"My Elective Blackout"

I came across this article in Real Simple a long while ago and I LOVED it. My goal is go on a couple elective blackouts this year as long as my schedule allows. If I'm working on a show, that's not possible but if I can, I want to have a weekend of candles.

Click each picture for a larger view. It is worth reading the article.

 

What do you think about the article?

Practical Steps towards lowering your utility bill.

A friend wanted to know the practical steps towards reducing my energy usage and decreasing the amount I pay on my energy bill.

I believe when I moved into my apartment back in May, my first two bills were about $20 to $22 dollars. That was with living my normal lifestyle without taking extra measures towards being more eco conscious.

Here is what I do and I know its not conducive for everyone. (Remember I live alone which means I live in a controlled environment in a small city apartment)

• Live alone. While some say its cheaper to live with roommates, I have found its cheaper to live alone. Or at least, if you live with roommates, live with someone who is conscientious about their energy consumption and amount they spend on utilities. My former roommates were more than ok with spending $100+ on the electricity bill. I was NOT ok with that. By living alone or living with people who are like minded you know that the lights are being turned off. You know that energy isn't being wasted. If you have children, you can teach them to be conscious of the energy they consume. I actually came across a toy called the Power Hog that children are to plug into the wall. And when its fully charge, there is something to indicate to the kid that they can unplug the piggy. And when the piggy runs out of charge, the child has to feed it a coin to turn it back on thus teaching the child that energy isn't free. Anyone know what I'm talking about. Even without these crafty little strategically marketed "green" toys, you can teach your children to turn the lights off when they leave a room, to not leave the water running, and such.

 

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• Get outside. During the summer I spent little time at home. I work a full time job and I stayed active in either theater shows, beach volleyball teams, traveling, bike rides and such. By spending time outdoors, I was spending less time at home with lights on, watching tv and wasting energy. So add a thing or two to your schedule. Instead of watching tv with your children, take them to the park. Its free! Cable and Electricity are not.

• Unplug appliances from the wall or use surge protectors. The ONLY thing plugged into my walls on a consistent every day basis is my Fridge and Stove...which I don't really count. And my router for my wireless internet because if I unplugged that, it would take forever for it to reboot. I unplug my lamps from the wall. I unplug my phone chargers from the wall. My microwave stays off and unplugged unless I need to use it. So does my blender, printer, external hard drive and other chargers.

• Use less artificial light. This may be harder for some people rather than others. This lady that I work with always makes fun of me and says I like living in a cave. For every light that she turns on at work, I want to turn another off. I am quoted as saying that "fluorescent lights suck my soul away." I only like using enough light that's necessary. As little light as possible. Whenever I skype with Mr. Officer he complains about not being about to see me. While he has 20 lamps on, I think I have one on. "I know what I'm going to buy you," he says, "A desk lamp!" Its funny but its also true of me. I don't really like turning lights on. Turn on the lights only when you need too. Use candles. Use natural lighting. I have lots of windows in my apartment. Therefore I can use the sunshine for many things. In the mornings I just wash my face and brush my teeth. Since I'm not styling my hair or applying makeup, I don't really need the light on. When I shower, I shower with the light off. It feels better that way. Right this very moment, how many lights are on in your place?

• Own less stuff or own multi-functional devices. I don't have a flat iron. hot curler. blow dryer. dvd player. tv. wii. radio. alarm clock. toaster. food processer. Because I have less stuff. That's less stuff to use. My laptop serves as a laptop and a radio and a tv and a dvd player. Since I wear my hair natural and use simple styles like twist to make other styles, I don't need a blow dryer, flat iron, curler or anything else. (I don't even own a brush or comb!) My blender doubles as a food processor. My boiler toast my food just fine.
  

• Open the windows and Drink Water.  Because my air runs on electricity, I specifically did things differently as oppose to turning the air on. I kept my windows open for most of the summer. Since our summer this year was more like spring, there weren't too many HOT HOT days. If I were hot even with the window open, I'd SOMETIMES turn my ceiling fan on. But MOST times I'd drink water or lemonade. I'd eat popsicles and gelato.

So that's what I did. And by doing so I took an already cheap bill of $22 down to $15. But keep in mind, I live alone in a small apartment and I don't own as much stuff as the average person and I have an natural aversion to artificial light in the first place.

What to do when you live with roommates who don't care about energy consumption and the money they spend on utilities?

• Move Out or Find a Subleasee. (You can't change people. You can impact and influence them. But only to a certain point. And some people give no priority to the environment or the weight of their energy usage. Let those people be and move on and move out.)

What to do when you live with a spouse and family?

• Since its your family, you have greater influence on what people do in the house. And while a spouse may not be too keen on your new granola ways, I'm pretty sure they are keen on saving money. Why spend a saturday in the house with everybody watching their tv's in their own room or listening to their ipods or talking on their cell phones when you can go to the beach as a family? Or go on a picnic? Or play a game? 

What were ways you lowered your utility bill? I'm looking to bring my bill from $15 to $13. Any advice on what else I can do? (I could watch even less tv on Hulu.com than I currently watch. Then my computer wouldn't drain as much and I wouldn't need to charge it. Instead I could spend more time journaling and reading books. I could also spend intentional weekends going "off the grid" with an elective blackout. )

When love isn't green

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I've mentioned a couple times, that while I am working towards living a more granola way of life, I am in a relationship with a man who doesn't always subscribe to that sort of approach. He has every opportunity to do so. I fantasize about his huge backyard. I imagine fruits and vegetables growing. Herbs and Flowers. I imagine using the compost from his kitchen to nourish the earth in his backyard. My fantasies run deep.

His backyard is used to store the trailer to his truck for his motorcycles. His backyard houses a rusted basketball rim but I believe it holds extremely significant value to him. And it houses all of Mr. Magoo's poop and pee.

I was speaking with Sam about how my life with Mr. Officer would align with these kinds of differences. These differences materialized in small ways during our time together at the Ritz last week while I was working in New York.

Let me explain.

I don't own a tv. By choice. I have a laptop and hulu and a netflix account. Any show that doesn't fit into either of those isn't worth watching.

Mr. Officer. He has a tv in every room of his house. A flat screen tv in every room of his tri-level, three bedroom, two bathroom house. Even the bathroom. Even the kitchen and dining room which open onto themselves each have a tv.

When visiting him, I don't make a fuss. It's his house. I'm a guest. His favorite guest! But its his house. He makes the rules. Just as I told him, when ever he came to Chicago he would have to do without a tv.

While we stayed in the hotel, I kept the tv off as much as possible. The TV served as white noise for him. So we went back and forth turning the tv on and off throughout the night. I could stand it until it woke me up again and then I'd turn it off. He'd put up with that until the silence of the night was unbearable and turn it back on. What if we ever live together? I have a no tv in the bedroom rule. He has a tv in every room rule and it has to be on at all times rule. WTF? I think I could compromise with it being in the room so long as I didn't have to hear it every night while falling asleep.

I also have a little thing about electronics in my bedroom in general. My cell phone, my laptop, ... all of that stuff. I keep it away from my bed. So in the hotel room I had my phone across the room on the desk while I sat on the bed....watching tv.... with Mr. Officer. My phone would buzz because of an email or facebook notification or text and each time I'd jump out of bed, check my phone, respond if necessary and then get back in bed leaving the phone on the desk. I must have jumped up like seven times before Mr. Officer was like, "What are you doing? Why don't you keep the phone with you in bed? You look crazy." I told him that I didn't like having electronics in bed. I liked having my phone away from me. "Suit yourself," he said. And throughout the night every so often he would send a text just to screw with me because he knew I'd get up each time. Silly Officer.

Now part of Mr. Officer's NonGranola Tendencies are due to his career. He always needs one or sometimes two laptops on him. His phones always have to be turned on. He has to use a variety of cars.

But seriously...he has seven computers, four cameras, three personal cars, two motorcycles, TV's EVERYWHERE, and the list goes on and on and all these things are ALWAYS on. The first time I stayed over night with him, I jumped at every sound and barely slept. At any given moment something would beep, tick, ring, or buzz. But I've gotten used to it. There are many adjustments I've made willing because its what comes with dating someone in his position. I get it. And while the thought of his electricity bill scares me, I know there are other ways he wouldn't mind being a bit more sustainable. (He probably pays in just taxes and tariffs what my full bill of $15 is.)

• I'm pretty sure getting him to recycle wouldn't be an issue. 

• Since he is VERY health conscious, purchasing organic fruits and vegetables would be a breeze. He loves local places. (He thinks New York is the center of the world.) So the whole eco-conscious eating thing would be SO easy. 
• It might take some convincing but I think after working him over a bit, he'd let me have my way with his unused backyard.

BUT

• I doubt he will unplug things from the wall. All of your arguments are not going to convince him.
• He will never get on a bus or train
• He probably won't ever buy things used.

The will he or won't he list could go tit for tat.

Although I find it funny. One of the organizations he leads is all about mentoring children. He's also a basketball coach and he has been quoted as saying, "We need to leave the world better than we found it." or something to that effect. He uses that to talk about why its important to have great relationships with children. But of what use is having people, if the very world itself can no longer sustain us. Perhaps if I use his own logic and the things he cares about, I could spin it in a way that would shift his paradigm of thinking and he might try a few granola things.

I will definitely be using the tips from Green Girl Meets All American Boy to figure out our sustainable life together. My friend Sam mentioned that since dating her awesome boyfriend, because they are near each other, they pick up habits and tendencies from each other. Now he is recycling more and being more conscious about the way he consumes and his energy usage. Perhaps once I live closer to Mr. Officer that will be the case too. Does any one have advice? I will also say that its not my goal to convert him to my paradigm of thinking and if he never set foot in a thrift store it wouldn't be the breaking point of our life together. I just think there is room for growth and I don't want to ever lose any of my granola tendencies. HELP!

Utilities.

I just received both my ComEd and People's Gas bill in the mail today. I was so eager to open the bill that I ran up the stairs to my apartment. Who ever heard of that? Someone being excited to open a bill.

But I was! I have been even more intentional over the past month in my usage and habits at home in regards to electricity and gas that I've been itching to see if I'm making any difference.

Last month I paid $20.60 for my gas bill and $19 for my electricity bill.

This month, my gas bill isn't as accurate as it should be. People's Gas took it upon themselves to enroll me in their budget plan since the winter is coming. Their presumption that I would need this budget plan annoyed me. I know winter is coming. I know my bill will probably be more as I turn the heat up...but even still I am finding other ways to keep my bill from going through the roof. I had to call in to take myself off their budget plan. Also, while it will be December 1st, I have yet to turn my heat on. Why? Because I don't need to. My apartment is small and cozy. If I cook dinner, that heats my apartment up. I have lots of blankets. I wear long sleeves and I drink tea.

Even with the budget plan, my bill this month for gas is $21.00. Minus their bs and the taxes and tariffs for efficiency program and environmental charge..my bill really comes to $17.05! How amazing is that!

Some people are going to roll their eyes when I tell them my electricity bill.

Are you ready for this?

With all the taxes and tariffs included my total electricity bill comes to.....$15.43!!!!


I am just feeling really good about myself right now. Who knew putting the microwave on a surge protector and turning it off indefinitely would decrease my bill? Nowadays...everything is unplugged from the walls except for the stove, fridge, and router for my wireless internet.

This brings me back to living with roommates where our electricity bill ws $130 once and I was made to pay a 1/3 of that even though I knew I didn't use that much energy. Now I'm able to get an accurate read of what I really use.

The goal is to bring the gas bill down to $18 including taxes and the electricity down to $13. We will see what happens. Any suggestions on how I can further decrease my monthly utilities bill?

Utilities

Not sure if you can see this too clearly but this is my natural gas bill for this month due on November 17th from People's Gas, Chicago's choice of vendor for this utility.

The total bill comes to $20.60

I think that is amazing!

And..and..the bill is really $16. The rest is taxes and politics and some environment pact thing.

I think that's impressive and look forward to making it even lower. I once knew a women with a two bedroom apartment who's gas bill was about $12. Crazy!

It will be interesting to see my gas bill during December and January when hell freezes over and the devil decides to blow a cold wind in chicago to make up for lost time.

Somethings that aide in this that may be different for the average household is that

• I don't cook ever day
• I don't have a programmable thermostat
• My apartment management is amazing with checking our filters and ducts and all that whatnot. (don't remember my old apartment management doing so. they were so amazing that when the roof in the bathroom above the shower started cracking and falling, their solution was to tell me to shower with the window open because the steam did it.)
• I have yet to turn my heat on
  

I also just received my ComEd Electricity bill and the total for that was $19. The bill went down $1 from last month. I wonder if its because I've been unplugging EVERYTHING from my walls except the fridge and stove.

Is your gas and electric bill high or low? When do you start turning your heat on?