Global Energy City

With all the fans and air conditioners around it’s a good idea to quickly go over some cord safety.  Often we just plug our cords in and don’t give them a second thought but they can be dangerous and a fire is a LOT bigger worry than saving a few bucks on a proper extension cord.

• For any cord (either the one from the appliance or an extension cord) look for cracks or holes in the insulator from one end of the cord to another.  Since some of these cords haven’t been used since last summer a quick inspection can find problems before they turn tragic.
• Make sure that the prongs are straight and in good condition.  Bent, broken or loose prongs can start a fire or cause your breaker to blow.  Also make sure that the third prong isn’t bent or cut off.
• Make sure you have the right sized cords. We all have those two wire cords lying around the house that we usually end up plugging our lamps into.  Which is what they were designed for and not much more.  A small table fan or phone recharger is all that you should really be plugging into these cords.  Overloading them by stringing them together or putting something to heavy on them is a recipe for disaster.
• While they may be MORE expensive the heavy duty appliance cords are worth their price for the safety they bring.  It’s a good rule of thumb for AC units to not use an extension cord greater than 6 feet.  Better yet plug the appliance directly into the wall.   You can usually find these heavy duty appliance cords at your local hardware store.  They will have 3 prongs and have a rating on them in watts.  If you have a doubt ask for some help.
• Finally don’t plug your AC into a power strip.  Not only can you overload the power strip you could destroy the other components on the strip.

While these tips may not save electricity that much they DO make your house a LOT safer in the long run.  So take a few minutes to make sure that your cords are all in good condition.

Computers are GREAT we can connect with people, get work done, play games and pretty much live our lives on them.  But they do use electricity.  There are a LOT of ways to reduce how much electricity they use by simply following a few steps.   Read the rest of this entry »

I have 2 kid who have rooms at the top of the stairs and one really likes night lights.  I also have a disabled wife who needs light when moving about the house.  The way our house is situated we don’t get a LOT of outside light and leaving lights on all the time is NOT a good idea.  So in addition to replacing bulbs I got a bunch of LED night lights with light sensors. My daughter had a nightlight she loves so and was able to find a replacement LED bulb.

I used LED bulbs instead of incandescent and florescent bulbs for energy savings.  While an LED bulb may cost about $2.00 more it lasts 10x as long and uses 1/10 the electricity.  By getting lights with light or motion sensors the lights are ONLY on when darkness prevails.  This is also helpful in some rooms where the compact florescent bulbs take a minute or two to warm up.  You still have a bit of light.  

So far things have been good.  We can still see and we are turning off  more lights but not losing the luxury of illumination.  A stubbed toe is NOT a good thing.

I think my next step with this is to see if  I can get some Solar cells and run some of these lights from solar cells that gather light from the sun and interior lights. Recycling some used light how cool would that be?

To give an idea of the savings I’ll describe what I WAS doing.    Starting awhile ago I was running 1 60W bulbs 12 hours a day in the bathroom ceiling fixture as a night light (this would be on when people would be in the bathroom and during sleeping hours this costs about $30 a year.  I replaced this with a 14W CF which saved about $23 yearly.  Finally I used a 2 watt LED nightlight with a light sensor so it’s ONLY on when its dark.  Running this way costs less than $1 a year TOTAL. 

Another example in the downstairs bathroom I placed another one of these night lights.  Before we would keep the 2 14W CF bulbs burning as they would take about 2 minutes to warm up in the winter and just kept the habit up throughout the year.  This cost almost $30 a year the 2W nightlight runs about $2 a year.  Granted we DO turn on the overhead lights still but now we are in the habit of turning them off during the day and at night when we are not in the bathroom.  The warmup period is also not that bad as we have the nightlight to compensate. 

Well the fridge went on the blink.  The freezer can barely keep at let alone under 32°F NOT good… Ice cream won’t stay frozen.  So I’ve moved a LOT of stuff out and into another freezer.  The fridge is about 10 years old so while a replacement may cost a bit there may be some energy savings by upgrading.  

A few things of note as a I went through the Internet trying to troubleshoot my problem that can save money and energy.  First off CLEAN YOUR FRIDGE!  Not only that science experiment in the back but also behind and under the fridge.  This allows for air flow around the condenser coils.  (These may be a set of wires and tubes on the back or underneath the fridge.  Along those lines make SURE there is a adequate airflow around and inside the fridge.  Look for vents that may be blocked by food items or ice.  If possible check to see if ice (or even dirt) is building up on the evaporator coils (usually in the back of the freezer behind a panel.

Another tip is to really let your fridge rest and defrost every so often.  This means empty all the food out of the fridge and freezer.  Open the doors and let it sit for 24 to 48 hours.  (Yep that long)  This should allow for any ice build up in the doors, on the evaporator coils and anywhere else to melt off. 

Well I’m off to go and get a new fridge as the old one while it can be repaired would cost more than it’s worth.