Before I moved, the utilities in my apartment were included in my rent. That meant all my energy-saving efforts — from cleaning my fridge coils to installing Practecol switches to simply turning out lights when I wasn’t using them — didn’t reap any financial benefits.
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So when I moved to West Hollywood, I was kind of excited — to be paying for electricity. Why? I’m a curious person. I wanted to see just how much electricity I was using — or not.
I’m proud to say that my most recent Southern California Edison bill came to just $5.03. I used just 35 kilowatt-hours in December!
Of course, I had to see how my energy usage compared to the average American. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,040 kilowatt-hours (kWh), an average of 920 kWh per month.” However, I live alone, while the average American household is made up of 2.59 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Calculated per person, the average American burns through 355 kWh a month — which means I use up a tenth of the energy the average American does!
This despite that I work from home — which means my wireless router and laptop are sipping energy all day long, along with my mini-fridge. However, those — plus a CFL bulb, if needed — are the only things I have plugged in most days. All kitchen appliances (except the fridge) remain unplugged, as do the printer, stereo, cell phone charger, and a few other electronics, except when in use.
And at night, everything is turned off and totally disconnected from sucking vampire energy with the help of Practecol switches — the computer, the wireless gateway, and — believe it or not — the mini-fridge, because in my tiny studio apartment, the thing makes too much noise when I’m trying to sleep.
Yes, I have energy-efficient light bulbs, too. I have exactly three bulbs — two CFLs, and an even more efficient LED bulb for the closet.
I get an extra reward for using less energy. Southern California Edison’s tier system means that those who use less pay less per kWh. You can see from the handy chart SoCal Edison puts on each bill (delivered and paid for electronically sans paper, of course) that I’m in the low end of the “tier 1″ pricing level.
After comparing my energy usage to other Americans, I felt so awesome about myself that I declared yesterday’s No Impact Challenge topic — Energy: Replace kilowatts with ingenuity — conquered for now. I mean, my next steps would be somehow rigging up solar panels in my apartment complex or getting rid of the mini-fridge altogether or inventing a solar-powered laptop — and I’m not ready to go there yet.
In addition to bragging, I hope I’m making clear in this post that steps like switching out light bulbs and turning off electronics when not in use and preventing vampire power loss really do make a difference — both for the environment and your pocketbook.
How are your own energy-savings efforts going? And do you have any not-too-far-out advice for me so I can get my bill under $5 a month in 2011?
We were invaded a few weeks ago by carpenter ants. It started with a few in the dining room and pretty soon we were stomping on 12-15 a day. An emergency call went into my favorite environmentally friendly pest removal company, Environmental Health Services, who has aided us with humane squirrel removal in the past. They promised to come first thing Monday. I almost hung up and then said, “it’s non-toxic right?” A deep pause on the other end ensued. ”To be honest, we can’t find anything all natural that works on ants. And most likely the ants are there because of the flooding so they are in your walls, eating the wood. We use a very small amount of the same chemical that’s in Frontline and spray it around the outside of the house.” The image of ants lunching on my support beams made me lose resolve. ”OK…see you Monday”.
I kept stewing about Frontline. Isn’t that the chemical in the flea and tick stuff we stopped using our on dog? Of course, I couldn’t exactly remember why we stopped. A quick Google search reminded me why.
Fipronil is the main active ingredient in Frontline. It was originally thought to be an incredibly safe option for killing insects without affecting people and pets. However, fipronil is messing with bees ability to find their nests and is one of the chemicals blamed for colony collapse disorder. In addition, it’s toxic to fish, some birds, and has been linked in high doses to thyroid cancer in rats. Then there were concerns about some animals reacting very negatively to fipronil and data that 40% of homes tested positive for fipronil in floor wipes (I know how much time my kids spend on the floor). My husband found a very stinky, but so far effective, more natural flea and tick product, Natural Defense and so we switched.
But the ants are eating my house. Maybe this is one of those emergencies where you deep breathe and say “PRACTICALLY green…PRACTICALLY green”. Or schedule a vacation when they spray. But the bees can’t take a vacation. Darn it all.
I decided to spend a few minutes finding out how bad this carpenter ant thing really was and what all-natural options might be. I found inspiration in the least likely of places, an extermination company called Unexco’s website. Here’s what they had to say:
Lo and behold – a carpenter ant nest! What happens then? Well, usually, you panic, reach for the Raid, and spray everything in sight….Or even WORSE, you call an exterminator. Bad move. Don’t panic and let a wolf in the door. Not yet. You need none of that. The first thing you need to do is NOT spray. You need to clear up the REASON why the carpenter ants are there, and right now, none of that really needs an application of insecticides or an exterminator.
An exterminator company saying not to call an exterminator. Hmmm. So–if it is wet wood, then fix the wood and the ants will leave. If it’s something else find it and fix it. I focused on the dining room convinced it was wet wood from the flooding. Sure enough, the ants were disappearing in a crack in the wood on the damaged wall. I pronounced that we CLEARLY had an ant nest in the wall and called our contractor to add an ant nest search to the mold test we already had on order as part of the repairs.
Whether sheer accident or the benefit of ignoring my supposed “solving” of the problem, a few hours later I heard a “oh that’s really disgusting” from the kitchen. An ant nest (or at least ant swarm) had been located–in a Costco-sized bag of sugar. Food source located–and removed. Now what?
We already owned peppermint oil so I rubbed it all over everything–the cracks in the wood where the ants were going in and out of the wall; the threshold to the kitchen, all over the cabinet with the sugar; and for good measure, on the dining room floor. And crossed my fingers.
By Sunday evening, no ants.
On Monday morning @ 7am, still no ants so I called and cancelled the exterminator.
Two weeks later, we are 99.5% ant free (normal) and we didn’t mess with the bees that love our rhododendrons. Woo Hoo! A victory for being persistently green. And another action worth 50 points on Practically Green!
The other good news? My support beams are verified to be ant-free. I never did cancel that ant test. Just in case.
Photo: Adam/Flickr
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Lo and behold – a carpenter ant nest! What happens then? Well, usually, you panic, reach for the Raid, and spray everything in sight….Or even WORSE, you call an exterminator. Bad move. Don’t panic and let a wolf in the door. Not yet. You need none of that. The first thing you need to do is NOT spray. You need to clear up the REASON why the carpenter ants are there, and right now, none of that really needs an application of insecticides or an exterminator.
