We have had our house assessment and our first all group meeting.
What we learned from our assessment:
We are 61% better than the Madison average in our gas useage. yea!
-Goal: maintain or see if we can go lower
Water: 65% below Madison average. Sounds good so far.
Goal: maintain or reduce
Electric: This was our big ouch. We doubled our use from last year. You should have seen our faces when we saw the graph. So although we were 18% below the Madison average last year...we know we can do better ( because we already did)
We are also tracking our mileage, weighing our trash and recycling and tracking how much local/organic food we purchase.
First impression: this is a lot of data to collect. I have already lost the forms once. We are writing on scraps of paper and losing them. I feel like we are off to a limping start.
Our goals for this month:
1. We have to address our electric use and strategies to get it lower.
2. This is the ideal time to focus on eating local...so we are setting the bar high.
3. Get some systems in place for collecting and keeping track of our data.
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2 comments:
You guys are such a breath of fresh air- clean air, that is.
It certainly is difficult to change behavior, but I've found that "second nature" comes fairly quickly and without much pain! You mention your good water record: we have had a NO-HOSE summer. The two rain barrels give us the start. We feel (at this point) that we need to run the dehumidifier in the basement in the summer, so approx 2 gal per day is used for the garden. We also have the problem of waiting for the hot water to come out the tub faucet before showers. That's LOTS of expensive water down the drain. So, we keep a 2 gal bucket there to catch the cold water, then use it in the kitchen in one-gallon dispensers (in lieu of the kitchen faucet for washing hands and other little water needs) or dump it into the yard container. We're looking forward to the semi-annual water bill chart!
Behavior changes? Buckets in the house!
Dave S.
Go Dave! Love the water ideas...we will have to be watching our water too. We have two rain barrels so have used those in the yard... We have talked about using the water from the dehumidifier..hopefully you will inspire us to do it. Love the shower idea...I'll talk to the guys about it tonight.
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