How to SAVE $100/mo off your electric bill!

Ok, first of all this applies mostly to people who have an:

- electric water heater
- electric cloths drier

This most likely will be an apartment dweller.. as I know so many of us are. This tutorial will show you, the electric everything apartment dweller, how to cut about $75 a month off your electric bill.

As you know, electricity is least efficient at generating heat. Beyond that, you want your electric bill to be lower so bad you have considered running a generator (don’t worry, we all have). As you probably already know.. a KWH is far cheaper from your electric company than from a gas powered generator. But you want to keep your electric bill a little less obvious.. so here we go..

Your water heater arguably costs about $1 per shower you take. Your cloths dryer costs about $1 per load of cloths you dry. I got these are values with a kill-o-watt meter.. and yes I like to take Hollywood showers! But besides that, a large electric hot water heater runs 24 hours a day burning a ton of electricity. It needs to go.

A cloths drier.. well lets just say there is a reason why no electric cloths driers have an “energy star” rating. It would scare you shitless! Haha

So its time to go GAS! Thru the miracle of readily accessible 5 gal propane tanks we are going to dry clothes and heat all your water.. which will dollar for dollar cost less anyways and save a ton of money off your electric bill.

Lets start with the cloths drier.. whip out the classifieds and buy a used gas clothes drier.. super bonus if you find one that’s for propane already!! Chances are it will be natural gas.. so lets convert it.

Go to a appliance retailer and order the propane conversion kit. Lowes just gave me one for free as every appliance they installed came with a propane conversion kit and they barely ever used them.




Take a screwdriver (mine required a square head) and remove the burner assembly.. you think its hard but its not.. its designed to be pretty easy to take out and replace.

This is what it looks like:






Replace the jet with the one supplied in the kit:







Reassemble..

(note: in my conversion kit there was also an air limiter plug that had to be installed but it was super simple and I did it before I even removed the burner from the machine)

Hook up your 5gal tank:




Test her out:





There is a big chunk of change off the electric bill!! aint she pretty?

The final touch (included with the conversion kit):



Now phase two.. the tankless water heater

Get one of these puppies from your local hardware store or Ebay.. mine was $150 drop shipped directly from china brand new in box (shipping was $45).

Since I bought mine new I just ordered the propane one. This unit delivers 2.6 gallons per minute of 120F water no sweat. Im sure it can do more but I set mine at 120F cuz it saves propane and thats way hot enough. Remember these are tankless so you can take a long shower and never have to adjust the hot water.. it doesnt get cooler like the tanks do during your shower.

Here she is mounted on to the back of the washer:









And here are the connections.. note that the cold water in the utility closet is divided between the washer and the hot water heater, the hot water on the utility closet is divided between the two as well.. the trick is to note.. the hot water for the whole apartment/house is actually coming from the cold water tap of the utility closet.. going thru the tankless heater, and then back into the hot side of the utility closet.







Now, for this to work.. you need to open the breaker for your electric hot water heater and shut the isolation valve to it. Do this prior to installing this unit and make sure no hot water flows out of any faucts.. then install this unit and you will have hot water again.

This is the finished product:





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You will also NEED the following:

After making all connections with teflon tape, use soapy water applied to the connections to check for propane leaks. Do not skip this step!

Install a "kiddie" brand plug in (not battery only) version carbon monoxide detector and exposive gas alarm. These cost less than $50 and will CYA. Do not skip this step!

You should always have a fire extenguisher in your home!

I also reccomend getting one of those water alarms (cost $10 at hardware store) and putting it on the floor of your utility closet.
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Well, thats it!

My results:

I added this unit and it dropped my electric bill between $75 and $100 per month. I do lots of laundry and take long showers.. and have a roomate who does the same.. but still.. thats pretty good!

The propane tank for the tankless water heater lasts about 1 month in the summer and its looking like a little more than half that in the winter. The drier appears to use way less than that.

wow, that was an excellent read. I just may have to try that.......

Let me know if you have any questions along the way!

about how many showers and clothes drying cycles do you get from that size propane.

and did hank hill really have you do this?

Dopest - haha.. no I actually had a prof in college that was hell bent on convincing us that propane is the most awsome fuel ever.

I have been using the piss out of the drier but I just got it last week.. its not nearly as much as the hot water heater. Once I figure out how much it uses Im actually going to hook it into the same tank as the hot water heater. The only reason I have them on individual tanks is so I can figure out how long the tank lasts just powering the drier.

I have been using that hot water heater for about three months now and I got a month per tank at an average of 2 showers a day plus a dishwasher and other hot water usage of course. I had to turn it up a little as it has gotten colder and I felt the tank today (two weeks into use) and its probably got about 1/4 of a tank left. I can only imagine that with the colder water coming in its saving me even more than if electricity was doing the same job though.

Can anyone add this to the link-o-rama?

Is Hank Hill your boss?Just kidding good info man and for those that stick with electrons the same 240V timer that controls my lights was controlling my hot water heater before I started growing.If your hot water heater is well insulated,you should only have to supply electricity to the unit for an hour every day,that'll save you some juice too.

I'm suprised how cheep the hot water heater you got is! How much more efficient are they than a regular gas powerd tank hot water heater (the kind that are a big insulated cylinder full of hot water all the time)? I saw a show on this old house where they praised those things and they seem cool in that you never run out of hot water and theyre more efficient I think!

Great tips man, and at 12 bucks to fill one of those tanks, and it lasts a month.... Wow!!!!

How I save money on the electric bill:

1) gas water heater set at lowest possible setting
2) shut off valve on shower heads to save hot water during shower
3) use the clothes line instead of the clothes dryer as much as possible
4) clean the heat exchanger coils on the refrigerator twice a year
5) use florescent bulbs instead of incandesent bulbs
6)plant deciduous trees around home and next to AC unit
7) insulate all water lines
8) draw blinds at night to keep warm air in, cold air out
9) insultate grow room, use lights during night, use thermostatic controls to cool it.

Deft - Im not sure how they stack up.. Im sure it depends on usage but again.. this rig aint bad at all and if you are gone for a few days it uses nothing.. a typical hot water heater would use a bunch of power during that time.

pontiac - thanks!!

rook - that is correct! However, its obviously gunna be a little less during the winter since it takes more energy to heat the cooler incoming water but yea.. I calculated that I would break even if the tank lasted two weeks (and I mean break even including the cost of the tankless heater over a year), and then I got 28 days out of my first tank and 31 days out of my second. Note that if anything, I take much longer showers now! hehe

Mack - thanks for the tips. its too bad I like long steaming piping hot showers and live in the ghetto where if I hung my clothes outside they would be gone in under an hour. Im sure many of you out there are under the same kind of circumstances. I worked on a ship for 4 years where I had to take those on and off showers, screw that! I do need to clean the heat exchanger on my frig tho.. thanks for the reminder!

Mackawber said:

How I save money on the electric bill:

1) gas water heater set at lowest possible setting
2) shut off valve on shower heads to save hot water during shower
3) use the clothes line instead of the clothes dryer as much as possible
4) clean the heat exchanger coils on the refrigerator twice a year
5) use florescent bulbs instead of incandesent bulbs
6)plant deciduous trees around home and next to AC unit
7) insulate all water lines
8) draw blinds at night to keep warm air in, cold air out
9) insultate grow room, use lights during night, use thermostatic controls to cool it.

Click to expand...

What they said.

Also have thermo operated attic fans to remove extreme heat in summer thus reducing wear on shingles and extra heat on ac unit.

Can and will attest to this thread

Can and will attest to this thread

Just #3 and #5 more then pays for my setup. Two 400w with soil and a couple of fans. AND my bill went down....

I got one of those new "electric pilots" on my gas hot water heater. I just put a switch on it. Turn it on during dinner, two showers, turn it off and still hot for dishes and a load of whites if needed. And our drier "died" (don't tell my 'ol lady it's a $5.00 part)
But gas is cheap, just not as cheap as me.

BRILLIANT!

thank you strainwhore!

Oh and for those who care, a whole load of laundry according to my meter adds less than ten cents to my electric bill. Before it was close to two dollars (figuring electric water heater and using hot water to wash).

Pretty f'ing advanced way to offset your electricity bill for your grow!

hey you know us pot smokers have to think outside of the box sometimes! haha

My whole concept is to find ways to offest the electricity bill without affecting quality of life aspects. I like long hot showers and nice clean dry clothes (and I go thru clothes like crazy.. 3 loads per week minimum). I have every light in the place replaced with a CFL or LED light (LED lights are used in outside lighting and the laundry/utility closet). I cant really say that I approve of the LED lights yet but one day they will be on par.

Right now the only thing we have to do different (if you concider it different) is swap out a 5 gal propane tank about every 3-4 weeks. I have two spare tanks so its not really a big deal and there is a filling station 2 blocks away.

I didnt mention it before but I even have a coleman camping grill that I whip out on days when I have a bunch of stuff I want to get cooked and use that instead of the electric range. I have the adapter that hooks it into the 5gal tanks so its more efficient overall and it saves $$ on the electric bill.

I guess if you live in an area where propane is readily available (like swap out tank centers at every grocery store) then you might want to concider it as an alternative to keep your electric bill below the radar. In my town the propane cylinder swapout price is as low as $15.99 right now and the fillup price is $14. The fillup is normally a better option becuase you can get more fuel in the tank that way if your lucky enough to get a lazy filler who doesnt watch the meter that closely.