Get a chest freezer. It’s much more efficient for long-term storage than an upright fridge with a freezer because the cold air doesn’t spill out when you open it.
Toss your incandescent and fluorescent lights. Get LED bulbs (not smart lights, just white LEDs). Where applicable, install timer switches.
Fuck cars, get a bike. A simple, sturdy one, like an onafiets. They run on toast and determination.
Understand the difference between having enough money to buy something and being able to afford something.
Unsubscribe from music/video streaming services. Return to the seven seas.
I don't have an omafiets, but a single gear bike. The only gear it does have is quite tough to start, but my God is it so much better than something with 8 gears or whatever. So much less effort once you get going. I never realised this, but apparently you lose a lot of power through the gearing.
The derailleur transmission design introduces a LOT of friction because the chain is forced to bend and twist between gears that are out of alignment, and it hates doing that. It also leads to increased wear.
I’m not an avid cyclist, and I found the inability to make inclines easier a no-go. I’m into electric assist though, but that increases bike price. I see quite a few used ones for sale tho.
The efficiency trade off of a chest freezer is often broken by people’s inability to remember what’s in it. If you can’t reach the stuff at the bottom then it all goes bad. This is why an upright most likely makes more sense, even though it’s less efficient. You end up wasting as much food simply from forgetting what’s in there.
Toss your incandescent and fluorescent lights. Get LED bulbs (not smart lights, just white LEDs). Where applicable, install timer switches.
It’s crazy how efficient LEDs are. They are a little bit more expensive but you’ll save it on your energy bill over time and you’ll have to replace them less.
People also don’t realize how much of their energy bill is heat & air conditioning. If you don’t have pets, turn your heat off or way down while you’re at work. Just make sure it stays above freezing and above the dewpoint. If you can get any smart thermostat for cheap, they’ll save you a ton of money over the long run if you’re like me and constantly forget to set the temperature before you leave for work.
Also, thick drapes work wonders at keeping the cold out of cheap windows. You can get them and the hardware to hang them pretty cheap from goodwill. You can also wrap them in Saran wrap if you really want to keep the cold out. They sell kits, but painters tape and a cling film are way cheaper if you can hide them behind some drapes.
I’d be careful about the HVAC thing. I read somewhere a while back that it can cost more to change temperature than to just leave it slightly lower/higher and just wear a sweater or just shorts and a T shirt. Changing temperature is especially expensive if you’re drawing more electricity during peak times to make that change, like getting home from work at 6pm or so, when rates are higher. If you have a small apartment it may not be so bad to change the temp in a smaller volume of space.
YMMV, check your rates and times you’d be changing temp. Wear a sweater or strip as much as is feasible.
Excluding variable energy pricing, it’s much more energy efficient to only heat and cool your home while you’re actually at home.
Think of it like a tea kettle. It’s definitely not energy efficient to keep the water boiling for the hours when you’re not home just because you might want a cuppa when you get home. The only benefit keeping the water hot is to brew your next cup quicker. The water is cooling off at the same rate it would if the heater was off, but energy is being pumped into it to keep it hot and therefore it is constantly losing energy.
This is also assuming your HVAC’s coefficient of performance is constant, which it’s not, but it still generally is way better to avoid heating and cooling while you’re away from home, especially if you live in an older less insulated home.
If you do have variable energy pricing, that can change things, and that’s when a smart thermostat can really save you money. Instead of heating and cooling around your schedule, you do it around the pricing treating your house like a battery. See: youtu.be/0f9GpMWdvWI?si=LjiAjNf6t8cU8OZ2
This video really only really works if your home is relatively well insulated (as he points out). If it’s not well insulated, you’ll be uncomfortable basically all the time.
Generally if you’re on a variable rate it’s better to set the thermostat closer to the outside temperature when you’re gone for more than 5 hours. If you’re not on a variable rate, that break even point is like 30 minutes.
Last Lemmy version had federation issues - the current one (0.19.2) supposedly fixed them. New threads should be populating correctly now, maybe give it a couple of days and check again?
If you do want to switch, the instance I’m on only blocks pornlemmy.com, ds9.lemmy.ml, voyager.lemmy.ml and enterprise.lemmy.ml: reddthat.com/instances
Not sure it has a “correct” name. I grew up having it called “egg in a hole,” but depending on where you’re from there are different names. I know people who call it “egg in a nest.” Wikipedia says:
There are many names for the dish, including “bullseye eggs”, “eggs in a frame”, “egg in a hole”, “eggs in a nest”, “gashouse eggs”, “gashouse special”, “gasthaus eggs”, “hole in one”, “one-eyed Jack”, “one-eyed Pete”, “one-eyed Sam”, “pirate’s eye”, and “popeye”.[7][8][9][10] The name “toad in the hole” is sometimes used for this dish,[7] though that name more commonly refers to sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter.
I can also attest to hearing “eggs in a basket” and “toad in a hole” growing up. My son has just dubbed the dish “egg bread” and requested it almost daily. He also calls fried eggs “dip eggs” and boiled eggs “shape eggs.” He was probably 3 when he solidified these terms, but they have all stuck, 6 years later.
-put a hole in your slice of bread
-butter both sides and set the pan on medium low heat
-toast the buttered bread in the pan and season it with salt (I toast both sides because the egg cooks pretty fast.)
-put a little tab of butter into the pan in the center of the hole
-crack an egg into the hole.
-little bit of salt on the egg and wait until the whites are almost set; a little bit of cooking spray on the egg if you're unsure about the non-stickness of your pan
-flip and wait until you achieve your perfect yolk
-plate and add ground pepper or whatever you desire
I honed my technique during COVID quarantine days.
An alternative:
-toast a slice of bread in a pan with butter and salt
-soft boil an egg
-serve the egg over the toast or use an egg cup and dip slivers of the toast into the egg
If they bring a generator to the water pump near my house I’m shutting off my water and heading to my sister’s house.
In 2021, the morning of the big freeze they parked a big diesel generator at the water pump. They told us there would be rolling blackouts, but we ended up losing power for 4 days. After it got down to 40° in my house, I drove halfway across the metroplex in snow and ice, with my kids, to my sister’s house because she had power.
Her house is on the same grid as a hospital, she never lost power. Not even a blip. Mine is just a suburban neighborhood. I’m convinced they knew they were going to kill our power for an extended time, so they brought out the generator for their water pump. But they didn’t tell us, so we were unable to properly prepare. So not only did a lot of people have damage that could have been prevented, but my kids now get scared every time it gets cold thinking we’ll be in the same situation again.
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