The Story of Stuff

Happy Easter to all and I hope everyone has been enjoying their long weekend!

Not many updates this last week as I'm in the final days of my school term with all of the requisite assignments and due dates. Trying to stay on top of all of that and make room for doing my eco-projects. All in its time, right?

Anyway, today's post is a teaser for The Story of Stuff. I think this is an important video in that it raises some issues about our consumption levels. I've been actively tracking every penny I've spent since January 6th, so I'm learning about my personal consumption in a big way. It is surprising where the money does go. Maybe I'll post a graph tomorrow... can't you wait????

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's the original day for going Green! Since this year's St. Patty's Day was mired in controversy because it fell within Holy Week for the first time in decades, I think we missed an opportunity to re-brand the whole day as one for CF bulbs instead of green beer and riding mass transit instead of kissing the blarney stone. Oh well. Is there a way to power your computer with the hangovers in the office tomorrow? More planning for next year.

Monday updates:

• Lots of new visitors! Welcome Regina! That leaves only Manitoba and the Territories! Send the URL to someone you know in Winnipeg!
• Still waiting for someone from Nevada. Send it along. New visits from Portugal and Germany. Guten tag, Jill!
• Lots of interest thanks to the great results from my latest power bill. Keep Digg'ing the articles you enjoy so others can see them as well.
• Good progress on the 25kW Challenge. Remember that I can always use your support to further my projects!
• I've been chatting with my friend Jason in NB about his wickedly low power bills. Hoping that my energy audit uncovers something huge that I've missed. His bill for the last while was MUCH lower than mine.
  
• Also talking with some cool folks in NYC and environs about their upcoming project. Wishing Gus and friends a lot of luck and will help in any way I can. I'll link once their blog is up and running.
• Don't forget about Facebook! Come join us there as well.
  

Electricity Update

When I installed my programmable thermostats back in January, I expected to see some modest change in the amount of electricity I used over the coldest and darkest winter months. With three of the main rooms in the house (bedroom, tv room, and living room) now on programmable thermostats and many of the electronics in the house on power bars that cut off a lot of the phantom power (aka vampire power), I was hoping to see something real almost right away. Well, this morning the bill arrived by e-mail.

Comparing November - December 2007 to January - February 2008 saw a 9.4% drop in total daily electricity use, despite the fact that it was dramatically colder during the latter months and my house is heated by electricity. This represents an overall savings of 1205 kWh - that's more than 1 MEGAWATT! Granted, electricity is still pretty cheap, so my total cash savings is only about $128 (over two months), but that still means all three thermostats have paid for themselves with enough left over for any power bars I would have had to buy if I didn't have them laying around. Since I'd also converted a number of bulbs to CF, this would have helped the savings as well.

This encourages me a lot as return on investment (ROI) is the way we can justify the high initial cost of buying CF bulbs, thermostats, solar heaters and so on. Knowing that these items will eventually and actually pay for themselves means that I've made a good investment and will be likely to put more money into it as time goes by!

Water Use Calculator

I found this handy water use calculator at a BBC website (via EcoToolbox). Have a look and see how your household stacks up. The graph it produces at the end will give you a pretty good idea of what area you should focus on. Even with some of the changes I've made, the big users are still toilets and showers. Maybe it's time to start researching composting toilets?

Speaking of composting, I'm thinking of building a compost system for the house. We use the green bin pretty well now and it has cut down on the amount of waste we generate overall. The more I read about it though, I'm beginning to think of my waste as a commodity that I'm giving away for free. The design I have in my head is one with screened drawers. The last one I built was made from four wooden pallets, but that was for our country property, not for city use. This one would need to be much more contained, but still big enough to hold my autumn leaves... suggestions?

Earth Hour Canada Update

Some news in my e-mail about Earth Hour:

Canada leads in Earth Hour momentum!

Earth Hour is gaining huge momentum in Canada! More than 60 cities across Canada are taking part, encouraging their businesses and residents to participate and show support for action on climate change. Canada is also leading the world in sign-ups at earthhour.org!

Canada’s own, Nelly Furtado, multi-platinum Grammy and Juno Award-winner has signed on as the first Canadian Earth Hour Ambassador. As an Earth Hour Ambassador and an advocate for the environment, Nelly Furtado [right] will play an acoustic concert at the Earth Hour community event in Toronto, starting at 7:30 p.m. This lights-out event will be as carbon-neutral as possible – including powering the event with green, renewable energy from Bullfrog Power.

You can sign up for Earth Hour no matter where you live! The whole thing takes place at 8pm March 29, 2008.

Energy Star Ratings

I went to a presentation today as part of Dalhousie's Green Week on Energuide Audits and Energy Star ratings. It was sparsely attended, but it was good fun. The presenter was from Conserve NS and I have to say, the small group of us that were there were definitely keeners. As a result, we got to share some of our experiences measuring electricity usage and cutting back on water. Good to know I'm on the right track.

Other quick notes:

• New visitors to the blog from Alaska, The Netherlands, Sudan, and Pakistan. Welcome all! Still waiting on Nevada. Invite someone you know in Vegas to pay us a visit!
  
• Have you subscribed yet? Click the subscribe link at the bottom of this page.
• Many new people at the Facebook group. C'mon over and chat!
• Lights out Challenge at Risley Hall today. Couldn't find a switch for the lobby lights though!
  

Just Jiggle It

As I continue to look for some options on reducing my water usage, I saw mentioned on a few sites that instead of installing a retro-fit to a toilet tank or letting urine mellow, you can simply jiggle the handle after you flush normally. This causes the rubber flap to close prematurely, thereby saving you upwards of half a tank of water.

I tried it today and it worked quite well. It may take some practice to both remember to do it and to get the timing right, but it seems like a $0.00 fix. Sounds about right to me.

In other news:

• P.E.I. is now on the list. Welcome visitors from Charlottetown!
• I have to make a point of starting my car tonight. I haven't driven myself to work in a week. Between hitching rides and taking the bus, it's been a great seven days!
• Lights out challenge happened today in Shirreff Hall, one of the buildings I manage. Seemed to go well. Tomorrow is Risley Hall.
• Check out this article on how to talk to a Climate Change Sceptic.