Chapter 5 – Powering Your Home And Energy Conservation
Lighting
Living in a cost efficient home doesn’t mean living in the dark. Just because you’re trying to save up on utilities doesn’t mean you should be stumbling around in pitch black darkness either! So let there be light. But let it be energy efficient light!
Natural light
This is perhaps the most cost efficient lighting solution. Sadly, this is only good during the day or when the sun is out. Nevertheless, a few extra watts saved from using natural light should be incentive enough to use it.
How do you do this?
Remember the advice to install windows? Well, if you install enough windows all throughout the length of the container home then you should have ample light coming in without any cost to you. But once again, this’ll only be good during daylight.
Another thing you can do is to install a huge door that opens up to the outside. This in effect is a huge window if you really think about it, albeit without the glass there though. You can effectively reduce the amount of dust or other elements from coming in by installing a screen door which you can close when the main doors are open.
Another way that you can take advantage of the sun is to install transparent roofing materials. This can be spaced out in between your normal roofing sheets. These are often plastic and can easily be cleaned out as it acquires grime over time.
Use the power of LED
LED strips are now cheaper and easy to purchase in regular malls and this is another low consumption electrical appliance that you can use in your own home. For basic lighting at night, this should be enough if you run entire strips along walls.
LED Bulbs
Led bulbs can be used on normal lamps as replacement for the normal bulbs they use. This will instantly cut your energy consumption down and it will also reduce heating issues.
Powering your container home can be done both ways. You can have the traditional way of getting power by connecting to a power source or you can power your home with “off-grid” sensibilities.
Solar panels are becoming cheaper nowadays. What initially started out at $2000 dollars per solar panel is now down to almost a tenth of that price. This means more and more people now have access to solar panels.
Installing a solar panel on top of your roof should be an easy feat. Most solar panels come with installation instructions and can easily be done alone or with the help of another person.
Make sure you point your solar panels in the direction where it can maximize the amount of sunlight in a day’s time. So this usually means pointing it towards the east. There are even solar panels that are automated to follow the sun as it travels from the east and down to the west.
For excess energy derived from the sun, you can store them in batteries. A couple of batteries should help you with your power needs throughout the night.
Another option you can go for is harnessing wind energy. Not only will this provide free energy but it has the potential of providing additional cooling. Although this is a costlier endeavour it is still a viable one once you have enough funds.
For your wiring and electrical needs, (if you’re pretty handy with electric wires) you can do it yourself. This should help save you a couple hundred bucks instead of hiring an electrician. Just make sure you are adept enough to ensure that there are no exposed wires which could lead to electrical fires. This can also efficiently be hidden away by routing your wires beneath your floors or behind the plywood interior.
Energy Consumption and Conservation
Just because you’re paying practically nothing to power your own home does not mean you’ll be squandering power needlessly. When you’re off grid or semi off grid you’ll be able to save a lot of money from paying the local power company.
Producing your own energy should make you more aware of just how much you consume in a day’s time. This should make you more conscious of just how much of Earth’s resources you use.
Take a look at the amount of energy you use and what appliances and gadgets you use. Are these essential to your daily life? Are there any devices/ gadgets you can choose not to use in order to lower your energy consumption?
You can start becoming more conscious today by monitoring your energy consumption and logging it into a logbook and checking how much you use each day and what changes were made that would affect the outcome of your energy consumption per day.
You can also choose to purchase more energy efficient appliances and replace those that are energy inefficient.
You have to remember that resources are finite and each one of us has a social responsibility to ensure that there is minimal wastage with regards to the usage of these resources.
Added Note:
Using a Generator to power your home
Using a generator to power your home or as an emergency power source is also a good idea. A small generator should be enough to provide all of your power needs. The only set back to this is the noise it emits during operation and of course the constant refuelling that you will need to do in order to keep it running.