Going Green: Lots of Little Changes… Big Results!!! May 9, 2008
Posted by Miss K in Let's Get Green!, Uncategorized.trackback
It has been only since my post of April 28th that we’ve taken major steps in our household towards reducing energy use in hopes of reducing our “Carbon Footprint”.
See my post from April 28th,
Green Eyeshadow, and some Green Thoughts for the Day.
I received my energy bill today and I honestly didn’t expect to see major changes… after all it’s only been about a month since replacing regular light bulbs with CFL’s and 2 weeks since we really went all out towards reducing our energy bill.
Well ladies, I am very proud to report that all of our little changes added up into a huge drop in or kilowatt useage!!! Last year in the month of May, we used 3574 KWH. Last month, we used 3949. This May billing cycle? our use dropped to 2653!!!
Our entire family contributed to this change and I am so proud of all of them. We all made small changes to our lifestyles to reduce energy use.
We can all make small changes and reduce the energy use of our homes, one of the greatest contributor’s to our country’s carbon footprint!
Why does this matter? Well, smaller energy bills mean more makeup!!! No, really… you all know what I’m talking about. The environment and the reality of climactic change. It’s something that is important to me and that I choose to use blog space for in hopes that I can affect small change in others, too…
What are some of the things that we did to reduce our kilowatt useage?
installed compact fluorescent bulbs in all high-use lights
reduced temperature on water heater and had water heater serviced
replaced filters on our heat pump, had it serviced and opened up all of the vents in our home for better efficiency.
shorter showers!
turned off lights not in use/used minimal lights needed
Washed all clothes in cold water- no more warm or hot loads.
Wash full loads of dishes at night when power costs less.
Wash larger loads of laundry. One large load costs less to wash than 2 small ones.
There’s more, but that’s all I can remember right now. We can all take baby steps and make a HUGE difference collectively towards living a more efficient, less energy-dependent green lifestyle. And unfortunately, by the looks of gas prices right now, it would be smart to reduce your home energy bill. You may need the extra money to use to fill your gas tank (and a little extra left over for makeup, too of course!!! 
xoxo
Miss K
Yay, that’s good to hear!
Great advice — we really should switch to CFL bulbs, that’s one easy change that we just haven’t gotten around to yet …
Though I think we already do half of the things on your list but for different reasons — It didn’t occur to me that some of them might be energy efficient too! I always do full loads of laundry because I procrastinate doing the laundry (though I sometimes have a small red load of our red bath towels and a few shirts. But the other loads are all large.) I’ve always washed our clothes in cold water since that helps minimize fading. We run the dishwasher (normally at a full load) at night simply because it makes sense to run it after cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. And small apartment water heaters have taught me to take shorter showers
For the house we are buying, we were able to continue a service plan that the current owners had, where for a small monthly fee you get free service on the A/C in the spring and heater in the fall, and reduced repair costs. So hopefully that will keep our heating and cooling systems running well!
Girl-geek, that’s great that you already do all of those things. We’ve got a family of four, so things can easily get out of hand, especially with two kids- they used to leave tons of lights and electronics on. And my husband thought you were supposed to use hot and warm water for whites and colors. I’ve washed in cold my entire life. With the amount of laundry we do, that’s got to be a huge change right there!
You really realize the electricity that your house is drawing when the power goes out for a few hours and you have just dead quiet. When the power comes back on, the whirr and buzz is amazing! (And I’m not sure of that in a good way!)
Congrats! We too have always used cold water for our wash cycles. We also try to exclusively use the reusable shopping bags and we recycle just about everything. Our municipality is quite good in that respect. However, I won’t install the CFL’s because they contain mercury. I have an active 3 year old and will not take the chance at this time. Also, I wonder, by using the CFL’s we seem to be trading off one “cost” for another. Any thoughts?
The CFL’s are an initial investment, but most of the bulbs say that with an average of 3-4 hours daily use, they last 7-9 years each! That’s a lot of incandescent bulbs that I would replace within that timespan. I know of several specific ones in our home that I replace at least once a month!
I am happy to see the costs on the utility bill go down, but I am looking mainly at our kilowatt useage- how much energy we’re using- and how much this energy use correlates to reducing our overall carbon footprint. It’s important to me to feel like I can make a difference. Even if it is a small difference. Knowing that we all have the power to be able to direct changes and somewhat control things is very empowering. Just imagine the difference it would make if everyone tried to make a small difference?
When I was a volunteer for John Edward’s campaign for President, I wrote about little changes in my blog on the day that Edwards suspended his campaign 1/30. Edward’s campaign platform was so different than any of the other candidates because he felt that what we all did together mattered. And that we collectively had a responsibility to work together to make our country a better place- not to just rely on politicians to do it for us. Not to just sit back and be passive. He spoke not about change, but about action to bring about change.
http://aromaleigh.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/a-sad-day-for-me/
Anyway, he left an impression on me more so than any other candidate. Besides maybe Ron Paul.
Ok, off my political soapbox… 
Yes, the bulbs do contain mercury and need to be specially disposed of when they burn out (I will look into this as I presently don’t know what the deal is- every once in a while they have a special clean up here where you can bring hazardous materials and electronics to be disposed of, so I would think that would probably be appropriate). We have them installed in overhead fixtures, recessed ceiling lighting, ceiling fans, bathroom wall lighting/sconces, and some very large, heavy lamps. These aren’t the type of bulbs that you would put into small lamps that would run the risk of being knocked over. The lowest wattage I would find was the equivalent of 40 watts incandescent and it’s very bright with the CFL bulb. With a very active 5 year old and 7 year old, who are constantly wrestling and playing soccer in the house (eek), I have no worries that anything will happen. I simply don’t have the bulbs installed in any unsafe places or where they will be broken. They are also not fragile like normal incandescent lightbulbs. They are heavy, and the glass coils are thick. I’m afraid of breaking a regular lightbulb just by holding it. The CFL bulbs are very different.
So those are my thoughts!
Thanks for the insight on the bulbs!
Congrats on lowering your usage! That’s great!
I was intrigued and checked out our electricity bill for last month to see what it is, and ours was 802 KWH! I was shocked! I never really paid much attention to how much we use and I can’t believe it is so low, which is very exciting!
Our average monthly usage is 1,001 KWH. Our bill for this month is $120.80. How much does yours run? I am only wondering to see if the price per KWH ranges much between NJ and NC. 
Oh speaking of the CFL bulbs…we had one in our exterior front door fixture, and it had only been there for maybe 8 months. We just had to replace yesterday it because it burned out. The light is on a sensor, so it isn’t on all the time, so I was baffled why it only lasted 8 months. Strange!
I just realized I typed NC…oops…SC
Melissa, our bill for this month’s for electric service was 172.16 before all the extra fees and adjustments. It says our electric cost was 7.07 per day and that we used 91 KWH per day. So that’s .07769 per KWH.
This is unfortunately, though a time of year when the weather is mellow and we do very little heating or cooling… so sadly, our bills will be going up, but I am looking at each month and the previous year’s usage for that month too to see how it all compares. Once it hits the mid nineties here, you have to have your air! Today’s soccer game was about 92 degrees at noon… ick!
We have an electric heat pump for heating and cooling, too. It actually costs more to heat than to cool, oddly.
I noticed when I was looking at CFL bulbs that there were indoor floodlights and outdoor floodlights. I wonder if they have smaller indoor and outdoor ones as well? Maybe outdoor ones are made differently?
Wow, so our price per KWH is considerably higher. Looks like it’s .095312/KWH and that’s just for the basic generation service. Then they tack on .052569/KWH for a delivery service charge! So, in actuality, our price per KWH is .147881! Good LORD! I’m coming down to you
hehe
Yeah, our bill is $40 cheaper this month than last month because of the time of year and the heat not coming on, etc. According to our usage comparison, our cheapest months are May, June and October.
I wonder if the outdoor bulbs are made differently. Huh….interesting.