Conservation?

[ipscshooter]

So, what are y'all doing with regard to conserving energy? I've slowed down a bit and changed driving habits... gets me an addtional 2 - 2.5 mpg. I'm also switching to flourescent bulbs rather than incandescent. I thought this was interesting, out of an article in the Houston Chronicle this morning:

Replacing one light bulb in every American home with a compact fluorescent would save more than $600 million per year, according to the Department of Energy, or enough power to light 3 million homes for a year.

[Lanse couche couche]

I spend more and more time at my girlfriend's house. When i'm not with her, i hang out every evening at the nice air conditioned bar down the road. So, i only have to run mine for an hour or so before bed.[&:]

[Fieldmouse]

Nothing

[DougMD]

Me neither, mostly because my wife doesn't want to be inconvenienced in any way.

I realize that most Americans HAVE conserved in some way, and are therefore not shocked to see that on the whole, this nation has cut back on demand due to the high prices. This is why I believe Bernanke's telling people what they already knew had no impact on prices going down so much the other day, and why Bush's lifting the ban on drilling did have an impact...

[HuntingEd]

I try to conserve energy in everyway possible, for 2 reasons. The most important:

1. Saving energy = saving money. If it costs me more to saveenergy I wont do it. Sorry, thats stupid.
2. Protecting the Environment. I dont believe in global warming butI do think we should do our best to minimize pollution, with minimal cost.

So here's what my family does:

Every light bulb inour house is a CFL.

We have a programmable thermostat to minimize energy usage when we dont need it.

We keep our curtains closed and bought ones w/ white backs.

I did my best to get a job and house in close proximity, I now live 2 miles from my job.

We try to find ways to car-pool as much as possible.

If I planned on being in my house longer than 5 years I would put a geo-thermal heat pump in, and solar hotwater heater, but it wouldnt pay-off in my time horizon.

[RainmakerIII]

I'm spoiled, I waste constantly. I need to work on it.

[Alsatian]

We have added a used 2002 Honda Civic automaticto our stable of 1998 Toyota Corolla standard, and 2004 Chevrolet Suburban Z-71. Most of the time the Suburban now stays parked. Thus, instead of my son/wife using the Suburban to toodle around town at 14 mpg or worse they now toodle around in the Civic with maybe 28 mpg. We have replaced many, but not all, of our electric lights with compact flourescent bulbs. I am not 100% satisfied with the quality of the light in some rooms, but it is close enough in most places. Certainly it makes a lot of sense to use these in the porch light, outside garage light, inside garage light, utility room, closets, etc.

My wife keeps the air conditioning thermostat set at 76 degrees versus 72 degrees that I used to keep it set at, although I am not fully convinced this saves much money; maybe I'm just flat-out wrong on this issue. I have turned the air conditioning in the dog houses up to 80 degrees . . . just joking. No air conditioned dog houses with us. We had some sort of dark screens placed over our sun-facing windows to reduce the solar loading on the house, which is supposed to reduce our air conditioning load.

We try (I try?) to combine trips and reduce trips to stores. For example, I drive past a grocery store on my commute home from work at night. I will often check with my wife to see if she needs me to pick something up at the store on my way home.

Also, whenever I see a light turned on that doesn't need to be on, I turn it off. But this is not a change. I have always been obsessed with that. I'm an engineer by training, and the idea of wasting energy like that ranckles, like fingernails screetching on the blackboard. I am particularly touchy about CRT-based televisions left on in a room with no one watching them. Last time I checked -- maybe they are more efficient now -- these things consumed about 600 watts when turned on.

I do not drive any slower. Most of the time my driving speed is limited by the speed of the traffic around me, for example commuting to and from work. Other times, however, when I have the chance I drive fast, usually over the speed limit. This is, of course, de rigeur for most Texans (ipscshooter's virtuous behavior notwithstanding).

As a point of interest, I would mention that manual transmission cars get a substantial mileage boost with respect to automatic transmissions. My recollection was that my 1998 Toyota Corolla standard realized about a 4 MPG advantage over my sister's 2002 Toyota Corolla automatic when tested in 2007. Just to guess, the comparison might have been 39 MPG versus 35 MPG or maybe 34 MPG versus 30 MPG -- I no longer remember the exact numbers. The point is, the savings was a noticeable percentage -- about 10% improvement. The mileage was highway mileage on the open road. I didn't get the car with standardfor mileage considerations but out of disgust with having to pay $1,800 to repair a Ford Taurus automatic transmission at 85,000 miles.

[Big Duane]

in the winter, I burn wood in my fireplace (all electric house)
I turn the thermostat into the mid 70's summer time
hang clothes on line instead of dryer
I bought a Jetta TDI, sold big ass 2500 HD
I am much more conscious about going places unneccessarily

[bugsNbows]

Don't ever break one of those fluorscent, curly bulbs. They are considered hazardous and you must call in a HAZMAT operation to clean and decontaminate the area. Really. Now is that BS or what?

[TimberCreek]

I had my power shut off then tapped into the neighbors underground power line. He hasn't found out yet. Keeps complaining about his utility bills all the time.Says he's not going to run christmas lights this year, told him I was, what the hell he's paying for it.Waitiing for him to go on vacation again so I can tap into his water line.[:@]

Kidding, my cabin is all run from off grid solar power, use rain water collection system. burn wood for heat. All compact flouresant lights. Ride motorcycle most of the summer!