Waste, waste, waste

Friday, 5:55 pm

By Kate

Jan

16

2009

Since the lad has been home, our electricity usage has gone up quite significantly. December involved Christmas lights and those little things eat up electricity like nobody’s business. But it was something I was willing to consume, although I’d still prefer one spotlight and lots of greenery. I’m still working on my neighbor to go with that idea one of these years. I was less careful with the lights than I was last year, but still more conservative than my neighbor wanted to be. She argued for leaving them on from dusk through 10:00 at night. I suggested 6:00 until 8:30. That’s what I did last year and it didn’t go over so well. We compromised and lit them at 4:30 and left them on until 9:00. And, of course, having an extra computer and a television for DVDs and instant Netflix viewing have added up. Also...I plugged the dorm refrigerator back in. I seem to live quite well without a fridge for most of the year. But with the lad’s cooking frenzy, we needed to keep some things cold. This winter has provided natural freezing, however. I stuck a cooler on the back porch and since the temps have rarely (like two or three times) gone above freezing, everything in it stays frozen solid.

There are days, however, when things go remarkably awry. When I checked the electric meter today, I was floored to note that we’d used nearly 12 kilowatt hours of electricity yesterday. I haven’t used that much in well over a year. I shouldn’t have been floored, really.

This morning I discovered the refrigerator door ajar. And I didn’t notice until this afternoon that the back porch light was still on from our wood fetching foray last night. Just about every appliance in the house was still on standby mode because I neglected to make the rounds to shut them all off before I went to bed last night. That drives me crazy. And on top of that, I discovered that my electric blanket was on when I went to bed last night. It must have been on for most of the day. Abbie apparently stepped on the control button. I have a hard and fast rule that the blanket goes on a half an hour before I go to bed to make it toasty and then I shut it off. Abbie evidently doesn’t appreciate my rule. I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, but I am also sure that she especially enjoyed lounging on my bed all day yesterday. I should have been suspicious when she was on top of the quilt rather than underneath it. I’ve since moved the control out of her reach.

Yesterday really did little more than reflect enormous waste. I’m struck by how easily it happened, too. A little less vigilance than normal messed up my figures for the entire month. Nuts.

Humidity, bane of my summer existence

Sunday, 7:55 pm

By Kate

Jul

20

2008

This has been one of those summers that makes me realize that it truly is a toss up between winter and summer around here. They’re both awful. Although it has been fairly toasty lately, that’s not my gripe. It’s the stinkin’ humidity at rainforest levels. Maybe even higher than rainforest levels. And it has been relentless. Which presents a few problems....

1. Mildew - when the humidity stubbornly stays above 90%, mildew grows rapidly. On everything.

2. Laundry - just try drying clothes on the clothesline when the air is fairly dripping...for days and days on end. See #1.

3. My sheets are clammy and damp—pretty sheets simply do not mitigate the misery.

4. It’s so not fun putting on clothes that feel like I fished them out of a swimming pool 30 seconds ago even though I just pulled them out of the dresser drawer.

5. Damp footprints on the floors and carpets that feel like they were just rained on...ewww!

It really does make me wonder how people used to cope before the advent of electricity. Did they just go about their daily business reeking of mildew? Or what?

I semi-caved this month and my electricity use has about doubled. Which is to say...about 200 kWh this month instead of 100. It pains me enormously, but I just plain reached my tolerance levels for mildew, eternally damp stinky clothes, and leaving damp observable footprints on my floors.

I have used my dryer more this month than the previous 12 months combined. And...I’ve used the air conditioner about 8 days this month so far. At least long enough in the evenings to cool the bedrooms down a bit and wring some of the moisture out of the air (and the sheets).

Adding insult to injury, our air quality has been horrible this month. The weather service has issued air quality alerts several days running and they’re not kidding. I have even noticed that breathing tends to be a bit labored when trying to do anything outside. It even gets noticeable in the house when the house humidity gets into the 80+% range. Quite uncomfortable. I can’t even imagine what it must be like for people with asthma or other respiratory ailments. The humidity, of course, is what intensifies the discomfort.

Well, what’s a person to do? You know, aside from standing on the street corner with a big old sign that screams about air pollution and wasting energy and releasing all sorts of foul gunk into the air? With a face mask on. Like I have a leg to stand on when I’m running the AC and the dryer at full tilt.

Compromises, I suppose. Somewhere (I don’t remember where), yesterday, I read a blurb about such a compromise with regard to AC. As long as the air is dry, people can tolerate a much higher temperature in the house. Now, it’s true that heat doesn’t particularly bother me as long as the air is tolerably dry. And mildew doesn’t thrive in dry air regardless of heat...soooo....

The suggestion offered was using a dehumidifier and a ceiling fan (or other fan) for air circulation.

I dragged out my dehumidifier this morning and plugged it it. The relative humidity in the house was 87%. Pretty uncomfortable. Within a few hours, it had decreased to 56%. The house temp stayed constant at about 79°, but actually felt much cooler than before.

I have the house humidity down to about 52% now and that’s about perfect. I set the dehumidifier dial back a bit so that it only cycles on a couple of times an hour and, so far, the humidity has stayed constant in the house (and it’s drizzling/misting/fogging out with 100% humidity)...using way less electricity than if the AC was on.

Besides that...I can dry clothes on the clothes rack in the house, saving an additional 2-4 kWh per load.

So, I’m calculating that between the AC and the dryer, I’m saving about 12-14 kWh each day that I’m not using them both. The dehumidifier uses (according to my kill-a-watt meter) about 3.8 kWh for a day’s use (about 10 hours). That’s a pretty significant difference while still maintaining comfort and utility (drying clothes sans dryer or mildew...and eliminating mildew altogether). Total daily net savings is about 8.2-10.2 kWh. And that, of course, is not every day of the month...just the most egregiously humid ones....hahaha....when haven’t they been lately?

It’s not a perfect solution, but, in this foul, wretched climate, it is definitely a comfortable and much less energy intensive one.

March electricity

Monday, 3:22 pm

By Kate

Apr

14

2008

In general, the trend line for my electric use is going down, with a few bumps here and there. According to the 90% rules, monthly household use needs to be 90kWh to represent a 90% reduction of the national average, so I’m currently below that. When the lad arrives home next month, I don’t think we’ll quite make it. But hope springs eternal. I’m plotting strategies already.

90 Percent Project - Week 39

Tuesday, 3:26 pm

By Kate

Mar

04

2008

And here are my weekly values for resources consumed during Week 39 (February 22-28) of the 90 Percent Project....

Electricity
Week 39: 13 kWh

Still hanging in there with a 13 kWh week. Next week will be slightly more. I...uh...used the dryer once. But despite that, it looks as if my total for the week will be the same as the first week of February when I didn’t use the dryer. For reasons I haven’t been able to determine, I’m using less electricity per day than I did in the early part of February. I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s because the days have grown slightly longer. Too slightly, in my opinion.

As predicted, my electric bill for the month of February dropped like the proverbial rock. It came in at 56 kWh for the month with a grand total due of $14.71. You have no idea how long I stared at my bill and grinned like an idiot. I wish I could point to one thing that I did to make my usage drop by half, but I can’t really pinpoint anything specific. I just used less. Part of it could be the lad being back at school, of course, but, if you look at the graph below, that doesn’t quite account for it either. He wasn’t home in September or October or November, either. This past month I did make conscious choices about whether to switch something on or not. At this stage of the project, it doesn’t feel like a hardship to ask myself whether it’s necessary to use the electricity that I’m standing there considering. Quite often the answer is...nah, not really.

There was one small disappointment in the bill’s sidebar graph, though. Last year, in February, there was a correction to my bill owing to the previous month’s estimated bill. I had forgotten about that. According to my current bill, I only used 53 kWh last February, when, in reality, that was the difference between what they’d estimated and what I actually used. After a year of trying to reduce, reduce, reduce, I ended up using 3 kWh more on this bill than the utility says I used last year. It’s not true, of course, but there it is in black and white. Kind of deflating, in a way.

(Edited: Okay, I didn’t think things through up above. I purchased my laptop in late November, but had the basement flood which required many dryer loads to prevent mildew from growing on things. The lad came home in December and used plenty of electricity. Same for January. In early February, I curtained off my kitchen and it stayed pretty chilly out there. The fridge probably used quite a lot less electricity each day. It was right about the time I installed the curtain between the kitchen and the rest of the house that my daily usage dropped by nearly 1 kWh per day. So, really, February is the first month that indicates what my baseline use is with the lad gone, the laptop in use, and no household disasters to deal with.)

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Gasoline purchased
Week 39: 0 gallons

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Water
Week 39: 62.17 gallons

The new shower head seems to be earning its keep.

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Natural Gas
Week 39: 1 CCF

Well, I finally did it. Wonder if I can do it again this week.

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Trash
Week 39: 2.8 lbs

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Consumer Goods
Week 39: $0

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Food
I have to admit that I’m really looking forward to a fresh tomato and a few green beans. Most likely from my own garden this year. I’ve had about enough root cellared squash and cabbage for the year. And the apples are growing a little mealy, too. All things considered, there’s really nothing to complain about. I’m eating well and nutritiously on food produced in my own area. That was the goal. It does make one appreciate the seasons a little more acutely and the bounty of the local growing season. I think this year will involve the purchase of a freezer. That’ll help with variety next winter. Still, it’s good to know that I can eat well through the winter, on locally produced foods, without a freezer.

90 Percent project - Weeks 35, 36, and 37

Thursday, 7:44 pm

By Kate

Feb

14

2008

Catching up on my weekly values for Weeks 35 (January 25-31), 36 (February 1-7), and 37 (February 8-14) of the 90 Percent Project....

Electricity
Week 35: 21 kWh used
Week 36: 17 kWh used
Week 37: 13 kWh used

These last three weeks put me at or below the 90 Percent Project electricity reduction goals. To recap, the average American household uses 11,000 kWh annually or 900 kWh per month. A 90 percent reduction means using about 90kWh per month (about 21 kWh per week). This, of course, is easier when there is only one person in the house, but as you’ve probably noted over the last several months, I’ve still had to work at it a bit.

I have been somewhat remiss in posting my electricity graphs over the last few months. They’re as much for my benefit as anyone’s. I do like having them here for handy reference. I have been on something of a plateau for the last four months. I think there will be a sharp drop in the next month’s graph.

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

January 2008

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Gasoline purchased
Week 35: 7.965 gallons (2 people sharing 15.93 gallons)
Week 36: 0 gallons
Week 37: 5.018 gallons

Week 35 involved the trip to Pennsylvania and back (taking the lad back to school). Gas mileage was superb at around 44 miles per gallon. That’s 1 mile per gallon more than my car is rated for. I’ll take it. I suspect that the 55 mph speed limits through a good part of New York state and Pennsylvania had a lot to do with it (along with inflated tires, fresh oil and filter changes and tune up). People were paying attention to the speed limits and it didn’t seem prudent to go blowing past them. The state troopers were hiding behind the bushes here and there.

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Water
Week 35: 231.91 gallons
Week 36: meter was swapped out for a new one. I didn’t get a reading.
Week 37: 86.89 gallons

What I discovered, thanks to the new water meter, is that my toilet leaks. I have kept the water to it turned off in between flushings this week. I think that is saving me at least 6 gallons of water a day. I let the toilet tank fill up once and then kept an eye on it to see just how fast it emptied out. It took less than a day for the water to completely disappear. That means I was losing at least 42 gallons per week. Over the course of a year, that’s roughly 2200 gallons. I wonder how many people will make the same discovery. The water utility was complaining about the town using less water (less revenue)...the new meters could conceivably cut use even more. Works for me, though. I may stand a chance of reaching the 90 Percent Project goals with water before the year is up.

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Natural Gas
Week 35: 3 CCF
Week 36: 3 CCF
Week 37: 3 CCF

I have been indulging in constant hot water for the past 3 weeks. Now that the furnace pilot light is out and saving a couple of CCFs per week, I felt a little reckless and kept the water heater turned on. It’s not turned on high, but there is constant hot-ish water available on demand. I think the indulgence is over for a while. I need to get usage down to 1 CCF per week.

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Trash
Week 35: 3 lbs.
Week 36: 3.4 lbs
Week 37: 2.8 lbs

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Consumer Goods
Week 35:  ?
Week 36:  ?
Week 37:  0

I didn’t keep track during weeks 35 and 36. I can guarantee that if any consumer goods were purchased, the dollar amounts came to very, very little. I’ve been on a spending moratorium and that makes my savings account happy and it makes my weekly trash very light.

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Food
Back to eating as locally as possible, with the exception of coffee and some salad greens. But those are at least organically grown. And fair trade with regard to the coffee. I will be glad when spring and summer arrive. The locally grown produce selection grows a bit thin at this time of year.

Madly spinning electric meter

Sunday, 6:15 pm

By Kate

Jan

20

2008

Much laundry being washed and dried today. I am using the dryer for the first time since the Thanksgiving flood. Had I planned things out a little better, I could have washed and dried without the dryer, but today is here and the lad needs clean clothes to take to his Dad’s house for the next couple of days. My electric meter reading tomorrow morning is going to be ghastly. Nevertheless, I readily admit that the convenience of a dryer is really, really nice once in a while. It sort of feels like living in the lap of luxury for a day. That bears thinking about.

This morning the lad and I cleaned house. And sorted the recycling and dragged trash bags outside—the ones from our room swapping exercise. He washed the dishes from his party last night. And we dragged in a goodly supply of wood. I think that just about takes care of necessary chores. It was very nice having his help, though he did say that half the work was a result of his being here. He’s not into rinsing a cup or glass out and reusing it. Nor is he much for rinsing a dish before the food dries to it. When one does the dishes by hand a few times, one begins to appreciate what rinsing a cup, mug, or dish out means in terms of future work. Washing the dishes by hand this afternoon was a learning experience for him, I do believe.

Even though we hustled right along with the chores, it was fun. We had a good time. I’m soaking these moments up, naturally. They’ll be over for a while after next weekend. He will be at his Dad’s house until Wednesday, so that leaves two more days here at home before I take him back to school. Most of that time will involve more laundry and packing. He’s beginning to look forward to it and, in some regards, so am I. I love having him home, but my normal routine has been upended for the last month and a half. I’m sure that I’ll wander around the house acutely feeling the absence of his presence for a couple of days, but that does seem to pass much more quickly each time he leaves. It surely has been a terrific vacation, though. Can’t believe it is nearly gone.