Ending and Beginning

We’re trying to reduce our electricity usage for several reasons:

• It costs money and we’re learning frugality
• It won’t be as cheap or reliable in the future, so we’re learning to do without it before we have to do without it
• We want to use no more than our global share; we want equity of resource use with the world. It’s just right.
• More electricity used means more coal used which means more mercury in our water and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Wisconsin produces about 60% of its electricity from coal-burning power plants).

What we’ve done to reduce electricity use:

• We’re burning wood instead of using the furnace (the fan on the furnace uses quite a bit of  electricity)
• We put a blanket on our water heater (we had already turned down the temperature on our water heater for child safety)
• We’re trying to use less hot water by:
  • Washing hands in cold water
  • Rinsing washed dishes in cool water
  • Taking shorter, cooler showers. This is the toughest one for me in the Winter.
• We put power strips on the television, stereo, battery chargers, shut them off at night and turn them on when they’re next needed.
• Aggressively turn out lights

We started making this effort last fall. For October through December, we received one bill, which averaged 521 kWh/month. January was 549 kWh and February was 613 kWh. I was happy with 521 kWh, but we don’t know why it’s going up since then.

What we plan to do:

• This Spring we’ll be moving our freezer from the garage to the basement. The garage gets hot in the summer, the basement doesn’t. Of course, the basement is also warmer than the garage in the Winter, but I think there will be a net savings. I also want to consider gradually phasing out the freezer by doing more canning. There are also much more efficient models than the one we have now.
• Minimize A/C use
• Put a timer on the water heater. Could shut it completely off for at least 6 hours a day.
• Make a solar shower for summertime use in the back yard.