Global climate change, war, the economy – progress in all three of these things depend on innovating America’s energy demand to sustainable and acceptable levels, then exporting that innovation to the world before somebody else beats us to it. Tied to this is water conservation, and the need integrate stellar power – solar energy, wind, etc. Jodi and I are taking immediate steps in our new home to do this.
First thing we did was replace all the wasteful incandescent lighting in the house with CFL’s, for between $1.20-$1.40 per bulb (for 60-watt equivalent light output). We set the lawn watering for two days a week, as per Allen city recommendations. I’m still tuning the system, and it will take weeks to find the right balance. I bought an electric lawnmower and edger. While solar panels are banned by the Homeowners Association for rooftops, I plan to get a portable solar-electric battery charger for the mower. We took a half-gallon juice container, cleaned it up, and used it to displace the equivalent volume of water in our main toilet tank. Since the toilet is one of the largest domestic wasters of water, this will help immensely.
These are just the start. We have highly rated appliances for energy usage and we plan to collect scarce rainwater in a barrel, which Allen can provide. I realized just what a great, huge water catcher the roof of a house is. Seems a waste to not take advantage of the target and store the gutter runoff for watering plants, etc. If anyone has additional suggestions for making little tweaks at home to save energy or water, let me know!
3 thoughts on “Do Homeowners Dream of Electricity Savings?”
It is unfortunate your homeowners’ association prioritizes uniformity over good energy practices. I’m assuming they wouldn’t allow white roofs (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/science/earth/30degrees.html) either. This is a great opportunity for awareness raising: you should ask your homeowners’ association to re-examine the rules that prevent certain energy-saving modifications. When looking for your next home you can inquire with the HA about these issues beforehand.
Another good practice is keeping your freezer filled – either by food or bottles of water (done carefully, so they do not explode). I notice I use 3 times my baseline energy when baking cookies, so forgoing baked goods help. If your electric company uses “smart meters” you can view your hourly usage patterns, and try to determine (if you are a data-obsessed physicist) what activities are using the most energy. Shifting those activities to not be during peak usage helps ease the stress on the grid.
Hey Steve! Glad to hear you’re getting settled in your new home. I really enjoyed the last 5 bloggings from documenting the trials of the move to those of Galileo and Job. Neat stuff. 🙂 As a tangent, I didn’t realize Galileo described his works as “systems of the world”. Which, I guess, is where Neal Stephenson got the title for his final volume of the Baroque Cycle. If you haven’t read those yet, it’s worth the time.
Oh. Just got the Blade Runner reference in the title of this post. Little slow there…