how do you manage your energy consumption effectively?

[printslicker]

with the rising energy prices, climate change legislation and the need to be environmentally responsible; we all need to manage our energy consumption effectively. What simple and effective ways you are doing to help you save money through energy management, monitoring and managing your energy use more efficiently?

[Chicken lady]

The biggest thing we have done lately is put in a much more efficient heat pump. I wanted geothermal, but dh wasn't happy with the systems or only installer available in our area. The new system is zoned so that we can heat areas of the house we use mostly when the kids are here to a lower temperature. The specifications say it will heat all of our space (new and old) for the same energy cost as the old one used for the old space.

it also has a really nice programmable thermostat, so now the house is much warmer when dh is home and cooler when he is not, instead of me having to remember to turn the heat down.

in addition,whe I am home, we heat with a small efficient woodstove. Often the heat doesn't come on until very early in the morning.

but mostly it 's the standard "combine trips, turn off the lights, run it when it's full..." coloring book slogans from the 70's.

[Rogar]

A few years ago I bought a watt-a-meter and went through all of my electrical appliances to get an idea of big consumers and phantom loads. I have power strips organized on phantom load things that gets turned off when they are not in use or at night. Off course, the frig was a big consumer even though it's pretty new and won't get replaced any time soon. I pay a small premium for my electrical service coming from wind power. It's probably just a paper shuffle but helps support and expand wind power generation, which is not without it's own problems, but better than global warming. Over the last few years I've upgraded my windows to good double pains and added attic insulation. I use a bike for some of my commuting and shopping needs.

Your right, for the time being it doesn't look like the government will be helping the environment much.

[Tammy]

My husband and I live in a 580 sq ft apartment. Our energy bill monthly is less than $100 for everything. We also share one car, as he works one block from home and I work two miles from home. Our biggest energy expenditures are airline tickets to visit our kids who live in Canada and Nevada.

[Tybee]

We just keep usage low, use a clothesline for half of the year, ad keep the heat down. Oh, we also surround the house with strawbales at the base each winter, which last year saved us about 600 dollars.

[Gardnr]

Only major appliances/TV and clock remain plugged in all the time. Anything else I plug in for use and then unplug (coffeemaker, food processor, phone charger).

Programmable therm 65 when away/nighttime and 68 when up/present).

We have gas heat/water heater/stovetop. VERY efficient. Our gas bill did was noticeably unchanged with the install of our gas stovetop. I was surprised.

[jp1]

Our gas bill did was noticeably unchanged with the install of our gas stovetop. I was surprised.

I'm not surprised. Cooking with gas is incredibly efficient. The two places I've lived where I had to pay for gas for cooking but not anything else I always just ended up paying the minimum fee for maintaining service. The first couple of therms of gas was included in that and I never exceeded it.

[catherine]

We have gas heat/water heater/stovetop. VERY efficient. Our gas bill did was noticeably unchanged with the install of our gas stovetop. I was surprised.

Yes, we also have gas and it's SO much better than electric or oil. I could never go back to an electric stove.

As for the topic, I've always been amazed at how big my footprint is when I do those footprint calculators. (Here's one (http://www.earthday.org/take-action/footprint-calculator/)) I consider myself to be pretty mindful of energy use. I drive a Prius, had low-flow shower heads and faucets, keep the house at 62, and do all the standard things one would do when keeping an eye on personal energy consumption. Yet, I still am taking up far more than my share.

So I can feel guilty about that, and consider living in a solar-powered tiny house and riding only bicycles, but I'm not going to do that. And OTOH, I appreciate what Derrick Jensen says in his essay "Forget shorter showers" (https://orionmagazine.org/article/forget-shorter-showers/):

"Besides being ineffective at causing the sorts of changes necessary to stop this culture from killing the planet, there are at least four other problems with perceiving simple living as a political act (as opposed to living simply because that’s what you want to do). The first is that it’s predicated on the flawed notion that humans inevitably harm their landbase. Simple living as a political act consists solely of harm reduction, ignoring the fact that humans can help the Earth as well as harm it. We can rehabilitate streams, we can get rid of noxious invasives, we can remove dams, we can disrupt a political system tilted toward the rich as well as an extractive economic system, we can destroy the industrial economy that is destroying the real, physical world.

"The second problem — and this is another big one — is that it incorrectly assigns blame to the individual (and most especially to individuals who are particularly powerless) instead of to those who actually wield power in this system and to the system itself. Kirkpatrick Sale again: “The whole individualist what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth guilt trip is a myth. We, as individuals, are not creating the crises, and we can’t solve them.”

The third problem is that it accepts capitalism’s redefinition of us from citizens to consumers. By accepting this redefinition, we reduce our potential forms of resistance to consuming and not consuming. Citizens have a much wider range of available resistance tactics, including voting, not voting, running for office, pamphleting, boycotting, organizing, lobbying, protesting, and, when a government becomes destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we have the right to alter or abolish it."

So, I'm not necessary doing anything differently now than I was prior to Election Day, but I am becoming more active in terms signing petitions, protesting, writing my legislators, etc. I truly believe that if all of New Jersey's citizens turned down their thermostats it would pale in comparison to the damage that's going to be done with the repeal of the Clean Water and Clean Air acts.

No mea culpa's for me unless I fail to do what I can to protect the environment from the real villains.

[Rogar]

I go back and forth about Jensen, but any more it's mostly back. My thinking usually starts with his premise that civilization and sustainability cannot co-exist.

I agree that, say, replacing an incandescent bulb with an LED is not going to change the planet. But what impact has the total transition made? I can recall when recycling was mostly unheard of. I'm more in the McKibben camp.

[Chicken lady]

So, here is the thing for me, because (I am ok, don't worry) his writing about the drop in a bucket effect of personal choices and the logical end path being suicide resonates with me.

there are days when I feel like the best thing I could do would be to stay in bed and not eat. (I get up anyway. I have goats. But there was a bad stretch where I didn't eat for three days....)

but he claims we can do all these other things - really? How? Because I vote, I teach, I donate, I write and call my elected representatives (and as I am a political minority where I live, they don't give a damn).

collective action stopped the Dakota pipeline - for about two months. It's a whole lot easier to break things than it is to fix them (so do we break things? Is industrial sabotage the only effective option? Who cleans up the resulting mess?)

The personal choices I make are the only areas where I see any actual effect.

and yes, they are not enough.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Energy expenditure, I guess I don't worry about it to the point of being blazing hot or freezing cold just to save energy (I can take *some* heat though, have some heat tolerance, but it gets hotter than that, and I don't have any cold tolerance whatsoever). So I turn off lights and the shredder when not in use whenever I remember. I barely even own kitchen appliances beyond the basic stove and fridge. I have the computer equipment on a power strip I switch off when not in use. I try to buy Energy Star when I'm buying electronic or electrical devices. I pay for the Green (wind) power as well. And beyond that I guess I don't worry about it. Because most of the advice on saving power is utterly useless, it's advice for homeowners who can modify their whole building, and so for renters like me it doesn't have anything to offer.

[ApatheticNoMore]

but he claims we can do all these other things - really? How? Because I vote, I teach, I donate, I write and call my elected representatives (and as I am a political minority where I live, they don't give a damn).

it's not any better where I live. To be represented only by what is very much a minority party right now (Dems) doesn't really give one much say over anything either.


The personal choices I make are the only areas where I see any actual effect.

and yes, they are not enough.

worse than that, I barely even think those personal choices are possible for most people. Ok there is a real fine line between what is and is not possible, and what can or can not be rearranged to make things possible, but I tried to do it all, and wasn't able, it's just TOO hard to work full time, it really is.

It's almost enough to regularly cook for myself sometimes. Most people I know aren't even doing that at this point. That's how fricken crazy things are. But anyway, coworkers have acted amazed at various things, that I regularly cook dinner rather than go out, that I regularly bring my lunch etc.. (except in locations where the restaurants were particularly horrible, then suddenly everyone is). But yes I'm determined. But even then I work about 40 hours, my bf who works 6 days a week, 10-11 hours days doesn't. Yes ok I recycle most things (and sometimes I get lazy and don't wash some container out, I just throw it away!), dispose of most things as best as I can etc.. But the time to go above and beyond just isn't there. I haven't even USED my reusable bags for a while, because I haven't had time to wash them in awhile (they are really filthy, I'm no germophobe but yuck).

So in a way individual choices without any social support (the most basic example - trash is picked up at your residence, recycling has to be driven to a recycling place), will tend NOT TO PERSIST. Only the most determined will keep it up as everything is set to make doing so very difficult.

[Rogar]

So, here is the thing for me, because (I am ok, don't worry) his writing about the drop in a bucket effect of personal choices and the logical end path being suicide resonates with me.

As I remember a Jensen interview someone asked if he had what a dismal outlook why he just didn't do himself in. He said first of all that he loved life and second that he enjoyed the fight. He is good at writing, but we all have our talents and don't have to be an activist or anarchist to make a difference. I think there are a lot of ordinary people who have their own special talents that might not be spectacular or radical, but as a group can push things forward if we press our comfort level away from the consumer establishment.

I enjoy doing what I think is the right thing, and that includes a pretty simple life and some extra environmental efforts. It's not so much that it's going to change the planet. I just like it and it seems like the right thing.

[Chicken lady]

I'm being made determined by adrenaline.

when all of your options make you want to throw up, it's a lot easier to not eat.

the default for food isn't go out, it's piece of fruit, chunk of bread, piece of cheese, carrot... Or go hungry.

when you can't sleep, you have time to wash your bags, write someone, plant seeds, search the Internet for a compostable toothbrush....

i cancelled my trash service, so now, it's a lot easier to not bring home whatever the thing is - all things must be kept or taken somewhere by me.

you use less water when you stay home for three days and don't care if you shower or wear clean clothes...

[ApatheticNoMore]

when you can't sleep, you have time to wash your bags, write someone, plant seeds, search the Internet for a compostable toothbrush....

The apartment laundry machines hours end at 10pm, so I'm not going to do a laundry when I can't sleep. I suppose if I washed my bags in the bathtub, and I suppose that is indeed green. Truthfully if I can't sleep I may go online and waste a little time, I may nibble something, but I know ultimately I have to *try* to sleep. It's not optional to surviving day to day. I don't want to run on adrenaline, and cortisol, and caffeine.

[Chicken lady]

I wasn't recommending it.

in my case, I find that I am more likely to be able to sleep if I give my brain a sense that I have done all I can for now.

But also, my humor tends toward the dark and has not been helped recently.

[catherine]

As I remember a Jensen interview someone asked if he had what a dismal outlook why he just didn't do himself in. He said first of all that he loved life and second that he enjoyed the fight. He is good at writing, but we all have our talents and don't have to be an activist or anarchist to make a difference. I think there are a lot of ordinary people who have their own special talents that might not be spectacular or radical, but as a group can push things forward if we press our comfort level away from the consumer establishment.


I agree--well said. I just become concerned that the simple life is very much a counterculture and probably always will be-definitely part of the "harm reduction" Jensen talks about, but not likely to effect the change we need to stop total destruction of the planet, which will be undeniably accelerated during this administration.

Also, I like McKibben, too, but sometimes I feel like his "350" approach is too abstract for most people. Who can connect 350ppm of CO2 to their everyday life? Not many. Until climate change is seen as a tangible threat, no one is likely to worry about it except for us treehuggers. But I do admit, he has done a lot of good for the cause--arguably more then Jensen. It's true that it's a lot easier to swallow the 350ppm message than the "civilization be damned" one. ;)

[printslicker]

We have lights with motion sensors and the ones we have outside are solar powered. We also have a programmable thermostat. Anyway, even our company is trying to reduce energy consumption. We recently got an energy management (http://www.ecova.com/solutions.aspx) solution that'll help us monitor our usage. I wonder if this kind of solution can be used for homes as well.

[Yppej]

I am working on hypermiling.

[ToomuchStuff]

I wonder if this kind of solution can be used for homes as well.

No.

[Teacher Terry]

WE recycle much more then we create in garbage. I noticed that since we have gone to single stream recycling that more houses are doing it. I wish it was mandatory like it is in some states. At one point I lived in a condo that did not have recycling so I kept 2 big plastic tubs in the guest room and put the recycling in there. When both were full I dropped it off after work. That was much more work. However, turning all appliances off by unplugging does not seem worth it to me although I only have lights on in the room I am in.