Alec Cameron wrote in a message to Kyle Hearn:
AC> Start by ruling out some of those "regular appliances". To
AC> succeed with solar energy you should accept some happy
AC> frugality in life style. I would omit the deepfreeze and
AC> have just a "bar frig" to hold very little perishable food.
This is a good idea. The only appliance I have that is always on is the 
fridge/freezer. I suppose getting a smaller more efficient unit would help 
quite a bit. The only oven I have is a small toaster oven, which does nicely 
for one person on a diet :-)
AC> For a laundry washer I would prefer the two- tub type which
AC> is manual or semi- auto. Stand there and drive the thing.
AC> Give the spin cycle a miss sometimes.
Most of the clothes I wear are handwashed or I let the dry cleaner do the 
shirts and pants. I hate laundry :-)
AC> Even if the neighbours and the building managers were
AC> agreeable, you couldn't do much with a west facing aspect.
AC> Your panels would need to be angled to the wall ie roughly
AC> SW and the afternoon sun would soon be attenuated by the
AC> opacity of the air/ smog at low angles.
I'm going to go ahead it give it a shot although not make much of an 
investment at this point. I figure a bit more experience will help when I 
move out in the country.
AC> You have already succeeded in energy economy, so you are
AC> well on the way to success!  Cheers.............ALEC
Thanks for the suggestions on the fridge, etc. I'm going to go buy a small 
unit this week and unplug the large one and see what the electic bill goes 
down to. After that I'll see if I can pick up an energy star compliant 
motherboard, etc. for my PC as my mac does and see if I can whittle a few 
more dollars off of the bill.
Last question...is there any sort of electric heater one can buy that is 
a)safe b)more energy efficient than usual? In the summer I turned on the air 
conditioner for about an hour or so weekly and am going to have to do 
something about heat this winter. I'd like to see what I could do besides 
have a fire (I have all wood furniture) to stay warm without using the heater 
in the apt. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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