{"id":303,"date":"2008-12-18T01:03:47","date_gmt":"2008-12-18T01:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2008-12-20T18:46:20","modified_gmt":"2008-12-20T18:46:20","slug":"going-off-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/going-off-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Off-Grid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Isnt<\/a>I’ve been interested in trying to live off the grid for many, many years.\u00a0 But as our energy and economic crises get worse and worse it gets to be more important to start the process. I found this interesting article, “How to Unplug From the Grid<\/a>” on New Scientist<\/em>. The article seems pretty comprehensive in a general here’s what you have to consider way.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

The good news is that the energy you require is likely to be a fraction of what you presently use, says Tony Brown, head engineer at the UK’s Centre for Alternative Technology near Machynlleth in Powys. The average UK household uses around 4500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, plus some 18,000 kWh of gas for cooking, hot water and domestic heating. In the US the figure varies considerably from region to region. For example, households in New York City use around 4700 kWh a year, whereas those in Dallas use 16,100 kWh: there are a lot of air conditioners in Texas. In chillier regions where people use gas for heating and cooking, on the other hand, they can burn up an extra 28,000 kWh or so per household.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We looked long and hard to find just those numbers when we first were starting to learn about the possibilities. However, just about everyone says the same thing. Before going jumping in with both feet, find out how much you can cut your consumption of power. Some of the best ways to reduce your power usage (from the article):<\/p>\n

The biggest energy savings will come from properly insulating your home to minimise heat loss. That done, you’ll need to work out what is eating up the rest of the power you consume. The easiest way to do this is to buy an energy monitor that can provide a live display of your total energy consumption or that of individual appliances (see “What’s guzzling the juice?”). This will help you focus on reducing consumption to the bare minimum, not just by switching to low-energy light bulbs and energy-efficient white goods, but also by turning unused appliances right off rather than leaving them in standby mode. With a bit of effort and investment, you should be able to get by on a few hundred kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We’ve started to do some of this. We’ve replaced as many of the light bulbs that we can reach with compact florescents or halogens (lower wattages — same brightness). We bought a door for the basement that was insulated and had insulated glass (double pane with gas between). We hope to take out the current lowest value allowed insulation in our basement and replace with the appropriate level soon — maybe this summer depending on whether we instead opt to replace our single pane windows with double or triple panes to reduce leakage.<\/p>\n

We’ve got a long way to go before we’ve reduced what we’re currently using to reasonable levels but we’re working on it. From the article we can see that there’s more to think about and more to do.<\/p>\n

What’s your favorite energy reduction strategies? I’m always interested in what others are doing.<\/p>\n

\"Hyperion<\/p>\n

And thus we see the real problem with saving energy … money. For years we’ve been able to waste energy left and right because it was cheap. Our entire infrastructure is built on the philosophy that it’s better to the burn extra power than to spend money to improve the system.\u00a0 Now energy is getting more expensive, but our “cheap” infrastructure can’t just be easily made more efficient.\u00a0 Then there’s the price of doing what’s right.\u00a0 Gayle mentioned that we got a new door.\u00a0 What she didn’t mention is that we asked about the most efficient door.\u00a0 It would have been $9000 (needless to say we went with a less efficient door and a lower price we could afford).\u00a0 Nine thousand for a freaking door?\u00a0 It’s just a bunch of wood and glass with a bit a metal and gas tossed in.\u00a0 Where does nine thousand dollars come from?\u00a0 Well it comes from the fact that people that want to save the world tend to be the kind that will spend the cash to bring it about.\u00a0 The others are cheap and just want a door that closes and locks.\u00a0 So if people really want to save the planet, you might as well make some extra profit off of their activism.\u00a0 It’s the American way, after all.\u00a0 See a need, exploit a need.\u00a0 Don’t stop squeezing until the pennies stop bleeding.\u00a0 Okay, maybe that’s a bit pessimistic, but I’m going to be stubborn and stick with it.\u00a0 So if we want to re-insulate the basement, or change out the windows, we’re going to have to be prepared to spend a good chunk of change to make it happen.\u00a0 Some, but not all of these changes will pay for themselves over time with reduced energy costs.\u00a0 Some won’t.\u00a0 But if you don’t have the money to spare right now, you can’t save money over the long haul, and will end up spending a lot more in the end.\u00a0 And meanwhile the DVD player keeps blinking 12:00 (not ours but others — but that’s a topic for another rant).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been interested in trying to live off the grid for many, many years.\u00a0 But as our energy and economic crises get worse and worse it gets to be more important to start the process. I found this interesting article, “How to Unplug From the Grid” on New Scientist. The article seems pretty comprehensive in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-hearth-and-home"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoing Off-Grid - A Curious Statistical Anomaly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/going-off-grid\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"davinci\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"davinci\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4344e39b0408fba0234cf68dcf6ea62e\"},\"headline\":\"Going Off-Grid\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-18T01:03:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-20T18:46:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":897,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/ecx.images-amazon.com\\\/images\\\/I\\\/41zrvpqrZFL._SL500_AA280_.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Environment\",\"Hearth and Home\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/amperzen.com\\\/blog\\\/going-off-grid\\\/\",\"name\":\"Going Off-Grid - 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