Could be useful:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/conserve.html

Keep the hot water heater off except 10 - 15 minutes before you take a
shower.

An electric hot water heater will run up your electric bill about 20 -
30 cents for a 5 minute shower whereas it will cost $s more if you
leave it on 24/7.


Bret Cahill

In article , Bret Cahill wrote:
Keep the hot water heater off except 10 - 15 minutes before you take a
shower.

An electric hot water heater will run up your electric bill about 20 -
30 cents for a 5 minute shower whereas it will cost $s more if you
leave it on 24/7.

Seems like electric water heaters should have two tanks or one small high
heat output.

Its also good to go through your home on a cold day and measure with an IR
temperature guage all your rooms, ceilings, windows, ceiling lights,, etc., and check
for cold spots.

greg

Keep the hot water heater off except 10 - 15 minutes before you take a
shower.

Be gentle flipping circuit breakers as they weren't really designed
for switch duty.

An electric hot water heater will run up your electric bill about 20 -
30 cents for a 5 minute shower whereas it will cost $s more if you
leave it on 24/7.

Seems like electric water heaters should have two tanks or one small high
heat output.

Small high current tanks, some little more than pipes, have been on
the market for years for that very reason.

Its also good to go through your home on a cold day and measure with an IR
temperature guage all your rooms, ceilings, windows, ceiling lights,, etc., and check
for cold spots.

We need to create a heat transfer culture.

The average 2 star chef knows more about heat transfer than the
average engineer.


Bret Cahill

Start by ignoring builders and suppliers and building a better house.
More insulation, better sealing against drafts, better windows, more
efficient furnace, etc. They will all try to talk you out of doing
things that will "never pay back" the cost. Sure, "never" if energy
prices always stay the same.

In article , WDS wrote:
Start by ignoring builders and suppliers and building a better house.
More insulation, better sealing against drafts, better windows, more
efficient furnace, etc. They will all try to talk you out of doing
things that will "never pay back" the cost. Sure, "never" if energy
prices always stay the same.

I think most new houses are fairly well built for conservation. Unfortunately
I have not seen one affordable house that has been built around here for years.
They are all huge expensive monsters the contractors want to build.


Something about comfort and peace of mind that will always pay back
regardless.

greg

On Nov 13, 2:58*pm, (GregS) wrote:
In article , WDS wrote:

Start by ignoring builders and suppliers and building a better house.
More insulation, better sealing against drafts, better windows, more
efficient furnace, etc. *They will all try to talk you out of doing
things that will "never pay back" the cost. *Sure, "never" if energy
prices always stay the same.

I think most new houses are fairly well built *for conservation. Unfortunately
I have not seen one affordable house that has been built around here for years.
They are all huge expensive monsters the contractors want to build.

Something about comfort and peace of mind that will always pay back
regardless.

But, the peace of mind with housing fell threw the bottom entirely
with their lastest mortage catastrophy of Freddie Mac, and Fannie
Mae,
and the additional coninueing credit banking flops.
So, all that's left of that is whatever comfort daily speeches from
Bush gave can give.




greg

WDS wrote:

Start by ignoring builders and suppliers and building a better house.
More insulation, better sealing against drafts, better windows, more
efficient furnace, etc. They will all try to talk you out of doing
things that will "never pay back" the cost. Sure, "never" if energy
prices always stay the same.

You pretty much summed it up.

If AGW was real and legislators and greens really CARED, they'd be
passing stricter building regulations right now if not before.

Graham

GregS wrote:

WDS wrote:
Start by ignoring builders and suppliers and building a better house.
More insulation, better sealing against drafts, better windows, more
efficient furnace, etc. They will all try to talk you out of doing
things that will "never pay back" the cost. Sure, "never" if energy
prices always stay the same.

I think most new houses are fairly well built for conservation. Unfortunately
I have not seen one affordable house that has been built around here for years.
They are all huge expensive monsters the contractors want to build.

Something about comfort and peace of mind that will always pay back
regardless.

There are some wonderful new materials coming on the market including low density building block which has a
higher thermal resistance. I think it's 'foamed' somehow. You use a greater thickness of it for the same
strength, yet it weighs the same and you gain twice. Once from the higher thermal resistivity and again from
the greater thickness.

It's all simple physics.

And then there's the intellgent heating control system I've already planned. But it is as yet a distant jewel.
Such things do already exist but I hope to take it to a new level (and a lower price).

Graham

I turn the heat way down at night, and use a heated blanket turned way up.
This is a lot cheaper than heating the whole house. I also keep a heated lap
blanket around for when I get cold sitting on the couch. There's a
programmable thermostat, of course.

--
http://cashcuddler.com

"Thrift is sexy."

In article ,
"Macuser" wrote:

I turn the heat way down at night, and use a heated blanket turned way up.
This is a lot cheaper than heating the whole house. I also keep a heated lap
blanket around for when I get cold sitting on the couch. There's a
programmable thermostat, of course.

So, how much money do you plan to save on rebuilding your house after
it catches fire from this heated blanket? They are a leading cause of
house fires, albeit much less dangerous than bad wiring. Your wiring
has been inspected and checked out recently and is up to code, isn't it?
If not, maybe you should call 911 now and get a jump on the fire.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III * * * * * 612-720-2854 * * * * *
Newave Communications * * * * * * * * * * * * http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

On Dec 13, 9:37*am, "Macuser" wrote:
I turn the heat way down at night, and use a heated blanket turned way up..
This is a lot cheaper than heating the whole house. I also keep a heated lap
blanket around for when I get cold sitting on the couch. There's a
programmable thermostat, of course.

In Germany it is pretty much standard to have one thermostat per room.
So you can keep the heat on only in the rooms you actually use. Like
at night you only heat the bedroom and the bathroom.

In article
,
Esche wrote:

On Dec 13, 9:37*am, "Macuser" wrote:
I turn the heat way down at night, and use a heated blanket turned way up.
This is a lot cheaper than heating the whole house. I also keep a heated lap
blanket around for when I get cold sitting on the couch. There's a
programmable thermostat, of course.

In Germany it is pretty much standard to have one thermostat per room.
So you can keep the heat on only in the rooms you actually use. Like
at night you only heat the bedroom and the bathroom.

What kind of heat system do they use? Here in the US, we mainly use
central heat and A/C systems, so it is not practical to heat or cool
only 1 room. Electric heat, which can be zoned by room, is cost
prohibitive in most areas of the US.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III * * * * * 612-720-2854 * * * * *
Newave Communications * * * * * * * * * * * * http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

On Dec 13, 9:55*am, "John A. Weeks III" wrote:
So, how much money do you plan to save on rebuilding your house after
it catches fire from this heated blanket? *They are a leading cause of
house fires, albeit much less dangerous than bad wiring. *Your wiring
has been inspected and checked out recently and is up to code, isn't it?
If not, maybe you should call 911 now and get a jump on the fire.

Whenever people state something like that it makes me curious, So I
did some web searching and found...nothing. Extension cords, faulty
wiring, but no mention of heated blankets. If they were a "leading
cause" don't you think at least one of the dozen different web sites I
checked that were about causes of fires would mention them?

Yes, heated blanked CAN cause electrical fires but so can any
electrical device.

In Germany it is pretty much standard to have one thermostat per room.
So you can keep the heat on only in the rooms you actually use. Like
at night you only heat the bedroom and the bathroom.

What kind of heat system do they use? *Here in the US, we mainly use
central heat and A/C systems, so it is not practical to heat or cool
only 1 room. *Electric heat, which can be zoned by room, is cost
prohibitive in most areas of the US.

In Germany people use hot water radiators with gas/oil furnace (pretty
much exclusively). There is a manual thermostat for each radiator
(like the one shown in http://www.testberichte.de/p/heimeie...tbericht.html).
A/Cs are rare.