Energy

Last week, I attacked the plastic in the kitchen. I threw everything I could get my hands on into recycling, including my husband's favorite pasta grabbing claw. Sean fished it out and brought this offense up five times in a single day. Didn't go over very well. He's still talking about it. So, I am just starting to learn about how to make these (sometimes radical) changes in a life that I share with other people. We decided I can't go flying off the handle until I give him warning first. I need to do the research and send it his way, give him time to digest it and then make our plan of action together. Since he's the voice of reason around here, I guess that's probably a good idea. Slows me down a bit, which is probably a good thing. Since every relationship is so different, I would be interested to hear how you navigate green decisions and make big changes with the people in your lives.

This week, I'm taking on our energy consumption. Lightbulbs, covering the water heater, windows, stuff like that. My friend Adrian has been conscious of energy issues for a long time and had some great suggestions for me:

The first thing to do is cut your household emissions. I checked out some of the links on your site, and the important stuff is covered well: lower water heater temp and house thermostat, insulate, turn off lights, computers, stereos at the plug, etc. It is not hard to make improvements over the national (regional) averages. The Energy Information Administration has awesome statistics. You can compare your monthly gas and electric bill to national/regional figures to get a sense of how well you're doing relative to your neighbors. Kara and I, for example, use about 40% of the per capita electricity and 50% of the per capita natural gas, and our house has old windows and thin walls. (We did blow in a bunch of recycled newsprint attic insulation.) And we use electricity, dishwasher, clothes washer, etc. I think people just tend to leave things on without thinking.

I know we do. So that's my project for the week. For those of you who have been doing this for a long time, I'd love to hear how you do it at your home. For those of us who are new to it, I'll post all the information I find here. Sean, here's my research. Get ready, mister.

> How to Green Your Electricity (Treehugger)