We took the mini plunge

Without casting aspersions on anyone in particular,,,

When you buy a new fridge because you are trying to " be green", it makes little sense to recycle the old for someone else to use. (Unless they have a VERY old inefficient fridge!) The worst is to take your old fridge the garage or basement for a beer fridge! If we could get rid of all the fridges that are sitting around wasting energy to keep a few beers of sodas cold we would be way ahead! Make room for your daily ration in your real fridge!

Icaru

 

It's not all about being green, thrift enters into it as well. I don't physically junk things that still work, it's just not in my genes. If I wasn't reselling the old fridge I wouldn't be getting the new one until the old one began to break down--my guess is in about 5 years. Plus, what do you think happens when you let the delivery person haul your old fridge away? I suspect that it goes through a quick evaluation somewhere to see if it has any resale value. If it doesn't it gets scrapped. If it does have some value, someone is still going to end up with it.

Chances are whoever ends up with this one will be bumping an even worse one or can't afford a new one. And I did clean the coils...that seems to be making a considerable dent in its energy usage (and hurting the economics of the swap out. ) I wish I had done a before/after power study at the time of the coil cleaning as the current performance is slightly below its original energy guide sticker.

In some ways this is like cars...the greenest thing to do is drive your existing one until it is ready for the salvage yard, which is what happens with most of my vehicles (unless someone begs me to sell them the old one, has happened.)

p.s. if there was a program to buy old refrigerators to scrap them, rather than reselling them I would prefer that.

 

We just got a new bottom freezer. After some rough measurements using a UPM meter, looks like the new one is more efficient than the ten-year old one by about 20-25%.

Can't do much about the dryer since our HOA does not allow hanging clotheslines anywhere around the house, even though we have lots of sun here in Texas in the summer (and lots of wind in winter too).

My mum-in-law in NZ is always amazed every time she visits that we can't hang our clothes outside to dry.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B001GISS0O?tag=priuschatcom-20

 

Work to change your HOA rules! On the basis that it is in the interest of national security/patriotic/ green not to waste energy on what nature will do on her own!

I hate the concept of HOA's! I have also always been a fan of asking forgiveness rather than permission. What are they going to do,,, take my house away? In this economic environment? Get a grip!

Icarus

 

I hang mine under a veranda where they can not be seen by anyone.
A garage is a great place for a retractable clothes line

 

If you have a nosy neighbour, the best way to scare them is to hang out tightie-whities and bikini briefs, especially if they have suggestive words on them

 

Make sure what you are doing is scaring them, not exciting them.

 

I thought the goal was to reduce energy consumption not scare people?
A solid fence between your house and the next about 2 metres from your wall will provide a private space to hang clothes where they can't be seen and don't make the place look trashy.
My veranda cost less than my clothes dryer and isn't made from budget materials.
Stratco Outback Flat Verandahs Patios Carports Awnings Pergolas - Stratco Outback, Outback verandahs, Do it yourself, DIY kits

 

I quickly found out that is exactly what happened, they got excited instead

 

No, in my case the goal was to frighten the nosy neighbours. It had the opposite effect

 

While I dislike the concept to some degree, they tend to be a necessary evil in preserving property value/desirability as a place to live. In comparing similar neighborhoods with/without HOA's that have been around for a generation or two or I've become more accepting of them.

In Texas there were some funny ones. Texas has idiotically weak zoning so some of the HOA's overcompensate for this by being real nazis. I locked horns with one once when they were a bit over-officious, they never messed with me again.

I'm not going to fight over laundry though. There are other issues that have no potential downsides for the neighborhood--solar water heating being one example.

 

Yes get on the HOA and change their stupid rules. This crap of aesthetics over logic just kills me. When I lived in Vancouver I was on the Strata Council (Canadian name for HOA) The bull that flew around and the crazy power trips people were on was just mind blowing. I hated it , but... I was happier being on the council and having some control over them, than that sit back and let a bunch of small minded people control what I could and couldint do based on their personal agendas. Our building had the same bylaw. I managed to change it so we could put out racks but not perminate lines but that was fine with me.
Being on the council certanly gave me an insight into politics. it was just scary!

 

Now extend that to municipal politcs, state/provincial politics, and finally federal politics. That is how our system actually works

Depressing, isn't it?

 

Yes, he was

 

Update on KWh usage. I finally got around to checking out my comed bills. I use on average 70-78KWh a month on my house and barn. Last year my total consumption was 982 KWh. I wish I could get by on the same amount in gallons of Propane! I found one of my spare heat tapes, a 30' one, it is 18 watts, the tank heater OTOH is 250 watts, and the sad part is, it has been wasted this uear because it has either been too cold to let the horses outside, or icy where they travel to get to the pasture. Now its is too messy and slick with mud.

 

That doesn't sound right, perhaps a missed decimal? Before you said your electric ran around $200/month. The above would be less than $10/month. Did you actually mean just the electric for the barn?

If you can run your house and barn on only 982 kWh/year then my hat is off to you. For 6,000 square feet and a barn 9,820 kWh/year would seem more likely. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding.