Appliances

现代家园有很多电器。您在家中做出的设备选择可以帮助减少电力需求。殖民地太阳能房屋已经存在了很多年，并且专门为其高质量和能源效率而选择了一些设备。在这里，我仅讨论最近购买的电器。退休后，较旧的电器将被高效设备替换。

Lighting

An ordinary incandescent lightbulb is perhaps the most inefficient appliance imaginable. Only about 15% of the electric energy consumed ends up as visible light; the rest ends up as heat. This increases the need for cooling in the summer and amounts to resistive heating in the winter (which is much less efficient than geothermal heating, as discussed in theGeothermal section）。Fluorescent lightbulbs, including compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL), are about four times as efficient and are now so inexpensive that you are burning money if you are still using incandescent lightbulbs. What I like even better are LED bulbs, which are over 80% efficient. They cost more, but the prices are reasonable, and they last 25,000 hours. They come on at full brightness, and some are even dimmable.

This 11-watt LED bulb gives off the equivalent light of a 60-watt incandescent bulb. There are now many different LED bulbs to choose from. This particular bulb is dimmable and is available at an attractive price.

我们在饭厅里有一个吊灯，它使用了白炽的烛台灯泡，我们喜欢我们可以调暗适合这种情况。一旦可调节LED可用，我们将用更好的灯具替换吊灯，然后切换到LED灯泡。枝形吊灯不是专门为LED灯泡设计的，但它们的功能很好。我们也必须替换调光开关，因为它与LED灯泡不兼容。由于餐厅的灯光很大，所以我注意到下一个电力账单上的电力减少。

我们不会打扰卤素灯泡。毕竟，它们仍然是白炽灯泡，比普通白炽灯泡高25％。如果托马斯·爱迪生（Thomas Edison）今天还活着尼克·霍尼亚克（Nick Holonyak）。We even have LED night lights.

这是另一个技巧：使用运动敏感的灯开关。我们的地下室游戏室被一堆荧光灯照亮，我们发现，无论我们多么勤奋，有时我们都会无意间整天或整夜都将它们留在那里。现在，我们有了一个运动敏感的灯开关，当我们从楼梯上行走并在不活动10分钟后将其关闭时，它会打开灯光。它甚至在黑暗中看到运动 - 它对我们身体发出的无形红外光很敏感。在我们的地下室洗衣房中，我们安装了一个计时器开关，该开关在选择预定时间后关闭了灯。

Water heater

In an all-electric house such as Colonial Solar House, the water heater must be electric. A standard electric water heater just uses electric resistance to heat the water. While this is 100% efficient, there is a better way. There are now heat pump water heaters on the market that are over 200% efficient. This means that for each unit of electric energy consumed, over two units of heat energy are produced. How does that work?

它以与空调相同的方式工作。空调会冷却房屋的内部，并将热量转移到您的房屋外部（对空调中的空调有更精致的解释Geothermal section）。热泵热加热器将热量转移到水箱中。在此过程中，地下室的空气正在冷却和除湿，这在夏天很有价值。

The heat pump water heater draws preheated water from another tank; this water was used to cool the compressor in the geothermal heat pump, as described in the Geothermal section. Thus water heating is integrated with the geothermal system.

Because a geothermal system is always installed with an electric water heater, we received a rebate for installing a heat pump water heater.

冰箱

当我们的冰箱于2012年去世时，我着手寻找适合我们需求的市场上最有效的模型。出乎意料的是，很难找出我正在寻找的冰箱的效率 - 通常将信息埋在网站上的某个地方，而不是像我预期的那样处于领先地位和中心。经过一番研究，我定居在KitchenAid的反深度模型上，该模型使用了约50瓦的电源（尝试使用KitchenAid的网站并找到效率等级）。这不是高档的设计师冰箱；实际上，它是KitchenAid最便宜的车型之一。

后来我想知道使用了什么冰箱春分之家, the zero net energy house built in Urbana in 2010. You guessed it: exactly the same refrigerator (except for the color).

干衣机

我们以前有一个燃气干衣机，但是由于我的目标是将所有电动都捐赠给人类的栖息地。然后我打电话给Ameren并停止我们的天然气服务。这节省了我们每年250美元的客户费用。

So now you are wondering what electric clothes dryer we would opt to purchase. So am I—we haven’t purchased one yet. We don’t use our clothes dryer very much, preferring to hang dry our clothes (outdoors in summer, indoors in winter). We do use the clothes dryer for sheets and towels, and thus far I have been taking them to a launderette to dry. We do intend to purchase a clothes dryer; because we use it so little, a simple electric clothes dryer may be the right choice for us.

在世界其他某些地方，您可以购买比普通电动烘干机更有效的热泵烘干机（请参阅上面的热泵热水器的讨论）。这些尚未在美国市场上可用，但是希望它们能在未来几年内。Equinox House有一个，但这是通过特殊安排来获得的。

它花费了什么？

Lighting: You would be making the right financial choice to unscrew every incandescent lightbulb in your house and throw it away, even if you just bought it. Also toss out any bulbs you have in storage. Fluorescent lights use so much less electricity, and are so inexpensive, that you will start saving money almost immediately. But if you are really clever, you will skip ahead to the latest technology, the LED. These use even less electricity than fluorescent lights, andAmeren is selling them at such a great pricethat you will be saving even more money, especially given that these bulbs have lifetimes of 25,000 hours.60瓦的同等LED灯泡yields an annual return of a whopping 68% if it is used for 3 hours per day. What are you waiting for?

Heat Pump Water Heater：从当前价格来看，热泵热水器的价格比具有类似质量和容量的普通电热水器高约600美元。这似乎很多，直到您意识到它将为您节省每年的电力300美元。这相当于50％的免税年收益。

The comparison with a natural-gas water heater is not as favorable. The heat pump water heater costs about $400 more, and because natural gas is currently relatively inexpensive, the yearly operating cost is about the same. Keep an eye out for discounts; I got my heat pump water heater for $200 less than its list price.

A heat pump water heater makes good sense together with a geothermal system, as described in theGeothermal section。它有资格获得Ameren折扣，因为始终使用电热水器安装地热系统。如果您一直走并终止天然气服务，那么您每年都会节省250美元的客户费用。

冰箱：节能冰箱通常不会比效率较低的型号要多得多。如上所述，请留意折扣：我以其在线价格少得多的在线价格。

干衣机: We generally hang dry our clothes, which is free. Your clothes will last longer, which is a savings. In the winter, hang drying helps humidify the house. In the summer, we hang dry outdoors. If you live in a neighborhood that forbids outdoor clothes drying, you can use a dehumidifier to hang dry your clothes indoors in the summer. This is about as efficient as a heat pump clothes dryer.

We will have to wait for heat pump clothes dryers to hit the US market.