I walk around the house turning off lights behind everyone (and I'm told that I leave them on, myself, too). But I do what I can.

 

[Yeps]

My grandmother will sometimes turn off the lights in a room that she, or someone else is in. She really likes saving energy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thermostat at 62 degrees in the winter, 57 at night. Sweaters are a lot cheaper than fuel oil.

40 watt light bulbs in most lamps.

Clothes dryer is a rope in the backyard.

My mother used to be so hard boiled about such things that she kept the water heater turned off except for half an hour before one's designated bath time. I don't go that far, but I'm tempted.

 

[scottyrocks]

My mom dried the clothes on the backyard line. I'd still do it, but it would never fly around here, though.

I, too, have turned lights off while people were in a room. It's a little embarrassing. I do apologize when I do it.

The lowest I want to stand indoors is 62 degrees overnight. I like 68 during the day. I've tried lower and I'm not happy. And I wear sweaters.

I like low wattage bulbs. When I lived by myself, each room had a desk lamp with a 40 (or 25) watt bulb in it. Those lamps gave me all the light I needed. Now I live in a house with ceilings full of high hats, usually on full blast. I can't keep up.

 

[randooch]

Thermostat at 62 degrees in the winter, 57 at night. Sweaters are a lot cheaper than fuel oil.

40 watt light bulbs in most lamps.

Clothes dryer is a rope in the backyard.

My mother used to be so hard boiled about such things that she kept the water heater turned off except for half an hour before one's designated bath time. I don't go that far, but I'm tempted.

The "on-demand" water heaters are excellent in that regard, but the up-front cost is tough to swallow when you amortize the savings over the number of years you expect to use the thing. Your mother's method is the forerunner.

I shut the water-heater breaker off whenever I leave town for a few days or more, but your ma has me beat.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I was born in June of '83 & I was swaddled in cloth diapers that were washable & reuseable.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My mom dried the clothes on the backyard line. I'd still do it, but it would never fly around here, though.

I'm lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where *everybody* has a clothesline -- I don't think I could stand to live in the kind of place where it'd be frowned on. In fact, we have a state law here expressly prohibiting any town, city, homeowner's association, or anyone else from restricting in any way the use of clotheslines. "Live Free And Dry."

In the winter, if it gets too cold, I have a rope in my kitchen I can string across the room. When the sun passes thru in the morning it's almost as good as drying outside.

 

[Miss Golightly]

I used to hang our damp clothes on our living room curtain rail - that is until it fell down - our clothes used to dry in jig time as the sun comes directly into our living room for most of the day. The rail is still on the floor behind the sofa and will probably remain there until we move out in a couple of weeks - now I'm hanging clothes on hangers off every available surface for the moment - such a pain!!!!!!!

I'm the one to turn off all lights that don't need to be on and use energy saving bulbs where we can too - very important!

 

[Flicka]

I'm in a studio apartment where heat and electricity is included in the fee I pay to the building society so I have no idea how much I spend. I don't leave lights on & use low energy ones, I only wash every second week (in the laundry room in my building) and by then the machines are crammed full. I'm the quickest showerer in the world so I use minimum hot water and I keep the radiators turned low. I don't have a dishwasher and I handwash only when I have enough to fill the basin (to minimize hot water use).

 

[fortworthgal]

My husband jokingly refers to me as "fuel warden." :lol:

I do all the usual things already mentioned - lower wattage bulbs, turning lights off when not in the room. We also utilize a clothesline and drying racks as much as possible, which saves on running the dryer (a huge energy hog!) I turn our fridges & freezers up slightly higher, and our water heaters down lower - still the right temps to be safe, though. I avoid central heat & a/c as much as is possible, and open windows and use fans. Don't run the dishwasher or washing machine unless I have a full load. I take a bath most days instead of a shower, as I tend to use more water when I shower.

Summer is the real crunch time for us on electricity, because of the blistering heat here. Last summer it was so bad that there were outages and many areas had rolling blackouts. We were even keeping the lights turned off at work! We live in an older home so it is tough to cool and our summer electric bills are high. We have a digital thermostat - modern I know, but it helps with electricity so much that I don't care. During the hottest months, it goes to 82-85F during the day and down to 80 or 81 when we're home. During the winter if we absolutely have to run the heat, we keep it only around 68 and down to about 64 when we're not home.

 

[LizzieMaine]

 

[sheeplady]

I am a huge fan of cross ventilation in the summer, we use two window fans. But last May we got two weeks of 97+ degree weather, we had 3 or 4 days of above 100 (it then stayed in the 70s-80s until July, then got insufferable again). We don't have air conditioning, but we are going to have get a window unit this year if we get another summer like last one. The agreement with the weather was that we would take a few days of -30 F to get a nice, cool summer. The weather lied. If it was dry heat, we'd be ok, but the humidity makes it oppressive. We'd run the fans all night, shut the windows and draw the shades during the day. But all the pavement and houses held the heat and humidity, and the nights never got below 92.

We have forced air and have the lines shut down in the basement to the areas we don't use that much and don't need to heat.

Every Sunday night we eat and relax by candlelight from about 6pm-9pm. We haven't done that much lately because we're doing a remodel. My great-grandmother never used electricity on a Sunday, despite her home being wired. I haven't brought myself to that yet, but I've been tempted to try it. I'd really need a woodstove to cook, however, and they don't allow traditional woodstoves here.

For our next home, we're investigating using geothermal for heating and cooling.

 

[John in Covina]

I often line dry, I have clothes on the line right now. My hot water is set fairly low. I am big on fans and only use the a/c when it is impossible to sleep other wise. Right now i only have a 20" TV that works it uses very little compared to the POS non-working Panasonic Viera (power unit blew out 2X)

 

[MisterCairo]

Clothesline whenever weather permits, no central air (windows open at each end of house, both floors, works wonders), cloth diapers for both our girls (we've even saved them and sewed them up into quilts, I'm REALLY looking forward to giving them those as wedding gifts!), low wattage bulbs, using sunlight whenever possible (I too am the "turn off the lights" cop in our house), low temps at night in winter.

 

[randooch]

. . .cloth diapers for both our girls (we've even saved them and sewed them up into quilts, I'm REALLY looking forward to giving them those as wedding gifts!

lol:eeek:lol

Pictures please!

 

[MisterCairo]

lol:eeek:lol

Pictures please!

They've been LAUNDERED! Though, being somewhat ecologically minded, we didn't bleach them (except for our first born's first year, we used a service - pick up, laundering, delivery - and they clearly used bleach), so they aren't exactly "Ivory Snow White" if you get my drift.

That is 99.9% of why I'm looking forward to giving them away - a hint of what they'll hopefully put up with!

Pics to follow.....

 

[sheeplady]

Clothesline whenever weather permits, no central air (windows open at each end of house, both floors, works wonders), cloth diapers for both our girls (we've even saved them and sewed them up into quilts, I'm REALLY looking forward to giving them those as wedding gifts!), low wattage bulbs, using sunlight whenever possible (I too am the "turn off the lights" cop in our house), low temps at night in winter.

That is an awesome idea. My mother saved all my cloth diapers for when I have children (or so I've been promised that I will get them). I've heard from mothers that the older ones are better than the newer ones: larger, more absorbent, etc. I'm actually going to be disappointed if we have to buy new ones after I've heard the glories of early 80s cloth diapers.

 

[Flicka]

My parents had to use cloth diapers for me because I got horrible, horrible rashes from disposable diapers. My mother is still bitter over that - like it was my fault.

And I don't have AC. I have huge windows all facing south-west. It gets horribly hot in my flat in the summers. Opening the windows just lets in more hot air. Add to that the joy of the sun setting at midnight in June...

 

[Tango Yankee]

Saving energy? What's that???

Seriously, I must admit we don't take a lot of steps specifically to save energy. I like to have the indoor temperature of my house comfortable (cool enough in the summer, warm enough in the winter) though we do have an electronic thermostat to allow for higher temps in summer and cooler in winter when we're not home. As for lighting, I could never stand a dim room. I tend to use 100 watt bulbs. I'm worse about it these days as it gets harder to read in low light as I get older. I do have my computer set to go into hibernate mode after a certain amount of time. I also use a dryer to dry my clothes.

What it boils down to is that I like to be comfortable in my own home. I don't want to have to go somewhere else to be cool in the summertime or warm in the wintertime, and as long as I can afford it I'm going to be comfortable.

What I don't get is this: why is it that temperatures in the low 60s, say, feel nice and crisp when outside and just chilly when inside? Or why temps in the 80s aren't too bad outside, but oppressive inside? Never could figure that one out. [huh]

Cheers,
Tom