Misc Home Improvements

This weekend, I dug into the Duke Energy "Energy Efficiency Kit" that I was given.  I changed out some light bulbs which I hadn't done previously.  Unfortunately, the CFLs in my MBR ceiling fan flicker at night, so I'm guessing those might need to be changed back...or maybe I'll just install one bulb instead of two.

I also replaced my shower head with the new 1.5 gpm shower head.  It works great!  Not to mention my old one didn't have the rubber flow restricter installed so it was at least putting out 2.5-3 gpm previously.  This should not only save water, but more importantly, reduce the hot water usage and regen required.

I also setup my downstairs (den) HTPC frontend to go to "sleep" when i shut it off.  That saves me about 32W of 24/7 power reducing it from 40W to 8W.  It's not zero, but still a nice reduction.

Next up...I'll be upgrading the main HTPC (which uses about 100W @ idle).  To do this, I need to pretty much need to rebuild the main components (cpu/mobo/memory).  Rumor has it the AMD "bulldozer" will be optimal when it comes out in June/July.  And that is supposed to idle around 10-20W which is a healthy reduction in power usage.