[SiValleySteph]

In June, DH & I saw An Inconvienent Truth. After watching this movie, I was just sobered thinking of all the ways I am contributing to global warming. We decided to take action.

• Forewent central AC, although we did turn it on when it was over 90 in the house and set it for 80-82 for 3 days during the worst of the heat wave
• Replaced our most used bulbs with CFLs.
• Started line drying about half our laundry.
• Washed almost all laundry on cold (except for kitchen towels).
• Turned down the water heater one notch.

The results...

Last month's electricity usage was 20.29kWh per day
Last year, this month's electricity usage was 21.68kWh per day

Last month's gas usage was 0.35 therms per day
Last year, this month's gas usage was 0.20 therms per day

We just got this month's bill.

12.33kWh per day !!! for a total of 370kWH down from 672kWH this month last year!

And our gas usage was only 6 therms!

Our total bill was only $52, down from $154 last year!

And this is in spite of the hottest July on record!

Wow! I'm just thrilled that little changes can make such a big difference!

We also got Terra Passes for our cars to offset our CO2 and will be offsetting our CO2 for our upcoming flights.

We are excited to get solar panels, but that will have to wait until we move to our next house. We are in a townhouse now. I hope to compost in the future home as well.

I don't feel like we were really inconvienced by the changes. Maybe a little sweaty on some days ... but not too bad!

 

[AppleOrangePear]

WOW ! That is great!

For us though in florida without central ac it would mean LOTS Of MOLD!

Michele

 

[mariposita]

Great job! Isn't it wonderful to do something good for the environment AND save money? I wish everything environmentally-friendly would save us money!

 

[SiValleySteph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArlyShellandKai For us though in florida without central ac it would mean LOTS Of MOLD!

My mom lives in GA and she was saying that she has to run her AC even colder than what they find comfortable due to mold forming on the walls of their basement. She plans to look into better solutions when she returns home (not at home this summer). This is mind boggling to me. So everyone in humid areas has to run AC or else their houses mold? Are their any other solutions? Like a dehumidifier? It's all alien to me since I'm in CA where it's not humid. It just seems like a collosal waste of electricty (which is often generated in an environmentally negative way), but I'm not facing the same situation.

Thanks mariposita!

 

[alegna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiValleySteph So everyone in humid areas has to run AC or else their houses mold? Are their any other solutions? Like a dehumidifier?

Dehumidifiers just aren't practical here. Even WITH the a/c on they can't keep up.

-Angela

 

[Mallori]

Dehumidifiers are also really expensive to run. We have one in our basement because we don't want some items we keep there to be damaged by moisture, and it's REALLY expensive to run. We keep it set as high as we can, but i've been trying to off-set that by line drying and not using the dryer.

I'm in WI, too, so probably not even as humid as other areas.

 

[2Sweeties1Angel]

I'm not giving up my A/C, I don't care how high my bill gets. I'm pregnant and HOT, the kids whine when they're hot, and my cat would probably have a heat stroke since he weighs over 20 something lbs. Besides, I like to be cold.

I do line dry about half my laundry, switched to almost all CFLs about a year ago, keep the hot water heater fairly low because of the kids, and use mostly cold water for the wash. I only use hot for the diapers, the towels/socks/underwear load once/week, and the sheets if they smell or the dogs have been laying on them. On the other hand, my dishwasher is ran almost daily because I don't have time to hand wash dishes (and I hate doing it).

 

[SiValleySteph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Sweeties1Angel I'm not giving up my A/C, I don't care how high my bill gets.

Um... it's not about how high the bill gets. That wasn't really my point. I trying to take some action against global warming. On a small scall, yes, but hopefully others will also be inspired to take action over time.

**

Interesting about the de-humidifier. Maybe AC is the only option in humid areas?

 

[alegna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiValleySteph Interesting about the de-humidifier. Maybe AC is the only option in humid areas?

Yeah. It's also a safety issue here. The houses aren't built to not run a/c- you can't stay cool enough to be safe. I keep my a/c much higher than most people- 79 at night and about 82 during the day. But to keep those temps I run it from March through November usually. On the flip side, I can often avoid running heat except for one or two days a year.

-Angela

 

[UptownZoo]

Wow, this discussion makes me so happy to live in the desert! We can use evaporative cooling here, which uses much less electricity than central air. Of course, lately it's been crazy rainy, which makes it humid, which renders evap cooling entirely useless, but it's good for us to remember that we really can stand it warmer than we like!

To the OP, that's awesome! We've been working on getting our electricty/gas usage down, too, though we've done it more gradually than you. We're on level service and I know that our payments will go down when they average everything out in Jan. because when I compare last year's bills with this years, I can't believe the difference! When I get discouraged, like when I see that every cooler on our block (evap cooler are usually on the roof and you can hear them from the street) is running 24/7, and what's the use of us trying to run it less, and I'm feeling down about it all, the $$$ savings helps keep me motivated.

We're going to start composting soon, as soon as I can put together some... what? I forget what they're called. As soon as I learn how to do it, I guess. I'd love to turn my backyard into a mini-farm someday, sans animals (which I suppose vegans don't need

).

 

[caeden&connersmom]

What kind of lightbulbs did you switch to?

We line dry also and "fluff" in the dryer with no heat.

I cant figure out *how* to turn my water heater down!! (And its set at scalding right now!)

We have hot water baseboard heating (Oil powered) and we are trying to figure out how to get a woodstove installed before winter! (We lose eletricity a lot up here) Oil is too $$$$!!!