Big drop in electricity use

Saturday, 5:36 pm

By Kate

Sep

29

2007

My September electric bill arrived online this morning. The meter reading was on the 27th. I’ve come close to cutting this month’s use in half over last month. With a total due of $20.33, I’m liking this more and more. I wonder if the electric company will send someone around to check my meter, one of these days, to make sure it’s working properly.

Under the category of WANT vs NEED, I’ve been drooling over this PowerCost Monitor for the last few months. I know that it would help me cut more electricity use, but, at this point, I don’t think it would benefit enough to pay for itself any time soon.

This summer, one of the electric utilities in Massachusetts (NStar) offered this gadget to its customers for a cool $29.95. My utility (National Grid) has handed out 300 of them for a pilot project. Maybe they’ll offer it up, at a slashed price, to all their customers sometime in the next year. I’d grab one in a second if they did.

Just call me Suzie Sunshine

Saturday, 2:45 pm

By Kate

Sep

22

2007

One of the things I love about reading The Oil Drum is that it keeps me constantly mindful of the things we face and our determined march toward the edge of the cliff. One of the frequent posters over there uses the tagline -- Are humans smarter than yeast? It's kind of become the standing joke and the best of black humor as the earth's systems disintegrate around us while its inhabitants consume their way over the edge of the cliff.

Well, they do try to keep us from jumping off the nearest roof with some glimmers of hope, of course.

Once again, California comes up with an interesting idea. On October 20, San Francisco will go dark for an hour, between 8:00 and 9:00 PM. The Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, City Hall, and other parts of the city will go dark to push (and illustrate) their campaign to conserve energy. It is clearly a public relations moment, but it's also an everyone-is-in-this-together moment. It's actions over words. They're also handing out free CFL bulbs and urging everyone to shut off everything except a necessary light or two during that hour. It's a teaching moment and, I'm sure, there will be a substantial energy savings during that one hour. But it's a brilliant idea.

This is one of the first incidences I've run into where the word conserving is used unapologetically. The underlying message is that we use too much and we need to shut stuff off. But they're creating a campaign that's fresh and cheerful and even...well...fun. Bravo!

But, lest we forget....

Climate change is worse than we feared. Time is running out. The fallout from climate change is much more complex and interconnected than most of us realize. When I start reading about the chain of events that result from global warming, it makes me gulp. The time line keeps moving up as scientists learn more. We're talking about things going sour within my lifetime now. Somebody -- lots of somebodies - had better start doing something about it. But it's a herculean task to get people and governments motivated.

And for more just absolutely cheerful (not!) news on the subject, we have this grim outlook.

The effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realised and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts said today.

Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought.

He said vulnerable people such as the old and poor would be the worst affected, and that world leaders had not yet accepted their countries would have to adapt to the likely consequences.

They're no longer talking about if global warming will take place. They're talking about it as a matter-of-fact occurrence now and also talking about how we're going to have to adapt and what we're going to adapt to. Not to mention that there are a few billion of us who won't make it. No water, no life. No crops, no food. Some places will be far worse than others. The choices we have now are whether we're going to mitigate the damages and contain them or continue on our merry way until we consume our way into extinction. They're now talking about 2020 for effects to become really dire for a good portion of the planet.

So. Are we smarter than yeast?

Told you, I'm Suzie Sunshine today.

90 Percent Project - Week 15

Monday, 6:05 pm

By Kate

Sep

17

2007

Another dose of My Weekly Values for the 90 Percent Project. I get the sense that some are bored silly with this weekly accounting, but I gotta, okay? Not to mention a couple of emails that have trickled in basically excoriating me for: 1) buying into this whole reduction plan in the first place because it’s just a dumb idea. 2) still driving a car (supposedly that negates anything else I’m doing). 3) not doing more if I’m really serious about this. 4) writing about it at all because it sends the message that I think I’m all that and more. 5) I’m not aggressive enough in making everyone else feel like crap because they aren’t doing what I’m doing—therefore, I’m not serious about it.

So, the email opinions seem divided between: If I’m not perfect in every way, the gains I’ve made are canceled out; I’m just a dope for participating because it’s a tiny little drop in the cosmic bucket and pointless and nobody cares; and if I was really serious I’d be beating you all over the head with what you should be doing. Interestingly, not one positive email. There does seem to be an unaccountable amount of hostility toward the whole idea of conservation and living with less. Apparently I twanged a few nerves last week. Or something.

Well, it’s like this. I’m not perfect and, clearly, will never be perfect...which is kind of human of me. Everyone has to start somewhere and I just started sooner than others, while some started way before I did and make me look like a piker. That’s not a virtue on either score, just an accident of time. I do what I can and it’s a learning experience. I enjoy it. I like the results so far. It makes me happy. Maybe some folks who read my weekly posts develop an interest in the idea or find the incentive to try a few things. Less is always better in this arena. Perhaps others are curious to see how I manage and watch my progress and hear my thoughts (and excuses) along the way. (And there are some who aren’t interested at all and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.) A journey starts with one step and changing just one light bulb to a CFL or opting for reusable water containers rather than buying bottled water is a notable change in thinking and something to be proud of. I love it when I see that happen. I can’t think of anything that affords me this much pleasure that’s this inexpensive. And who in their right mind can’t see the benefits of an electric bill under $30? I’ll be there this month. Nyah nyah you email naysayers. People really do surprise me sometimes.

But, anyway. On with this week’s values.

Electricity
Week 15: 25 kWh

After my Whoo-hoo! last week, I’m back up a little in electricity use. Well, a lot, I suppose, if one considers the difference between 16 kWh and 25 kWh. I could rationalize and say that 25 kWh isn’t very much—which it isn’t—but if I’m more careful, I can use less. The question is...am I at the point where I can maintain 16 kWh a week without becoming a complete obsessive/compulsive type who runs to look at the electric meter 15 times a day? Is it worth it? This week tells the tale. I looked at the meter once a day and simply lived. Living on 25 kWh per week is low by most industrialized-world standards, but that’s too high for this project that I committed myself to. Those last few kilowatt hours per week are the hardest and that’s why we have a year to sort it all out. As I’ve said a number of times, the easiest way for me to peel away those last couple of kilowatt hours would be by ditching the desktop computer and acquiring a laptop. Unfortunately, a laptop has to take a lower priority than things like...oh...re-siding the house next summer. So, I suppose I’ll just have to live in a perpetual state of frustration over the computer eating electricity at a disgusting rate because, at this place in time, there is just no way I am prepared to limit myself to 1.5 hours per day on it. No way. Not. I’ll find other ways to cut the last few kilowatt hours. And that really is what it’s about at this point...the choices I make.

__________________

Gasoline purchased (for 1 person)
Week 15: 0 gallons

I’ve managed to wring two and a half weeks out of 7.145 gallons. Might be able to squeeze another week out of the last remaining dribbles in the gas tank. Moving my mailbox to the end of the street has already made a huge difference.

__________________

Water (for 1 person)
Week 15: 119.69 gallons

Up from last week, but not too bad considering. I have an older and water guzzling washing machine that uses about 40 gallons of water per full load. Energy saving tips say that one should wait until there is a full load before doing a load of wash, but I’d never have a full load of clothes saved up because I don’t own that many jeans and tee shirts. So, I’ve started doing an “energy saving” small load once per week for clothes. And it does use less electricity than a full load and, I suppose, less natural gas for water heating. But, overall, I’ll use about 24 more gallons of water per month than if I did one full load of clothes instead of 4 little ones. I also had to wash a large load of towels, sheets, and dish/cleaning cloths.

Now, here again, a new front loading washer, that uses a fraction of the water that my top loader machine uses, would be a real plus. It’s on my growing list. In the interest of staying clean enough to mingle with society, I don’t really see a way around this at the moment. I’m not ready to start doing small washes in the bathtub via the grape stomp method. Though it could be kinda interesting to try it once, just to see how well it works....

Aside from laundry, my other water use was about the same as last week.

__________________

Natural Gas
Week 15: 4 cu ft

I wandered down to the kitchen the other night, in the dark, and noticed two ghostly blue lights emanating from the stove. It startled me for a second. First time I’ve ever noticed that. My stove has TWO pilot lights. Talk about excess and waste. I so hate pilot lights. That means I have four pilot lights instead of three. No wonder I use as much gas as I do without actually using it. Considering how often I don’t use the stove, it’s a ghastly waste. Energy efficient stove sans pilot light(s) added to my growing list. That would be nice. Mine is c.1980 and the oven isn’t remotely accurate. I kind of know what cooking in a wood cook stove must be like.

___________________

Trash (for 1 person)
Week 15: 4 lbs

Junk mail has made a come-back. Interestingly, when I had a private PO box, there was rarely any junk mail in it. Now, with my address changed back to my street address, I’m getting every flier for nearly every store/business/financial institution in the area. It’s astonishing. Where was all that stuff going before? Some of it can be thrown in recycling, but too much of it is the glossy junk that the recycling outfit in this town won’t take and I don’t think it’s suitable for composting. Since much of it doesn’t have address labels attached, I assume that the mailman just stuffs everyone’s mailbox with this junk. I’ll have to have a chat with him. The thing is, though, even if I refuse to take delivery of it, someone still has to dispose of it.

__________________

Consumer Goods
Week 15: $5.58 - dog chews

_________________

Food
Farmer’s market, farmer’s market, farmer’s market. I love that place. Very soon it will be time to visit the apple orchard, too. They have several kinds of apples whose harvest dates are staggered from just about now through November. It’s a long season. I plan to can tons of applesauce this year. Can’t wait!

Conserving water reduces rates?

Tuesday, 1:23 pm

By Kate

Jul

17

2007

In view of my town's decision to raise our water rates because we are conserving so much and not generating enough revenue to fund the water department's budget, I was most interested in reading about a coalition of 29 Great Lakes communities (Canada and US) that is striving for a 15% water use reduction goal by the year 2015. Our town says that we've already cut back water use by 20% since 2000, but our water rates are going up, not down.

Twenty municipalities in Canada and nine in the United States have adopted a goal of reducing water consumption 15 percent by 2015, according to a coalition of Great Lakes cities.

Among the largest participants are Grand Rapids; Buffalo, N.Y.; Chicago; Hamilton, Ontario; Montreal; Rochester, N.Y.; Toledo, Ohio; and Toronto.

Eleven of the 29 municipalities already have formal water-conservation plans in place, officials at the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative said Thursday.

[...]

Toronto's plan, in place since 2001, will cost an estimated $74.3 million through 2011 but save the city more than $220 million in equivalent capital-infrastructure costs.

It's also expected to save $29 million in operating costs during the period and $4.5 million per year thereafter. The Toronto plan also will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and lower residential water bills, the coalition said.

So call me confused. If water use reduction is a win-win for everyone, why does my town feel like it just got the old knife in the back for doing a good thing that other communities are trying to do with cost savings included? Maybe our guys need to talk with their guys to figure out what we're doing wrong.

90 Percent Project - Week 6

Friday, 4:29 pm

By Kate

Jul

13

2007

Time for a recap of Week 6 of the 90 Percent Project. This week’s news was a reminder that, while this project may be fun now, in the not so distant future the things we’re learning to do with this project are going to become necessary for daily living. The International Energy Agency (one of the most respected and relatively conservative energy organizations in the world), is an energy advisor to 26 different countries and when they speak, everybody listens. This week they announced that the world is looking at really tight oil supplies by 2010 and declining oil supplies by 2012. That does not mean that we all run out of fossil fuels at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2012, but it does mean that cheap oil is pretty much gone forever. That means the price of everything goes up. That means some poorer nations may not be able to afford oil products (some are already experiencing that reality). That means gasoline is going to become even more expensive, perhaps prohibitively so. It also means that one well-placed hurricane or a flooded/broken refinery or rebels/terrorists blowing up pipelines become a catastrophe rather than a temporary inconvenience. That means we’d better learn how to conserve pretty fast to buy us some time or we may quite well end up looking like Cuba did after the Soviet Union fell or like Argentina after their economy collapsed a few years ago. It’s a sobering message from a well-respected energy agency. We’d do well to listen up and start conserving like mad while we have it to conserve. Technology is not going to be able to deliver us from this problem within five years. Probably not even in ten years.

I ran across this little poetic proverb this week...I don’t recall where.

We don’t buy more than we need,
We don’t need more than we use,
and we don’t use more than we need to get by.
until we learn to need less.

This week’s results:

Electricity
Week 6: 35 kWh

US Average: 11,000 kWh per household per year (avg. of 900 kWh per month, 211 kWh per week)
90 Percent reduction goal: 1100 kWh per household per year or about 90 kWh per month.

We’re still making some adjustments and cuts. There is an average of 2kWh per day to cut to reach the 90% reduction goal. Those last two are going to be the hardest, I think. At least while the lad is home. When he’s gone, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I’d like to get as close as we can while he’s home, just to be able to say it is possible (bearing in mind that it’s a luxury to be able to even make that statement).
__________________

Gasoline purchased (for 2 people)
Week 6: 0 gallons

US Average: 500 gallons per person per year.
90 Percent reduction goal: 50 gallons per person per year.

Last week’s purchased gasoline carried us through this week. That pleased me. One of the suggestions on the 90% Project list is to try to keep the car’s engine under 3000 rpms at all times. Doing so saves a lot of gas. I’ve tried to be mindful of that all week and it really does make a big difference. Amazing. I’ve also been cruising slowly up to red lights rather than rushing to one and slamming on the brakes. I’ve read in a number of places now that this actually does save some fuel. I don’t know the whys and wherefores, but it sounds like a reasonable thing to try. It surely does seem to annoy the people behind me, though. What is the psychology of that? You can rush up to a red light and wait longer or gently cruise up to one and wait less. But you’re still going to wait. People do seem to like to hurry up and wait.

__________________

Water (for 2 people)
Week 6: 359.08 gallons

US Average: 100 gallons per person per day, 700 gallons per week.
90 Percent reduction goal: 10 gallons per person per day, 70 gallons per week.

Obviously this was an improvement over last week, but I didn’t do any lawn watering either. Still higher than previous weeks. I believe most of the extra water use came from toilet flushing. We have not been very careful about that this past week. It adds up very quickly.

__________________

Natural Gas
Week 6: 5 cu. ft./5.35 therms

US Average: 1000 therms per household per year.
90 Percent Reduction Goal: 100 therms per household per year.

Back to the average 5 cu ft weekly flow. Not too many cool showers this week, either. Makes a measurable difference, evidently. I really, really want a tankless on-demand hot water heater.
__________________

Trash (for 2 people)
Week 6: 5 lbs.

US Average: 4.5 lbs per person per day, 31.5 lbs per week.
90 Percent Reduction Goal: .45 lbs per person per day, 3.15 lbs per person per week.

At this point, my goal is to stop using plastic trash bags. I’d be so happy to not need them anymore. I’m getting closer to that goal now.

__________________

Consumer Goods
Week 6: $0

US Average: $10K per household per year.
90 Percent Reduction Goal: $1000 per household per year.

I don’t believe that I bought anything this week. There were no receipts in the journal, so I’m pretty sure that I didn’t buy anything and nothing has slipped my mind. Terry didn’t need a bag of dog chews this week. For once.

_________________

Food
The Farmer’s Market still continues to be my main haunt. Fresh blueberries and early sweet corn just arrived yesterday. What riches, indeed. At some point, I should probably start thinking about preserving some of the summer produce for winter.

Doing my bit

Wednesday, 4:12 pm

By Kate

Jul

04

2007

I just came in from watering my lawn and trees again. What the heck, I might as well.

There was a piece in the newspaper announcing that because the people in this town have done such a good job of conserving water, the water department is assessing every home in the town an additional $40 on the next bill. We aren’t using ENOUGH water to meet their budget.

You just can’t win.