Tiny Homestead Projects vol. 1 - Electricity
This is the first post in a small series called Tiny Homestead Projects. These are projects that are a) small in scope and b) can be undertaken at homesteads of any sizes, even tiny ones. They are not primarily a how-to, but a chronicle of tiny homestead projects we've undertaken. Nevertheless, they are projects that I hope you will find value in.
Saving on Electricity
As we are working on lowering some bills at the moment, we decide to have a look at our electricity bill. Based on the numbers from our provider we shouldn't really be able to lower our bill - all I have to say to that is challenge accepted.
They estimate our usage at 1699 kWh/year, which is 747 kWh (or 31%) below the average for a family of our size in a home of our size. We have currently used 1342 kWh and our year ends in November. I don't think we'll be able to see any huge savings this billing year, but we should be able to see some for next year.
Unplugging
I've started turning off our kettle at the wall, which we never used to do. We also unplug our Kenwood kitchen machine whenever we're done using it. I would like to get into a routine of turning off our internet at night, as well as our tv, but my husband isn't fully married to the idea yet.
Changing Bulbs
We have been working on slowly changing our bulbs to LED. We just replaced a 40w bulb with a 2w and are planning on replacing a 60w with a 4w this week. Changing these two bulbs should lead to significant savings, especially since the 60w bulb is over our dining table, where we eat all our meals and I spend a lot of time working.
The Goal
While I don't think we'll be able to swing it this year, the goal I have in mind for our electricity bill is DKK 4000/year (USD 633). We are currently even billed to a total of DKK 4350/ year (USD 688). It's not a huge difference, but with our bill already being comparatively low, I don't think we can hope for much more and those DKK 350 (USD 55) will bring us that much closer to owning our future homestead outright.
Hello, you are the winner of MAP10!
You will see the 200 delegated SP for 7 days appear in your Wallet soon. Please use it wisely. I would appreciate if you could upvote and resteem the other recent MAP contests. Thank you!
And don't forget, you can get further inspiration, assistance and upvotes at the MAP Members Only Discord chatroom.
Wow, that's wonderful, thank you for hosting the contest.
That's great! If at some point you could join the Discord chatroom, I'll explain how the prize works, and you can meet all the other MAP members. See you there!
Just joined, can't wait to meet all of you.
I bought some LED bulbs at a huge cost compared to standards. They didn't last any longer than the standards though, so I'm not really sure they actually had time to save us any money. At first I thought it was just a faulty one, but when I went through a few more I thought otherwise.
We switch off anything that's not in use at the mains now. Internet goes off at night too. Hubby didn't need too much convincing because it's in our bedroom and were don't like the lights from it. It reminds us to switch it off if we forget!
In winter we have the wood burner going, so I do some cooking on that which saves on the oven power. Apart from that I can't think of anything else. It certainly makes a difference though when I hear what others spend on their power. We probably don't watch as much TV as most either.
Too bad with those LED bulbs. They cost a fortune here too. So far we've been happy with ours.
I will have to do a trial With the internet. If I can prove real savings from it, then I know my husband will buy in.
I would love a wood stove. It's very high on our list of wants for our future homestead. The typical ones here aren't meant to be used for cooking though, but only for heating.
Ours is meant for heating, but it's big enough to fit a couple of iron pots on, so I took advantage. Lol!
Does it harm the stove? I've voiced the same opportunity for my husband and he was worried it would corrode the stove or something since it's not meant for it..
No, it hasn't corroded it or anything. Even if you spill something it dries so quickly in the heat it wouldn't corrode. I have to wait for it to cool before I can clean spillages up though and if it wasn't black it might show up. Ours is also quite old though (about 25 years), so it's seen better days.
I will report this to my husband and hope he changes his mind. Thank you :)
I love reading posts about saving energy! Let me suggest looking at your fridge (without spamming up your post with too much detail): Commercial refrigerators gobble up power like crazy. This guy I knew built his own using one of those DIY kits they sell for boats. He used a giant cedar wood box, with 15 cm thick (!) insulation in the walls and the door, using material left over from building his roof. Also, the compressor was separated from the decompressor and moved... of course: to heat the smallest room of the house. He added a very efficient motor to move the gas, and in the end his fridge used less than 15 kWh a month.
But even if you don't want to re-build your fridge, keep it stocked with lots of liquids (if nothing else jars of water - or better: kombucha). The mass keeps the temperature down, so the fridge won't have to turn on every so often.
That is absolutely brilliant. Even if we wanted to we couldn't build one now, as we rent and the fridge is part of that. Our fridge is quite small so it's pretty much always full of food, but I will remember to add liquids if it gets low. We also use it to defrost our meats, so that keeps it colder too.
Oh, and you have full permission to spam my posts with wonderful, relevant details in the comments. That's not got much spam in it! (said in a Monty Python voice)
Using power strips for all your electronics will allow you to flip one switch to turn everything off. Plus protection from a power surge! We are looking into getting an old wringer washing machine and putting in a clothesline. (I have tried this before but gave up because it rains so often, it might end up being a seasonal thing). If you use an AC making sure your filters are changed when they need to be will also save electricity! Probably all stuff you're already aware of but just in case!
Those are great suggestions. We used to have power strips, I will ask husband to dig those up for me.
We line dry all our clothes. We don't have a wringer washer, but we do have a wonderwasher which we could use in an emergency. It's time-consuming though, so, for now, we are using a communal laundry machine for our apartment block. I don't think we'll ever go off grid for laundry, but I love knowing that we can in a pinch.
Do you have a place you could hang the line indoors? My mother had a line next to our furnace.
We don't need AC in Denmark, but you got me thinking of a couple of other filters that need washing ;) Thank you.
Use LED lights - they get less hot, use less power and last much longer
That's exactly what we are doing. ☺️
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by frugallady from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
Every little bit counts! Gotta shave off those extra wasted dollars somewhere. We do a lot of things that save a little here and there. Good post!
Thank you and they certainly do.