New water meter

Friday, 3:52 pm

By Kate

Feb

08

2008

A couple of weeks ago, a notice came in my mailbox saying that the water utility would be sending someone out in the next couple of weeks to replace my water meter. And much rejoicing could be observed in this house. I thought my old water meter was virtually worthless from the consumer point of view. So, yesterday, when a truck pulled up out front with lettering suggesting a utility meter company, I was a happy camper. A young fellow hopped out and knocked on my neighbor’s door. He hauled his equipment inside and I heard some banging and clanging around in her basement. It took all of 15 minutes and he was out the door. He went across the street next. And then...it was my turn. I was ready for him—I’d put the throw rugs down from the front door to the kitchen so that he wouldn’t track dirt/mud across my carpet. He was very careful to walk on them when he came in.

It only took him a few minutes to swap out the meter and attach a radio transmitter to one of my floor joists in the basement. When he came back upstairs, he made a bit of small talk and before you know it, I knew his entire life history. He is a young fellow, 28 years old. He has a wife and a 2 year old living in New Joisey. He’s been on the road for 6 months—two of them in Connecticut and four in Massachusetts. He doesn’t see his family except on weekends and he misses them a lot. This isn’t the best job he’s ever had, but he’s grateful for it. It pays really well and there are contracts stretching into late next year. He will have dependable work for quite some time. That makes him feel good in these unsure times. Oh, and he has never seen so much snow in his life as in Massachusetts this winter. As far as he’s concerned, he’d like never to see this much snow again, either.

He gave me a brief rundown of how the new water meter works. All the data is transmitted via radio signal. Although we will still have meter readers, they will be able to drive past an area and pick up hundreds of meter readings without having to drive past the specific houses. That’ll save a lot of fuel for the utility. At some point, the utility expects to install data collection units in various parts of the region that will automatically collect the data from all our meters and upload to the utility on a daily basis. Pretty cool.

Anyhoo, this is the shiny new meter he installed in my basement. I’m already in love with it. Not only is it a whizz-bang device for the utility, it is really useful for the consumer. For once, my water meter measures water in tenths of a cubic foot. I can, with this meter, find out EXACTLY how much water something uses. AND, this meter also tells me if there is a low flow leak in my system.

See that little blue whirligig on the meter’s face? That measures the movement of any amount of water flowing through my house. I was not pleased, but not surprised, to discover that cute little blue thingy spinning while there was no water turned on anywhere in the house. That means, there’s a water leak. And I had my suspicions where it was. I ran upstairs and turned the water off to the toilet and ran back down to look at the meter. The little blue whirligig was as still as can be. Well, that clears up the question of whether my toilet leaks. It does. So, until such time as I get around to replacing the toilet, I’ll leave the water to it turned off until it’s time to flush. I don’t know how much water that will save me over the course of a week/month/year, but I’m really curious to find out.

Since the meter was installed, it has registered .9 of a cubic foot of water use. That’s actually a lot less than what I previously thought was normal use over a 24 hour period. According to this meter, I’ve only used 6.7 gallons of water since yesterday afternoon. That’s kind of astonishing because it reflects a navy shower (with the pre-hot water running into a bucket for a later toilet flush) and a hand wash or two in the kitchen sink and a bit of dish washing. Seven gallons of water can accomplish a lot. A leaky toilet apparently wastes a lot. I’m going to have fun with this meter.

How am I doing?

Thursday, 6:53 pm

By Kate

Jan

24

2008

After all these weeks of keeping a record of weekly usage values for the various categories during the 90 Percent Project, I thought it might be useful to begin comparing quarterly results. When recording results a week or two at a time, it’s easy to lose sight of progress over a period of time.

Since we have now completed two full quarters of the project, the following graph shows the progress I’ve made so far. I must admit that I was a little surprised, and pleased, for the most part. The trash and consumer goods categories look as if they could use a little improvement. The second quarter included Christmas and a refurbished laptop purchase, so there is that explanation. As far as trash goes, the second quarter also included the basement flood and disposing of many soggy boxes and items. It still all counts, though.

90 Percent Project - Weeks 33 & 34

Thursday, 6:28 pm

By Kate

Jan

24

2008

Catching up on my weekly values for Weeks 33 (January 11-17) and 34 (January 18-24) of the 90 Percent Project....

Electricity
Week 33: 23 kWh used
Week 34: 35 kWh used

Week 34 was not a stellar week. The day that I washed and dried 4 loads of laundry contributed 17 kWh to the weekly total. That’s a lot.
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Gasoline purchased (for 2 people)
Week 33: 0 gallons
Week 34: 6.397 (3.20 gallons/person)

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Water (for 2 people)
Week 33: 201.987 gallons (100.993 gallons/person)
Week 34: 336.645 gallons (168.32 gallons/person)

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Natural Gas
Week 33: 2 CCF
Week 34: 2 CCF

WHOOOHOO!!!

Turning off the gas pilot light on the furnace has cut use down by 2-3 CCF per week. That’s a huge savings for one pilot light. Wow.

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Trash (for 2 people)
Week 33: 6.8 lbs. (3.4 lbs per person)
Week 34: 65.8 lbs. (32.9 lbs per person)

Week 34 was all about swapping bedrooms and cleaning stuff out. It doesn’t help the over all tally very much, but life happens.

What struck me, however, is that the average American routinely deposits 31.5 pounds of stuff into the trash EACH week. We managed to deposit 1.4 pounds more than that this week after a major cleaning project. I looked at all that trash and, truly, wondered how in the world the average American can find that much trash to throw out on a weekly basis. The statistics seem to back that figure up, but it’s hard for me to believe it.

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Consumer Goods
Week 33: $0
Week 34: $0

Week 34 represents the 4th consecutive week of not buying consumer goods. Nothing. I think this is a milestone in my life. I have avoided stores like the plague. I don’t currently need anything and, therefore, if I don’t go to a store, I can’t buy anything on impulse.

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Food
This week was a disaster for food. A young lad with a voracious appetite can go through a lot of pizza and boxes of macaroni and cheese and Mountain Dew Code Red when he’s hungry...two hours after a meal. Plus friends coming over and a party and what not. Some battles are worth fighting, but I ran out of energy on this one.

Breakthrough

Tuesday, 4:40 pm

By Kate

Jan

15

2008

I slogged through the snow drifts to read the natural gas meter this afternoon. All I can say is...it was worth getting a load of snow down the back of my shirt!

Since Saturday night, we have used slightly less than 1 CCF of gas. That’s three days of use. Which means, supposedly, if I multiply .85 CCF by 2.33, I should get a reasonable estimate of what I’ll use for the entire week.

That would be....drum roll....1.98 CCF!!!

Could it be? Is it possible? I finally found the gas eating culprit? The furnace pilot light? And all this time I’ve been blaming the hot water heater.

I’m so excited, I can hardly wait until Thursday to get the final week’s tally.

The simplest things defeat me

Saturday, 10:59 pm

By Kate

Jan

12

2008

I took another look at the natural gas meter today and practically ran all the way to the basement to turn off the pilot light to the gas furnace. Anything to cut use that isn’t being put to any good purpose. I’m supposed to run the furnace at least once a month during the winter, but I don’t think the pilot light needs to be on between firings. So...I crawled around on the basement floor this afternoon, trying to figure out how to turn the pilot light off.

Supposedly, it’s very simple. Here’s a photo of the knob that governs the gas/pilot light:

larger drop down image

The directions say to turn the knob clockwise until “pilot” is at the top by that little diamond. Then I am supposed to push in the on/off crossbar into the indent/opening and turn it clockwise again until the “off” is locked beneath the diamond at due north.

I’m fine until pushing the crossbar into the indent/opening part. It won’t go all the way in and so won’t lock. I have pushed and pushed and pushed. Just won’t go far enough in to turn and lock. I know this can’t be on the order of rocket science, so I’m baffled. Maybe I’m overlooking something stupidly simple. But, as things currently stand, the pilot light is still lit. And it’s driving me nuts because the pilot light is HUGE and it is burning untold amounts of gas for NO GOOD REASON. I’m so disgusted. 

90 Percent Project - Week 32

Friday, 3:20 pm

By Kate

Jan

11

2008

It’s that time again—for my weekly values for Week 32 (January 3-10, AM meter readings) of the 90 Percent Project.

Electricity
Week 32: 26 kWh used

This represents the first full week that the lad has been home with all of his electricity guzzling stuff. The first day of the accounting week set my hair on end from the shock of it. We used a lot of electricity. Well, a lot for this household...5 kWh. I asked the lad to please try to conserve a little bit. He did make an effort and the next day our use dropped to 4 kWh. Still too high, in my opinion. So, I made a deal with him.

If he could drop it another kilowatt hour per day, I’d plug the refrigerator back in. Of all the things in the house that he misses the most, it’s the fridge. He wasn’t all that opposed to going out on the deck to forage for food for himself, but when his friends had to do the same when they came over, he started not liking it quite so much. It seems to get a little tiring having to explain to them exactly why it is that his Mom has two refrigerators in the kitchen and neither is plugged in.

Plugging in the small fridge was a worthwhile goal for him. It took a couple of days, but he managed to pull his use down until our daily total was slightly under 3 kWh and I did plug the fridge back in. It’s all about trade-offs, I said. He uses a little less electricity for his entertainment, without any significant pain, so that he can have cold food and drinks in a refrigerator. Most of what he reduced in electricity use was waste, though he also decided to swap out a light bulb in his room for a much lower wattage CFL bulb. Having the fridge plugged in satisfies his requirement for civilized living and it’s worth the effort to be more careful with his other use. We’ve peeled our baseline use back to 3 kWh per day with the fridge plugged in. Some days will be slightly more when I do a load of laundry.

Well, yes, I’d like to peel it back more, but I think this is a realistic baseline, given that the lad didn’t sign on to this project. He’s being extremely agreeable about it and, in the main, supports the effort. He doesn’t appear to be suffering, so I think this is a good baseline to work from. I’m not willing to push it further at this point.

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Gasoline purchased (for 2 people)
Week 32: 4.848 gallons

This was not a fill-up owing to gadding about town and environs. It was a simple replacement for what the mechanics burned up last week while trying to sort my car’s emissions system out. Oh the irony. In order to make my car’s engine less lean, they had to burn up a half a tank of gas...letting off as much in emissions as I’ll probably save with the repairs for the next three or four months.

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Water (for 2 people)
Week 32: 299.24 gallons

The general toilet flushing rule in this house is the old “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” Works quite well for the two of us. However, when the friends come over, that’s a different story. And I’ve had a rather continuous flow of young people in the house over the past week. They all seem to arrive with a full bladder, too. And they flush. And flush. And flush. What are ya gonna do? I’d be tarred and feathered if I announced the little ditty governing toilet flushing. Think what fun it would be if I had a composting toilet!

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Natural Gas
Week 32: 5 CCF

The snow and ice melted. I have no excuses for not reading the danged meter. We’re using more hot water, obviously. Though the lad manages to keep his showers short, it still kicks the water heater on halfway through his shower. Ah well. I have great expectations for spring, when the town water warms up. It’s so cold right now that it numbs my fingers. Takes a lot of energy just to heat it up to room temperature, say nothing of bearable shower temperatures.

Not entirely related to natural gas...but sort of...I learned something, this week, that I never knew before. Almost to a person, the lad’s friends walk through the door and immediately say, “Oh it’s so nice and warm in here.” They want to sit by the wood stove for a few minutes before venturing upstairs. It’s not that I keep the house hot or anything, but the wood stove produces an even and steady heat. There are no cold pockets in the house. It just feels warmer, even though the house temps generally stay around 68° in the evenings, though much colder during the day.

I mentioned that to the lad and he said, “Why do you think we hang out here? Everyone else’s house is freezing. There’s no place to get warm. It’s awful.”

I did not realize that. It’s sort of funny. Back when I first installed the stove, a number of his friends thought it was a rather strange thing to heat one’s house with a wood stove. Why do that when one could turn a dial on a thermostat? Twentieth century technology, baybee. Use it. I think their perception back then was that only poor people heated with wood and that seemed to be quite out of the ordinary in an affluent town like this one. With that perception came all sorts of weird baggage. But, as other parental units responded to high energy prices and thermostats started being set lower and lower, the kids made a radical discovery. Wood heat is really, really nice. It’s cozy. It’s even. It’s...luxurious. Funny how perceptions change. It kind of cracks me up to see them pile into the living room and huddle around the stove to soak up some much appreciated warmth.

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Trash (for 2 people)
Week 32: 4.6 lbs.

Surprisingly little trash this week. It wasn’t an intentional effort, just seemed to work out that way. That’s probably a good sign.

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Consumer Goods
Week 32: $0

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Food
For the better part, I’ve still maintained the 100 mile food rule. We did have one meal that was way outside those boundaries, though...the one the lad cooked for me. It’s another one of those things...you can’t beat someone over the head with a new way of doing things all at once. It is, I think, a learning process. When we went grocery shopping, we discussed it and evaluated some of the produce that he wanted to get. We compromised and I’m okay with that. It is interesting, though, that he much prefers the flavors of the foods I’ve been getting at the farmer’s market. And he’s been totally ruined for grocery store milk. In fact, that was one of the first things he looked for when he came home for vacation...that bottle of local pasteurized milk.