May wasn’t too shabby for electricity and gas usage, but our water increased a tiny bit. Here are the numbers:
- Electricity Average Daily Usage, 10.52 kwh (April was 12.37) with a range of 5 to 16.5 kwh/day. We used 367 kwh on our most recent bill (longer than a month) and since we have 200 kwh supplied by wind power we used 167 kwh of less-than-green energy (most of the electricity in our area is supplied by nuclear power). We pay extra for that wind power, but knowing that more than half of our electricity was supplied by it most recently feels really good.
- Gas Average Daily Usage, .63 ccf (April was 1.52) with a range of 0 to 2.5 ccf/day. (We turned the heat back on in late May because it was so cold!!!)
- Water Average Daily Usage 7.61 (April was 7.23) with a range of 3 to 23 (eek–showers, laundry, dishes, garden all in one 24-hour period, oh my!). This is probably not a statistically significant difference and we know why it was higher (that 23 day was our highest EVER) from guests to me thinking I should wash my car (I was so inefficient, not thinking!) since it was covered in bird dung.
Have any of you been inspired to start tracking your own energy usage? It has become like a game for us, I think. Every day we’re excited (yes, sad but true) to see our energy tallies and think about why they were what they were. L1 has set a goal for June (yes, HIM, not ME!) to have our daily kwh usage be below 10.0.
Our plan is to track our daily usage for at least 6 months (which would put us to August for electricity) because we want to figure out the capacity solar panel system we would need. We are no where near being able to afford solar power, but in the meantime we’re trying to continue to reduce our power usage and start researching in more earnest (we’ve dabbled in it thus far) various systems and what would work for us, along with all the taxes savings, etc that go with systems.
To finish this post, I finally finished reading Living the Good Life:How One Family Changed Their Life From Their Own Backyard by Linda Cockburn. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and often read excerpts aloud to L1. This was the book that inspired us to start tracking our energy usage. Now I’d like to pass the book along to others. Here’s my idea:
- You leave a comment and tell me if you’re interested in reading the book. I’ll compile a list of people who want to read it.
- Next, I’ll get postal addresses for you all and create a little document with all of those.
- Then I’ll mail the book out to the first person on the list and send the document along as well.
- The lucky first person will read it, then mail it along to the next person on the list.
- What does this mean? You’ll get to read a great book (that I couldn’t get from my library, and I’m guessing not at most of yours, either) and all you’ll have to do is pay to ship it on to another person (less than $5, I would think). Many people could read a great book about the sustainable living, we’d be reusing something, and maybe, just maybe, doing a little more community building in the process.
Here’s to June and meeting our reduction goals. Check out the results in July.
Hi Willow, what a marvellous idea!
I hope you don’t mind, I have taken your idea, revamped it a wee bit and set the idea out on my blog. I think its a fantastic way to share books with others:)
Blessings:)
Inspired? Bwahahaha! You and Al should compare numbers. No wait. You’re both so competitive it would become a challenge and I’d end up suffering. Never mind!
Our water use has got to have gone through the roof since we had almost NO rain in May (under 2 inches). Thus, the gardens needed water from somewhere. I dread seeing the bill.
I’d love to read the book…and I love the idea of sharing/reusing books. I always feel bad buying books and then having them sit on my shelves when my local library doesn’t have them!
Yes, the water usage trend is rising for us not falling. We were doing around 80 gallons a day for a bit and then I started using the drip system. Now it is easier to use 200+ although it is normally around 140 or so.
Watering the black raspberry bed for 30 min uses about 10 gallons and it generally needs that at least every other day if it doesn’t rain. Of course the black raspberries are pretty large and almost flowering as well as making next year’s canes so they need more. The red’s are behind them and don’t wilt when they get less (of course they are shaded more cause the black’s are in front).
If you get more fruit in your beds you may find yourself needing more water if you want good yields and all.
Can you do me a favor and take pic of your water meter that’s clear enough for me to real all relevant markings?
Great job with your energy conservation efforts! I know it must be difficult in a household with young children, but you’ve shown that it can be done.
Your garden looks great too. We’re just starting to harvest peas here in NJ.
Hope I’m not too late–I’d love to participate in the book sharing! I’ve been waiting for this book to show up at Seattle’s public libraries, and no luck so far.
[…] note on the sharing of Living the Good Life: I will close sign-ups for passing it around on June 30th, compile the list […]