Saving electricity

[Bird]

People complain about paying the power bill but I am thankful I have power. Having to live without AC in the heat and humidity is NOT fun. Been There Done That. Paying $1-2 a day for AC comfort is worth it. Though I cringe when I see the power bill.

I agree.:laughing: I never lived nor slept in a house with air-conditioning until I was 19. In fact, without even a fan, I used to put a cot in the yard and sleep outside when I was a kid because it was so hot in the house in the summer. We did have electric lights in the house; one bare bulb per room. No running water and no bathroom in the house. Our kids and grandkids can no more imagine living like that than I can imagine going across country in a wagon train a couple of hundred years ago.:laughing:

 

[jinman]

I agree.:laughing: I never lived nor slept in a house with air-conditioning until I was 19.

Me too, Bird. I got married and moved into a trailer house with an air conditioner when I was 19. When I went into the US Navy and they told us we had to get up at 6:00 AM, I thought that was getting to sleep in too. Things have sure changed.

BTW: We have a little toaster oven that we use in addition to our microwave oven. That little oven sure beats heating up the big oven when you only have a small dish to cook or heat up where you need browning. I don't know anybody who actually bakes potatoes in an oven anymore. Baking a potato in a microwave is also one of those things we never dreamed of as kids.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I was 19 when I went to work for the Post Office in Dallas and I bought a used (7 years old I think) "house trailer" as they were called back then. It was and 8' x 28'; couldn't afford one of those great big 10' wide monsters.:laughing: Working at night and sleeping in the daytime, I bought a Fedders window unit A/C for that trailer.

And like you, we seldom use the oven in the kitchen range. We have a pretty good sized KitchenAid toaster oven and it's used regularly instead.

I do love microwave ovens. I'll probably always remember the first one I ever saw or heard of. It was in the kitchen of the Marriott Motel on Stemmons Frwy. I used to have a moonlighting job there and I was 29 years old. Their restaurant was open all night, and there was always a big pan of cold, hard biscuits left each evening by the chef. Pop one in that "radar range" and it came out just as if it had been freshly baked. And I guess I was over 35 years old when we got our first one.

 

[dmccarty]

...

BTW: We have a little toaster oven that we use in addition to our microwave oven. That little oven sure beats heating up the big oven when you only have a small dish to cook or heat up where you need browning. I don't know anybody who actually bakes potatoes in an oven anymore. Baking a potato in a microwave is also one of those things we never dreamed of as kids.

When we built the house we bought a Maytag range. The range is unique in that it has TWO ovens. One is the large oven as one would expect but the second is a smaller oven. Instead of a pot storage drawer at the bottom of the range, the pushed the big oven down and put the little oven on top. We use that little oven 95% of the time. It heats up quickly. The big oven really takes awhile to heat heat. Course the small one cost less to run than the large oven and produces less heat. In the winter I don't really care about the extra heat since we can use it but in the summer that extra heat is expensive to generated AND then run the AC to remove.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

When we built the house we bought a Maytag range. The range is unique in that it has TWO ovens. One is the large oven as one would expect but the second is a smaller oven. Instead of a pot storage drawer at the bottom of the range, the pushed the big oven down and put the little oven on top. We use that little oven 95% of the time. It heats up quickly. The big oven really takes awhile to heat heat. Course the small one cost less to run than the large oven and produces less heat. In the winter I don't really care about the extra heat since we can use it but in the summer that extra heat is expensive to generated AND then run the AC to remove.

Later,
Dan

So far, I haven't seen that kind of range. We have a KitchenAid range and dishwasher that were here when we bought the place, and a built-in Kenmore microwave over the range, so I bought a KitchenAid toaster oven and a KitchenAid mixer. So far have not regretted any of it.

 

[3930dave]

Last time I checked (when we bought ours 10 years ago) in a normal sized electric kitchen range (stove top elements and oven) you can save energy in the oven portion if it is a self-cleaning oven.

Because of the super high temperature the oven runs at for self-cleaning, the cabinet has to be that much better insulated (fire hazard). Noticed the difference when we got the self cleaning oven, it stayed hot a lot longer after you switched it off.

Might consider a gas range when this one needs to be retired. I'm no cook/baker, but have heard that the way to go is gas stove top burners, with electric elements for the oven - many residential gas ovens seem to struggle to regulate the temperature as tightly as electric.

Rgds, D.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Running a refrig unit in a cool/cold environment kills it's efficiency. They need a significantly higher ambient temperature to exchange heat efficiently. May sound strange, but then that's thermodynamics for you.

I happen to know a little bit about thermodynamics and I disagree with the above theory that a warmer ambient temp makes a more efficient freezer. That's just totally silly. For one thing, the freezer will gain more heat from the room with higher ambient temps so the load is greater. Secondly, the heat sink (room air) being warmer means that there is a smaller differential between the coils and the heat sink so a less efficient transfer of heat from the freezer to the room which is how a freezer cools the icebox. It is true that some freezers have design parameters that make them not function at very very low temperatures, think below freezing, but a cooler room makes a more efficient freezer.

Right information, wrong reason. The compressor works fine, but the control circuitry doesn't. If the ambient temperature drops too low, it won't turn on the compressor, and the freezer warms up. Older freezers didn't have this problem. My parents bought their first chest freezer in the '50s, and it worked fine on an unheated porch. My new Sears Energy Star chest freezer stops working if the temperature in the garage drops too low.

Be interesting to know the real issue here. Im quessing that in cold environment you can get condensation of the refrigerant in the compressor. A compressor starting in this mode is in trouble. A PTC heater for the compressor would fix this and only use about $0.01/day in the warmer times.
larry
larry

 

[Bird]

Might consider a gas range when this one needs to be retired. I'm no cook/baker, but have heard that the way to go is gas stove top burners, with electric elements for the oven - many residential gas ovens seem to struggle to regulate the temperature as tightly as electric.

That's something else I haven't seen, or even heard of; gas stove top and electric oven. But over the years we've had natural gas, propane, regular electric "burners" and now the electric smooth top glass. I guess each his it's good and bad points; hard to decide which one we like best.

Incidentally, our current KitchenAid kitchen range oven is also a convection oven; a feature that we've never used in the 6+ years we've lived here.:laughing:

 

[3930dave]

Older residential compressors were definitely higher HP than what is used today. They now also run at higher rpm.

Reason 1:

"New, Improved" lower HP units can't move cold (due to low ambient temperature) refrigerant reliably/safely ?

(Just guessing).

Reason 2:

Old fridges had little or typically nothing for electronic controls.

Most today have electronic controls. A low cost way to (correctly) build electronics is to use (0 - 70)C spec'd parts, or even narrower range if you can get away with it.

Today, I suspect that most residential fridges are not built with more expensive Industrial or better rated (Operating Temperature wise) parts.

(I've spent a long time dealing with electronic component specs).

Bird - Convection does work well for baking. Frozen pies we used to buy would be done in something like 55 minutes, vs. 1hr 10 minutes.

Most large items that need to be in the oven for a while seem to benefit time wise with a Convection setting. The trick is finding out/guesstimating the time reduction. The pies we buy now no longer have the Convection time listed, but it does work !

Rgds, D.

 

[aczlan]

Might consider a gas range when this one needs to be retired. I'm no cook/baker, but have heard that the way to go is gas stove top burners, with electric elements for the oven - many residential gas ovens seem to struggle to regulate the temperature as tightly as electric.

I have seen that. We had a gas range at the last house and it was always erratic on temperature. We now have an electric range the the oven is spot on for temperature, but we prefer the gas cooktop.

Aaron Z