How I Save Energy

Being a creative type, saving energy isn't as much fun for me as doing something like painting a wall with natural paint or finding natural linen upholstery fabric for my sofa. Many of the actions that need to be taken are pretty mechanical and therefore a little intimidating to me. But fortunately I have a husband with mechanical abilities who can turn my energy-saving dreams into reality.

Also, saving energy isn't as visible as other things we could do, beyond saving money. The beneficial effects of reducing the use of fossil fuels at home became more real to me when I made the connection between electricity and air pollution. Electricity seems so clean at home, but it's more like...imagine your television and lamps and computer are connected to a coal-burning power plant or a nuclear reactor--because in reality, they are . Though much has been done to reduce air pollution in recent years, the burning of fossil fuel and nuclear reactions still have environmental effects that can in turn affect our own health and well-being.

One of the reasons I started writing this "At Home With Debra" series was I wanted a format to observe and note exactly what I was doing in my life and business to be more sustainable--to see what I've already done and currently am doing, and what I still could do to be more sustainable.

Taking a look at my actual energy usage has been very revealing and showed me that the actuality of my energy usage was different from what I thought it was! I hope that each of you reading this will take a look at your own energy usage in the same way and find out for yourselves how you can reduce the amount of energy you use.

Changing our energy useage and sources is a vast subject, so for the moment I will be addressing only my personal energy use guidelines, and how I became more aware of how much energy I use. I'll write more on how I save energy on individual products and what I am doing toward using alternative energy in future articles.

How I conserve energy

I conserve energy in two basic ways.

Some years ago, I made a conscious decision to replace electric items with non-electric items. I really went to an extreme and used no electric appliances in my kitchen.

People would ask me questions like, "Well, doesn't the health benefits of drinking a smoothie balance out the environmental effects of using the energy to run the blender?"

And I would say, "No! No! We should only eat what we can prepare without electrical appliances."

But then I realized that there are so many often-conflicting factors to consider when making decisions that to go to extremes wasn't the answer. Now I look for the solution that creates the highest good for all life, including myself, which gives me a different perspective.

Even though I've reintroduced some electric products into my life, I still don't use as many electric products as I did in the past. I used to use an electric hair dryer, curling iron, and electric curlers to style my hair--now it's wash-and-wear. I had every electric appliance available for my kitchen and now I chop with a knife on a cutting board. Yes, I do have a food processor, but I only use it when it is the only tool that will do the job. I do whip cream with a small hand mixer, because I found it was just too time-consuming to do it by hand with a whisk or egg beaters. My goal is not to reduce my own needs in favor of the environment, but rather to find a balance of how I can have what I need for a productive life in a way that maximizes environmental benefit.

Now I use electric items only when I need them, and I don't waste. If I'm watching television in the evening, I'll turn out the lights in the room because I really don't need them. When I open the refrigerator door, I take what I want, and close it (if I can't decide what I want and stand there with the door open too long, my new refrigerator starts beeping at me!). Little things like this can add up.

How I purchase energy-efficient products

Energy-efficient products use less energy without affecting the service--a 23 watt energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb gives the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb, for example, and energy-efficient refrigerators keep your food just as cool as energy-guzzlers. Energy-efficiency is transparent in the sense that you are still getting all the service and are not visibly aware of the reduction in energy use.

When I purchase new products that use energy, I look on the label for information that will help me choose the most efficient products. Most products that use significant amounts of energy will have a bright yellow EnergyGuide label that tells you the typical amount of energy used by that product for one year. By comparing the numbers of EnergyGuides, you can compare different products of the type you are wanting to purchase and find the one that is most energy-efficient.

I also look for the Energy Star logo. Often I will go to the Energy Star website first to find energy-efficient products before I go shopping.

Since producing any kind of energy--even alternative energy--has some environmental cost, it just makes sense to find out how to meet our own needs while using energy as efficiently as possible. I don't believe we need to give up any of our comforts--I do believe we should find and eliminate any waste that occurs in the process. Some estimates say that by taking already known energy-conservation and efficiency measures, we can cut our total energy use in half or better (some estimates go as high as 80 percent) without affecting our quality of life. That's worth doing.

The products in my home that use energy

When I began writing this, I really couldn't list what products in my home used energy, what type of energy they used, and how much. So the first thing I did was just make a list of those products. After I made the list and thought I was done, a couple of hours later I realized that I hadn't included my electric iron or our programmable thermostat. Then I showed the list to Larry and he came up with a few more items I didn't even know about, like the pump for the well water that we use to water our garden. Energy-using products are so second nature to us, we're not even aware we are using them. So here is my list:

Item	Room	type of energy used
Space Heating and Cooling
air conditioner/heater	whole house	electricity
programmable thermostats	hallway	electricity
portable radiator-style heater	whole house	electricity
ceramic heaters (2)	office and wherever needed	electricity
ceiling fan	kitchen	electricity
ceiling fan	Debra's Office	electricity
ceiling fan	bedroom	electricity
ceiling fan	Larry's office	electricity
ceiling fans (2)	living/dining room	electricity
box fan	bedroom	electricity
Lighting
light - overhead	mud room	electricity
light - overhead	kitchen	electricity
light - over sink	kitchen	electricity
light - in stove hood	kitchen	electricity
light - overhead	bathroom 2	electricity
light - clamp	living/dining room	electricity
light - floor (3)	living/dining room	electricity
light - clamp (2)	Debra's Office	electricity
light - table lamp	Larry's Office	electricity
light - overhead	Larry's Office	electricity
light - over mirror	bathroom	electricity
light - nightlight	bathroom	electricity
light - overhead	bathroom	electricity
light - porch	front porch	electricity
light - porch	back porch	electricity
light - overhead	garage	electricity
light - reading lamps (2)	bedroom	electricity
light - overhead	bedroom	electricity
Laundry& Cleaning
clothes washer	mud room	electricity
clothes dryer	mud room	gas
clothes iron	bedroom	electricity
steam cleaner	whole house	electricity
hand-held vacuum cleaner	whole house	electricity
canister vacuum cleaner	whole house	electricity
Refrigerator/Freezer
refrigerator/freezer	kitchen	electricity
Cooking
stove/oven	kitchen	gas
range hood fan	kitchen	electricity
blender	kitchen	electricity
hand mixer	kitchen	electricity
stand mixer	kitchen	electricity
food processor	kitchen	electricity
food dehydrator	kitchen	electricity
Electronics
television 13" with video cassette player	living/dining room	electricity
Television 20"	bedroom	electricity
electric piano	living/dining room	electricity
stereo with radio, CD player and tape player	living/dining room	electricity
DVR/cable box	bedroom	electricity
VCR	bedroom	electricity
DVD player	bedroom	electricity
boom box	Larry's Office	electricity
clocks (8)	whole house	battery
Office Machines
paper shredder	Debra's Office	electricity
telephone	Debra's Office	electricity
telephone with headset	Debra's Office	electricity
cell phone recharger	Debra's Office	electricity
computer - Mac G5	Debra's Office	electricity
computer - PC laptop	Debra's Office	electricity
printer	Debra's Office	electricity
fax machine	Debra's Office	electricity
cable box	Debra's Office	electricity
computer network router	Debra's Office	electricity
battery backup for computer	Debra's Office	electricity
computer - iMac desktop	Larry's Office	electricity
computer - iBook laptop	Larry's Office	electricity
printer	Larry's Office	electricity
digital camera	Debra's office	battery
Personal Hygiene
electric razor	bathroom	electricity
sonic electric toothbrush	bathroom	electricity
massager	bedroom	electricity
Water
Water alkalizer	kitchen	electricity
Water heater	garage	electricity
Water filter (timer and backwash)	outdoors	electricity
well water pump for garden sprinklers	outdoors	electricity
programmable controls for garden sprinkler system	mud room	electricity

I find when I put things down on paper it is easier to see things as they really are. I really had no idea that I was using so many things that consume energy. Now I know and can do something to reduce wasted energy, wherever I can find it.

My major energy guzzlers

My husband and I didn't pay much attention to energy when we lived in California. The weather was fairly mild in the summer--our air conditioner was the San Francisco Bay fog that rolled in most afternoons. In the winter we burned wood in our wood stove for heat, most of which came from trees that fell during winter storms or odds and ends of wood cuts we would pick up at the nearby lumberyard. We had a gas water heater and a small refrigerator, and we turned out lights when we weren't in the room, so our energy bill was pretty insignificant.

When we moved to Florida, however, energy became more of an issue. Immediately we felt it in the summer months when our energy bill doubled after we started using the air conditioner. Because of this, we thought that our air conditioning was the biggest energy user. But after I really looked at the actual amount of energy we were using for different uses, I found I was wrong!

On a national average, the typical American home uses:

Space heating	32 - 60 percent
Space cooling	7 - 40 percent
Water heating	15-31 percent
Refrigeration/freezing	8-12 percent
Lighting	6 percent
Cooking	4 percent
Dryer	3 percent
Other appliances and electronics	6 percent

But living here in Florida, our personal energy profile looks quite different. Because of the extreme heat and humidity for from June through November, we often keep the air conditioner on 24 hours a day. By contrast, during the winter months we use very little heat because the temperature is rarely under sixty degrees.

Though I have considered myself to be an energy-saver, as I started to write this, I began to wonder what my actual energy uses were. I looked at past energy bills (our local energy company has my energy use for the past two years online) and found that our lowest energy use in the months where we need no air conditioning or heat is 750 to 800 kwh and in the summer it can get up to 1900 to 2000 kwh, depending on the temperature outside. So I took 800 kwh as a baseline and allotted any useage over that to heating and cooling in their respective months. And then I calculated other uses from there by looking at the Energy Guide labels for different appliances.

So our energy use profile looks something more like:

Lighting, cooking, clothes dryer, computer, other appliances and electronics	39 percent
Water heating	33 percent
Space cooling	28 percent
Refrigeration/freezing	.03 percent
Space heating	.03 percent

We had thought that our air conditioning was our biggest use of energy and were focusing on how we could reduce energy use for cooling our home. In fact, the electric water heater that came with the house was the biggest energy guzzler, and we were doing nothing to improve it! Also, our energy use for refrigerator and heating, which are typically the largest uses of energy in most homes, are very small.

The Energy Audit

Our local utility has free energy audits available on-line, by phone, and in-home. I think it's time to have one.

Where I'm Going From Here

I will look at each use as it's own little system...

• what are the inputs of energy, how much, where do they come from, what are the environmental and health benefits or costs of producing that energy
• what is the transformation that occurs, what service does the energy turn into
• what pollutants, if any, are produced at the point of use of the energy

...and see how and where I can eliminate waste. There's a nifty gadget I'm going to get called a Kill-A-Watt that will measure how much energy each electrical product. All I have to do is plug it into a three-prong grounded wall outlet, plug in my computer, food processor, and other things into the monitor (one at a time, of course), and I will be able to find out how efficient (or wasteful) they really are.

My husband and I are also looking into how we can utilize solar energy in our home. Since we live in the "sunshine state" it only makes sense to tap into this source of free non-polluting energy.

More to come...