mmm mithras was the sun god .. and from the east .. ie iran
maybe the three wise men, who came from the east, would have been believers of mithra ..
a longgggggg time ago, watso started a thread about his electricity usage .. on the food forum..
for what it is worth but watso updated everything .. and slashed his energy usage ..
so new fridge , tv, computer, microwave, induction cooktop, digital radio ,, maybe one or two other things.. oh installed led lights as well..
it might be worth monitoring the fridge for electricity consumption ... just a matter of turning everything else off - and just run the fridge for maybe half the day.. by now, everyone should have a new meter installed in the meterbox.. for what it is worth, but watso bought a gizmo which could monitor from the wall plug..
a bench top induction cooktop (
aldi had them on special a couple of weeks ago for $50 ) is perfect - and
very energy efficient .. mm and when aldi were clearing their plug in, dual cooktop for $90.. watso picked one up...
ok summer and cooling .. watso has a homemade version of the following ... just two extractor fans sucking the cool evening air into the bedroom .. indeed one fan is plenty ..
naturally .. does not work during the day.. but a fan and just wetting the clothing a bit, works wonders..
front end
loaders washing machines are obviously the best for washing clothes ... but watso has not used a washing machine for ages... watso washes his pantaloons in plastic container (with a screw on lid) .. and a bit of warm water, and
maybe a bit of cheap aldi dishwashing detergent ... just a good shake for 60 seconds - and the washing is clean ...
watso calls something like the above - as his bra and cap washer (
the fatso wears d cups for his manboobs)
watso recalls these being advertised years ago .. and watso bought one from the op shop .. but watso thinks that his washing system is better ..
watso has a range of different size containers .. eg watso washes his gstring panties in the following ,,
anyway, gentle on the clothes, and no electricity - and use just a few calories ...
and smelly socks .. just find an appropriate size container, and 75% fill with warm water (
and no detergent) .. just give a good shake - and dry - and the socks are good to wear again
in summer, hot water should not be a problem ,, watso has experimented a bit .. at the end of the day, it depends on how much convenience that a person needs .. being single makes things a lot easier
in real life, watso installed a second hand solar edwards hot water system (
with stainless steel tank - ie no sacrificial anode ) about 30 years ago only cost $400 and another $400 to install... still going strong .. these days, watso has disconnected the thermostat - and never uses the heating element ...
anyway, plenty of great idea on the net about cheap home made hot water systems ...
a super cheap idea that watso tested out - was a large capacity garden pot .. which watso picked up for free from kerbside .. and which nicely fitted inside two car tyres .. just used a bin liner, to stop the water going out .. and covered with a perspex lid .. the black tyres attract the heat and also provide insulation (
better with crumpled up newspaper inside ) ,, the result was plenty of warm water - and still warm the next morning (
should have tried using a insulated top for night time) ...
watso very rarely watches tv these days .. but has a 32 inch tv - and uses 100w per year
(from memory, that is using the tv 10 hours per day, every day for a year) .. ie about 1c per hour..
mmm the 42 inch plasma tv - cost about 6c per hour and that was on all the time ..
led lighting .. watso has a 2w led globe in the kitchen - which is on 24 hours per day (
cost 1c per day even watso can afford that).. the kitchen is dark (
watso insulated the east facing windows) .. for extra lighting, when required, watso has installed 4 spotlights ..
no harm in insulating windows ...
a lot of appliances used to use about 5/7 watts just for stand by power .. that added up to a lot ...
ok watso bought a new microwave .. watso forgets now.. but seems to recall that the energy saving was not much (maybe still used the same amount of stand by power) .. anyway, watso simply switches on the power at the wall socket when he wants to use the microwave . which is only used to warm up some food these days...
watso has played around with thermos (ie vacuum flask) and thermal cookpots .. just a matter of trial and error to work out what works best .. but there are energy savings there ..
eg 100gram of generic brand spiral pasta, in a 600ml vacuum flask - filled with boiling water - will cook in about 16 minutes ...
100 gram of brown rice .. first pre heated with boiling water for about 15 minutes - and washed .. then a new lot of boiling water .. and the rice is cooked in about 90 minutes (
using an cheap ikea 600ml vacuum flask from the op shop .. cost $2 ).. and the beauty is, that the brown rice does not overcook .. (
forget white rice ) .. and watso did not find that on the internet
oh .. and the total cost of electricity used - would be about 3 or 4c
vacuum flasks vary a lot in efficiency.. watso has posted about the matter in the food forum ...
rolled oats works perfectly in a vacuum flask.. eg watso might have pre prepared about 130gm of generic brand rolled oats in a 600ml vacuum flask - along with a good helping of generic brand dried fruit .. and in the middle of the night, when needing a pee .. just boil up 500ml of water - and the oats are ready (
and the currants/etc nicely softened) when needed in the morning ..
mmm and heating in winter.. watso has reverse cycle air conditioner and slow combustion wood fireplace (
and has plenty of free wood) .. but for himself, watso only uses a beanie on his bald head, and some warm clothing .. and lol lol cold in perth, is not really cold ...
mmm when watso had a full family .. his daily task in winter would be to fire up the slow combustion fireplace at about 6am .. so that everything was cozy warm in the kitchen/living areas ... ahh but that was a long time ago.. then watso became aware of the smoke/fine particles ..so watso installed reverse cycle air conditioning (
just one unit to the open area kitchen/dining/lounge area )
watso is suffering from late stage dementia - but has the trait of recalling events from a long time ago - but forgets what happened 5 minutes ago .. as watso recalls - but in the distant past, a pleasant way to stay warm, while watching
countdown - was to cozy up with a partner... maybe these days, an electric warming
throw blanket is worth thinking about ..
lol lol WATSO is a wealth of information .. indeed, watso knows more about anything and everything .. than donald trump
mmm a tv series maybe !!
ask the watso genius,
travelling all over the country side .. ask the watso geniusssssssss
