Energy Usage
Last weekend while flying home from Utah I was bored while waiting at the airport. I don't usually buy Outside magazine, I just look at the pictures. Unga. Cave man like cave pictures.
When I was done looking at the pictures, these other things caught my eye.
Letters. Words. Writing.
I read an article about the two iChat using editors and their slow-race of electrical consumption in their Santa Fe, NM, homes. These guys had an apparatus that gave real-time power usage and thus began a race, the guys running around their houses, shedding any and every component that wasn't needed on the power grid. Low light and energy use bulbs, unplugging unused energy sinks like cell phone chargers, televisions, computers, setting the fridge on balmy rather than frigid...you get the picture.
This compelled me to check our power usage here in Portland. Logging onto the electrical company's website showed more pretty pictures that reminded me of why I picked up Outside in the first place. Picture graphs and colorful charts.
The average American household uses, based my in-depth 30 second google search, shows about 1000 kwh of power usage, per month. That's average, including, I suppose, Al Gore. That compares to a year-long-to-date average, of the Sager household of 328 kwh, per month, in a 2000 sq' two story home that's poorly insulated, has a gas furnace, but otherwise all electrical appliances. Central A/C, included, which as been used this summer when we're not running the heat.
I used to take pride in how much I drove (for trips) and wore my car's odometer like a badge of pride.
The past few years have changed things...and now to consume less, is more. I still have a gas guzzling car, but it collects cob webs, except when I'm smoking through $100 in gas to earn $75 in a bike race. Home power usage, however wasn't something that I'd taken much note of, other than to not leave lights on in rooms that were empty. To realize we're using about 33% of the average amount, without trying to do so , is akin to stepping on the bathroom scale after the holidays and having lost weight despite eating whatever suited your fancy.
Here's a challege to the readers - check your monthly power usage. How do you stack up? What changes could you make to use less?
You can save money too, basically by doing your laundry in the middle of the night, and "buying/using" your power during off-peak hours:
on peak hours
winter 6-10am/5-8pm
summer 3-8pm
mid peak
summer 6-3pm
winter 8pm-10
winter 10-5pm
summer 8-10pm
off peak
summer 10pm-6am
winter 10-6am
At least I've been drinking free range organic water lately.
When I was done looking at the pictures, these other things caught my eye.
Letters. Words. Writing.
I read an article about the two iChat using editors and their slow-race of electrical consumption in their Santa Fe, NM, homes. These guys had an apparatus that gave real-time power usage and thus began a race, the guys running around their houses, shedding any and every component that wasn't needed on the power grid. Low light and energy use bulbs, unplugging unused energy sinks like cell phone chargers, televisions, computers, setting the fridge on balmy rather than frigid...you get the picture.
This compelled me to check our power usage here in Portland. Logging onto the electrical company's website showed more pretty pictures that reminded me of why I picked up Outside in the first place. Picture graphs and colorful charts.
The average American household uses, based my in-depth 30 second google search, shows about 1000 kwh of power usage, per month. That's average, including, I suppose, Al Gore. That compares to a year-long-to-date average, of the Sager household of 328 kwh, per month, in a 2000 sq' two story home that's poorly insulated, has a gas furnace, but otherwise all electrical appliances. Central A/C, included, which as been used this summer when we're not running the heat.
I used to take pride in how much I drove (for trips) and wore my car's odometer like a badge of pride.
The past few years have changed things...and now to consume less, is more. I still have a gas guzzling car, but it collects cob webs, except when I'm smoking through $100 in gas to earn $75 in a bike race. Home power usage, however wasn't something that I'd taken much note of, other than to not leave lights on in rooms that were empty. To realize we're using about 33% of the average amount, without trying to do so , is akin to stepping on the bathroom scale after the holidays and having lost weight despite eating whatever suited your fancy.
Here's a challege to the readers - check your monthly power usage. How do you stack up? What changes could you make to use less?
You can save money too, basically by doing your laundry in the middle of the night, and "buying/using" your power during off-peak hours:
on peak hours
winter 6-10am/5-8pm
summer 3-8pm
mid peak
summer 6-3pm
winter 8pm-10
winter 10-5pm
summer 8-10pm
off peak
summer 10pm-6am
winter 10-6am
At least I've been drinking free range organic water lately.
posted by jsager at 1:52 PM
5 Comments:
that pipe could even double as a bidet to save some water from those ~1.5 gallon power flushes.
I thought that was bigfoot's toilet.
That's why I found a stack of Reader's Digest there!
Lance's water bill was published in the paper this month and was the highest in Austin at $1600
it takes a LOT of water to wash his ego...
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