90 Percent Project - Week 5

Another week has whirled on by and it’s time to review Week 5 of the 90 Percent Project.

Electricity
Week 5: 39 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.

The lad was away for the 4th of July and that day I finally registered a modest 3 kWh for the day. When the lad has gone back to school, that’ll probably be more the rule than the exception. Still, even with him in the house, we’re cutting use back bit by bit. He’s been very accommodating and I’m attempting to make it as painless as possible for him.

He still has his laptop, iPod and charger, cell phone and charger, mini-fridge, television, playstation, and VCR in his room and most of them see a fair of amount of use. But, he’s been very careful to keep them shut off and unplugged when not in use. (The fridge has been unplugged for a couple of weeks now - except for one evening when he had friends over and a case of Coke stuffed in there.) And he’s been good about not leaving the TV running while he’s on the computer and his computer hibernated while he’s watching TV.

I could insist that stuff stay off, but my goal here is to see how much electricity use we can eliminate while still leading a ‘normal’ life. I think use can be pared back a little more without making him wish he could live somewhere else. It is possible to have cool things and still not use much electricity. This week, the daily average was 5.57 kWh per day. I think we can lower it to roughly an average of 4.5 kWh per day.

With the aid of the kill-a-watt meter, I learned that the washing machine only eats up .20 kWh per load and has no ghost load. Compare that to the coffee maker that eats up .14 kWh per pot with a constant ghost load of 1 watt. I feel much less antagonistic toward the washing machine now. It actually uses a negligible amount of electricity in the daily scheme of things when you consider the service that it provides. I’m not so happy with the coffee maker.

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Gasoline purchased (for 2 people)
Week 5: 12.9 gallons

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

Gas use was heavier than usual for me. There were two trips back and forth to the Dad’s house which uses about 4 gallons of gas per round trip.
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Water (for 2 people)
Week 5: 1585.97 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.

I’m assuming that water use in the house didn’t change that much from previous weeks, but watering the lawns and trees clearly uses a lot of water. I was floored to see how much three and a half hours of watering used (combined over two days). That’s something in the neighborhood of 7 gallons per minute.

Naturally, after I watered the lawn the second day, the rain that we weren’t supposed to get arrived a few hours later and poured buckets. I’m so disgusted.
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Natural Gas
Week 5: 4 cu. ft./4.28 therms

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

I don’t know what changed this week, but our use went down by 1 therm. I did NOT click the hot water heater back one notch and I can’t think of anything else that changed, either. Unless, it was the cool showers instead of hot ones on those two super hot days. I’ll take it, anyway.

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Trash (for 2 people)
Week 5: 6 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.

One of these weeks, I’m only going to have one small paper bag worth of trash. I am. This week, we only had a half a kitchen trash bag full, but there was a dead coffee maker in there which added to the weight. A large French Press coffee maker is looking better all the time.

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Consumer Goods
Week 5: $28.00 - $6.97/3 microfiber cloths, $1.96/clothespins, $3.29/clothesline, $1.96/4 eye bolts, $6.98/12 pack of TP, $2.79/dog chews, $4/lawn sprinkler, $0.05/11 quart bucket at yard sale.

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

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Food
Nothing much to report here. Still enjoying farmer’s market fare. Haven’t done any real food shopping at the grocery in a couple of weeks. It’s pretty easy to eat locally produced food in the summer. The only things I’ve bought at the grocery store were dog and cat food, TP, a large bag of brown rice, a pint of ice cream (locally made), and bread. And we’ve eaten so many fresh strawberries that we’re ready for blueberry season now.