Making Important Choices On Your Appliances Load Consumption
Specific Loads & express Solutions When it comes to making load selections, off-grid people without large resources always target potency. Heres some categorical guidance on common appliances, drawn from my thirty years of off-grid living experience.
Fridge / fridge : Set your sights on intense energy efficiency here, since this is frequently the most important electrical load in an off the grid home. Fridges and freezers cycle off and on steadily, and need to run regardless of sun and windyou cant flex your use to house the permutations in weather. Using specialty DC appliances could be a good choice in some cases, and getting correct numbers on energy use
before buying any refrigeration hardware is the best idea. Get ready to spend more up front for better overall savings over the long run. One ultraefficient fridge is available too in an AC configuration for roughly the same cost.
Lighting : Off-grid houses of sensible design have no incandescent lights. Compact fluorescent lights ( CFL ) and LEDs predominate. Try a variety of CFL and LED options, since quality, color rendition, and light output varies.
attire washing / drying : Horizontal-axis ( often frontloading ) machines use less power ( and less water, requiring less water heating and pump operation ) than top-loading vertical-axis machines. Check your machine for ghost loads and use a timer or switch when obligatory. Off-grid homes won't typically use an electrical dryer, and if solar energy ( a clothesline ) cant be used, a propane dryer is an option.
Motor loads : In the old days, engineers switched the majority of the woodshop motors to DC, a smart move in those days of ineffective inverters. Today, it is smart to select high quality, sometimes variable-speed AC motors ; whether for pool pumps, heat-pump motors, shop tools, oranything else that is motor-driven. The bottom line is found with your watt meter, which may tell you how much energy is being used.
Computing / office electronics : A single word gives you the center of the advice herelaptops. These often use half or less what a desktop machine uses, and they also incorporate a battery, so in times of extremely low renewable input, you can still use your personal computer for awhile. Peripheralsprinters,
Routers, modems, backup drives, scanners, etc.often are ghost loads, so put them on individual switches and turn them on just when required. These peripherals don't usually must be on for long periods, so ultra-efficiency won't be as critical as for the PC itself.
Solar hot water systems : For off-gridders, solar hot water systems reduce the requirement for propanemaking hot water with solar electricity is not an intelligent option. Regularly its sensible to make the electrical portion ( for the solar pumps ) separate from your main system to reduce the unpredictable load on the key electrical system. Off-griders prefer PV-direct systems that use a dedicated PV module to run the SHW system pumps.
Get additional information about living off the grid, and learn more about home energy consumption, by going to http://OffTheGridHomeEnergy.com.
More Related Posts:
Filed under Energy Efficent Home Devices by on Mar 18th, 2011. Comment. 
Leave a Comment
Comments on Making Important Choices On Your Appliances Load Consumption
Great points about the fridge and washer/dryer. Could you elaborate on ghost loads?
I know that they dryer is a huge energy hog, and it is beneficial to get one with a moisture sensor, so that it will shut off when the clothes are dry rather than be based on a timer.
Hi Stacy
Ghost Loads are the small electrical loads that are typically on all the time, but that are easily overlooked when planning your system. Typical examples include instant on circuits in TV's, answering machines, cordless phones, electrical or electronic clocks, or anything that uses a wall cube transformer.
Oh I see. Thanks for clarifying! I'm always looking for even little ways to reduce my energy consumption.