20 ways to REALLY reduce your summer utility bills

Thanks - yes - I am very familiar with those. They can keep food marginally cool but really suck up the electricity. Thermoelectric diodes i believe is what they use. i even tried one of those fridges and it was a joke.... even that kept things marginally at 45F.

The best solution I've found is an ice maker powered by solar panels in the middle of a summer day. Next summer i will add a couple solar PV panels and try one of the new 'efficient' freezers and try freezing water bottles... that's what seems to work with a lot of people.

I personally don't care for the expensive SunFrost fridges that use propane which is how many off-grid people go.

@winsol3 - Thank you. Sorry to hear that, but you just saved me some money. One reason I wanted to try the car cooler was for traveling, because I sometimes spent too much money on a room if it had a fridge in the room. I will have to start carrying a cooler big enough for ice, I guess. As it turns out, I have almost quit traveling anyway.

I would really like to work out getting along without solar panels and batteries. Now I am thinking about making a big wooden box that can be moved, insulating it well, and keeping a cooler in it with ice for lettuce and greens. The big box would be primarily for food storage. We had a lot of days around 110 this summer and I worried about the seeds and oils especially.

I had a small freezer and it wasn't too bad to freeze gel packs (or jars of water) and put them in the cooler, except for when I was away too long. It was a good experiment, though, because I found out that my fridge didn't seem to raise my electric bill by more than a couple of dollars. My bill tends to stay under $28, even in summer with fans going constantly and lots of computer time. I didn't use hot water (the cold was plenty warm). So it was just for fans, fridge, laptop charging and the hot plate once in awhile. And lights sometimes, but not usually. Oh yeah - and the blender each morning. It would be really tough to live here without fans. Everything else I could let go of.

Its the heat from the fridge that bothers me more than the cost now. I will have to make the zeer pot idea work.

We had a low of 47 last night. Unbelievable. I am freezing, but at least my stored food has now cooled down.

I sometimes put out a kid's wading pool, fill with water out of the hand pump near the porch, and take my bath in late afternoon when the water is sun heated to a nice warm temp. Then, after it cools down by next morning, I use it to water the garden located near there. I always use a mild soap like castille which should not hurt the plants, or sometimes no soap at all, as I just need to rinse the perspiration off from working out in the hot daytime temps in the garden. Most people use too much soap on their skin which dries out the natural oils. My property is heavily wooded and secluded from neighbors, but not on one side and on that side I put up a couple of metal posts, string a clothesline and throw a sheet over it for privacy.

My house is on a slab, and a spring is under the kitchen floor so it is naturally cool all summer anyway indoors. It might get up to 93 degrees outside and is always a nice 70 degrees inside. Winter it never freezes either, even though it might get minus 5 degrees outside.

I do cook outside as much as possible in the summer, and would love an outdoor canning kitchen/bath house/laundry room. In fact, my husband is building one for me now!

Red Cloud - lucky woman!

I just found this site: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. Fascinating...

"...for any renewable facility to make an appreciable contribution – a contribution at all comparable to our current consumption – it has to be country-sized. To provide one quarter of our current energy consumption by growing energy crops, for example, would require 75% of Britain to be covered with biomass plantations. To provide 4% of our current energy consumption from wave power would require 500 km of Atlantic coastline to be completely filled with wave farms. Someone who wants to live on renewable energy, but expects the infrastructure associated with that renewable not to be large or intrusive, is deluding himself..."

Use wind to cool hot areas:

Slap a vertical trellis up in the path of the hottest winds -- begin it a foot from the ground; it should be no less than 6 feet tall. Once your chosen vines are tall enough, trim the leaves from the bottom foot. The wind running underneath will be cooled by the shade/dampness of the vines -- lovely on bare feet! Even better with misters (ducks and hummingbirds love them).

Cook only at night, so the open house can release all that heat before the day begins.

Determine where air currents run in the house; encourage them with fans/propped doors to 'suck' hot air out. This can be encouraged by making the exit side of the wind cold; shade or hosing down a wall works.

Suck some mint to cool your mouth.

Cook less...

That is why the U.S. is fat and disgusting. How about "cook smarter". Cook grains in preparation for more than one meal, use alternatives like solar, etc. Plus a fuller fridge is a more efficient one.

On the note of growing trellised vines a bit away from the house but near the walls. You could probably make it so it goes up to the edge of the roof with some strong wire mesh or something to connect it there and give the rainwater a line to come down to the roots of the plants. I've seen a few 'sustainable' centerpiece houses that have done that and it looked pretty cool actually.

So it waters itself and is far enough from the house it shouldn't do to much damage or you can see when it is going for it.

Indigenous peoples around the globe who lived in very hot climates frequently built their abodes underground, where the ambient soil temps kept it from getting too hot during the day. Great for sleeping and no need for AC. My house in the N.C. mountains is on a slab, no basement, but it is so cool all summer I never need AC and in fact, have to put on a long sleeved blouse or a light jacket when I come in overheated from the garden.

Last summer, just for fun, I put a small wading pool out in the sun, put up clothesline around it to hang sheets over for a "screen", and took baths out there with just the water warmed from the sun. I always use castille soap so it doesn't hurt the soil which may have something planted in it eventually. I also have a fire pit outside with a rack I can set pots on, or a sheet of galvanized I use my stainless steel or cast iron cookware on and in summer time I use it a lot, using up some of the scrappy wood or fallen branches I need to clean up out of the yard anyway. It's kind of like camping out, just at home.

I think most of the population has become soft from dependence on energy hog appliances. The day is coming when we won't have any of that, and we'll have to know how to survive (and thrive) without it.

Only a couple of generations ago, our ancestors didn't have those things and they got along just fine. Most of the people in rural areas had a well house to keep milk and butter cool, but not cold. When milk clabbered, they just used it to make cornbread or biscuits or ate it as it was. Eggs will keep at least three weeks as long as they are unwashed so the "bloom", which is the natural coating they come in, is still intact. Keeping them slightly cool will extend that. People would cook only what they could consume at one meal or if they had leftovers, it was something that did not require refrigeration and would keep at room temperature to snack on later. Often it was just bread or fruit. When bread is totally dry (think biscotti) it doesn't mold and keeps for months.

The real key to everyone having whatever they need is to be a good neighbor and friend and help one another, sharing what we have. (This does not include moochers, they need to be gotten rid of quickly.) My best childhood memories were of the extended family getting together for corn, or pecan harvest or hog killing. It was a great social event, the feast was scrumptious, and we all went home with food.

When we share knowledge, we improve the quality of lives for those who listen and learn. This is why Permies is so great!

We built this place, so there are no windows on the west facing wall and the south facing windows are under an overhang. Regardless, it's hot and humid here. I bought insulated drapes (pretty cheap on overstock) and hung them on every window. I pull them closed just after b'fast and keep them closed until dark. That alone brought the electric bill down 15% last summer.

Use solar heated water to shower, and shower outdoors to keep the humidity out of the house.