Celebration: A Good Old Fashion Hot Dog Roast

November 17, 2011

When we were selected to be part of the Energy Diet Challenge we had some ideas about how we were going to approach things and topics we wanted to address. Then we were introduced to Lauren the eco-conscious coach who had a plan about how we would proceed , themes that would guide the process, challenges that would keep it interesting, and a common thread that the public could follow. The well thought out themes and plan actually forced us to think things through in a much more organized, logical and progressive manner. We believe the schedule formed an important framework to guide the success of the project.

The three month Energy Diet Challenge had three over riding themes which included Conservation, Efficiency and Celebration .

Conservation
When following this theme we were focused on putting things in place such as assessing water use in relationship to laundry, showering, and dishwashing; evaluating household power and lighting; identifying wasteful power sources such unnecessary appliance features and phantom power.

Efficiency
In this theme we assessed habits we had around kitchen practices; learned techniques for fuel efficiency; and insulated and weather proofed our home from drafts in order to make it more efficient. There was also opportunity to expand these themes and look at other areas of conservation and efficiency such as garbage; fuel supply; local products and recycled things.

Celebration
The theme we’re following now gives us opportunity to monitor and sustain practices and find a kind of groove for maintaining the gains within our lifestyles. In these last few weeks of the Challenge we are asked to host an energy-free dinner party that highlights energy conservation such as a stove-less event and local food; to consider alternative transportation options that are mindful of conservation in order to get ourselves to work, school and other places where we gather; and to look at creative alternatives to forms of entertainment that generally consume power.

Over the next few weeks we will highlight the weekly themes mentioned above as well as a rather challenging theme on “harnessing the sun” as a source of power. We will also attempt to highlight some of the other things we are doing for energy conservation such as decisions around the hot tub use, our woodcutter, profiling a student’s home, what the kid’s schools are doing, and recycling.

In this blog though, we want to comment on some of our successes, in the spirit of celebration. For example we have seen significant changes in three areas of energy conservation including power use, water and propane use.

Propane
Our cooking stove is propane. When we started we were using about ten to twelve lbs of propane a week. We have reduced this by two or three lbs a week by being more conscious of how high we turn the flame, particularly when we are boiling water, and by turning off the pilot lights at night or when we’re not home.

Water
We have sustained our water storage longer than we have in 20 years in this home. We attribute this to changes in laundry and shower habits. We now have a shut off valve at the shower head which we can turn off when we are lathering up. This has resulted in everyone’s showers being under 10 litres every time. Additionally we use the grey water from the shower for flushing the toilets, simply by collecting it into buckets. Whole weeks will go by without ever having to flush with fresh water.
In terms of the laundry we have designated a laundry day so we combine loads, designate towels for reuse and we all wear clothes more than once. This has resulted a substantial reduction in laundry with an average of about two loads a week.

Power
Perhaps our most noticeable gain is in the area of power use. The meter doesn’t lie. Last year in the month of October (Sept 27 to Oct 27) we used 731kWh. In previous years, we used around 695 for the same period. We keep studying the recent power bill because this year we only used 492 kWh! That’s 239kWh of power savings from last year and to this point we hadn’t moved the freezer outside to take advantage of the cold temperatures, and we hadn’t turned off the hot tub yet.

The surprising part is that we have not done anything in the last month that has been a hardship. We haven’t felt like we sacrificed. All we did was change some light bulbs and some habits. Naturally we’re surprised. So how did we shave a third of our power bill? We intend to share that in an upcoming blog about “Gotta Love Your Meter”.

A formula that works
Because we started out with the conservation theme, we were able to assess what we were working with, and then make some plans and changes. With that in mind, we could then put some new practices and habits in place that would be required for the efficiency theme to be successful. Now we are in a position to see how far we can go with it and fine tune some of the achievements.
We think that the format the energy diet used is logical and progressive in a way that would offer success for anyone considering implementing conservation practices. It really is reason to celebrate and keep it going!