Boys and electricity

Thursday, 11:32 am

By Kate

Jun

07

2007

The May electric bill arrived yesterday. It didn’t, of course, offer any surprises since I read the meter every day. But the bills do have a way of making it official. And made me smile a little bit, too, with the $42.62 printed in the ‘pay this amount’ box.

The graph reflects more use last month than in April, but the lad was home for half the month. It took a while to get him on board with the save electricity plan. In fact, he wasn’t really all the way on board until a couple of days ago.

I walked into his room early Saturday morning because I thought I saw shadows moving around, through the crack in the door. I wandered in and his computer was still on and the television was still on. So was the playstation. But he was sound asleep. I turned everything off and waited for him to wake up.

We had a discussion about it. We reviewed how the timer on the television works. We reviewed how the shut off feature on the computer works. I tried not to raise my voice. I think I was pretty successful. He agreed that he’d shut stuff off.

Later that day, I read the meter and we’d used a whopping 12 kWh. And that made me turn green around the gills.

Next morning, I noticed....a strange blue light emanating from his room. I walked in and the play station was on and so was the television. Just a blue screen, but definitely on and eating up electricity while the dear lad slumbered on. At least his computer was off. I turned the television and playstation off. I also noticed (because the compressor switched on) that his tiny refrigerator was plugged in and there was nothing in it.

After he’d gained consciousness and downed a cup of coffee, we sat down and had another talk. I told him that he has used up his warnings. The next incidence will result in a disappeared television and playstation and refrigerator. And I will scoop funds out of his checking account to pay for his share of wasted electricity. I’m not sure which one of those got his attention the most, but I definitely got his attention.

Then we discussed how Mom doesn’t mind having things turned on if he’s using them, but Mom doesn’t want to waste electricity and she especially doesn’t want to pay for electricity that isn’t being used when there are so many other wonderful things to do with the money. (I mean, is it really necessary to have the television turned on when he’s listening to his iPod with his headphones??) We also talked about all the reasons why conserving is a good thing to do and why it’s so important. And that this really means a lot to me, especially now that I’m trying to do this 90 Percent Project thingy. I’m not asking for the impossible, just a certain level of awareness and basic compliance.

After two 12 kWh days, we suddenly dropped to 4, 8*, and 6 kWh days. Much better. Last night he wandered downstairs and shut a light off in the living room that I wasn’t using. “You must have forgotten,” he said. “If you’re not using it, shut it off.” That made me laugh. It was only a 3 watt CFL bulb, but he was right.

So, at least for this week, we seem to have made great progress. I hope it sticks (with gentle reminders) because I really don’t want to have to live up to my word and yank stuff out of his room. Even though we both know that I will.

* - He had several friends over on Tuesday evening. They came trudging through the door with their backpacks and trotted up the stairs. Some time later, I went up to see what everyone was doing and each of them had his laptop open and plugged into my outlets. They were totally quiet and absorbed—each in his own little world. I marveled and bit my tongue when I almost blurted out, “Guys, couldja unplug and use your batteries?”