Give up electricity?

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Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Give up electricity?

Post by Dgflorida »

In a recent frugal discussion, someone said "I will conserve electricity, but I won't live like a pioneer." Over the decades, most people have become more and more dependent on electricity. And every year, there are more and more electronic devices to take over previous manual activities. While many of them promote convenience, they do use electricity which is not free. What electrical conveniences would you be willing to give up? What ones have you given up?
Grannysewstoys
Posts: 4156
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:37 pm

Re: Give up electricity?

Post by Grannysewstoys »

I no longer have a waffle iron, blender, toaster oven. I only have one TV a small 32 inch flat screen.

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Jackielou
Posts: 13425
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:51 pm

Re: Give up electricity?

Post by Jackielou »

Many electrical appliances are now energy efficient and I have been purchasing those as the old inefficient ones leave my home (break down).

Where I live you can not do without heating in the winter or air conditioning in the summer. Hubby lived in an old farmhouse with no furnace, heated by a wood burning stove. By the time the heat got to his and his brothers room there was very little left. Blankets were frozen from their breath so there is no way we would ever go back to wood burning. While I enjoy the dance of flames in a fireplace it is not an efficient way to heat a home.

We used to use fans to cool our house in the summers. While it did move the air around the fans did not really keep the house cool. Taper candles melted in our cupboards it got that hot.

As far as my other appliances, yes they use electricity, but at a lower rate than the oven or stove (110 amp instead of 220 amp), they save me money and time (time is money to me as I could easily be doing something else during the time it takes to cook something in the oven).

I guess you can gather I will keep my gadgets and not give them up. However in order to conserve electricity we purchase energy efficient appliances, turn lights off in rooms not in use, use lines downstairs to hang clothing in the winter or in rainy weather, only wash full loads, and if I use the oven cook more than one item in it.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
colonialgirl
Posts: 1835
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:01 am
Location: Central Illinois

Re: Give up electricity?

Post by colonialgirl »

None. I live a lifestyle where I try and conserve wherever possible already like Jackie says. But to willingly give up air, heat, stove, dw, washer and dryer that I can afford - no way. Comfort is just as important to me as money.

Ten or so years ago, we were without power for a week 2 times in 5 months. It was awful. We spent the entire time feeding the fire to try and keep the one room bearable and preparing food and lugging it out to the gas grill to cook it. After that we bought a whole house generator that automatically kicks in when the power goes out. It was worth every penny.

I do many frugal things, as we all do, but they are things I enjoy doing. I hate waste and try and avoid it whenever possible. But deprivation as a voluntary lifestyle doesn't hold any allure for me.
clemencia2us
Posts: 11445
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 9:21 am

Re: Give up electricity?

Post by clemencia2us »

We have natural gas also

Our stove is gas and we can light the burners with a match - no need for the electric ingnition things

We kept a gas wall heater in the bathroom - so can still warm up that and the bedroom

I have solar powered charger for my iphone and ipad.

We lose power about every other month for hours. I'm used to it.

If it got really bad, we would just take off and go somewhere where it was still available. Of course this would only happen if we didn't have a bunch of pets - :lol:
rinty
Posts: 1919
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:54 am

Re: Give up electricity?

Post by rinty »

Agree with CG, " deprivation as a voluntary lifestyle"........is just pointless. In fact , worse than pointless, its actually stupid.

Any idiot can be uncomfortable.

I DO think its important to use anything wisely, ergo decent energy efficient is more " green" than sucking the life out of some dinosaur piece of junk . They gave us a smart meter which annoys me..........but it does please me that it informs me our usage is low.

I remember years ago , prob 2005 or so, when I would be forever turning things OFF that the then teenagers left on stand-bye mode. Showed them the difference in monthly cost. DH jokes about my turning things OFF.

" Your mother trusts the fridge, guys "

One thing I won't do that is a money saver/energy saver is do the washing or use a dryer overnight. I'm sure it does save money but you do hear horror stories about house fires happening that way.
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