Archive for the '90 percent' Category
October 15th, 2007 - More on carbon offsetting
I felt good earlier this year when I offset my driving to church. I’ve changed my mind. A new study from Tufts University recommends The Carbon Fund only with reservations. One of those is that they underestimate the emissions and have a very low cost set to the tonnage. I should have gone with Native Energy, or one of the other three they recommend. Maybe next year.
June 27th, 2007 - We used the AC
Yesterday was the second day of really hot, humid weather. It was even hot in the morning, which is rare. I was not surprised to come home and find the AC on. Had it at 78-80 (programmable thermostats are great, but we use ours a lot to adjust just a little bit up and down depending on comfort) and turned it off when Eric went to bed. It hadn’t cooled off a lot by morning, at least not inside. But it’s definitely cooler today, and I suspect the windows are back open.
We used about 84% more electricity having the AC on for half the day. I’ve known that it was a lower efficiency one and now that I’m tracking things, I’m interested in a new one. Will watch how much it uses and compare prices out of season to see if it’s worth getting a new one. Maybe a new, larger one would also cool the upstairs?
June 18th, 2007 - No AC yet
Sorry for not posting much lately. Usually, summer is pretty quiet and I have plenty of time for everything I do. But this summer, I’m co-teaching two courses and preparing for them took a LOT of time plus actually teaching them takes time as well. It’s on top of my full time job. We have a shortened summer semester so it feels like twice s much work to teach a course than during the school year. One class meets every morning, 4 hours, this week, and the other one meets Tuesday evenings for 3 hours. Plus both of them are hybrid and half the course contact hours are online. So that’s at least another 3 hours online each week. And it’s a research methods course, with an 18-36 page paper due at the end that we have to grade! Not to mention commenting on the various drafts during the next month. Since I haven’t taken a RM course for 10 years and have never taught it before, there’s a lot of prep work on my part.
Frugally speaking, the work on this course will lead to my teaching this course on my own in the future, perhaps once a year. The extra money will be welcome for extra pocket money and projects around the house. This summer’s money will pay for the snowblower and for the trip (and necessities) for Michael and Ann Marie’s wedding (gas alone will cost over $600 we figure, tolls another $100 (not counting any on the way to/from parents to MA), $200 for someone to house/petsit, $500 for suit and dress (already got Maggie’s at a garage sale cheap but she’ll need dress shoes and a sweater still), hotels, food, spending money, etc. It really adds up.). And we’re going to give ourselves $50 each spending money, as this is taking away a lot of my time with Maggie so Eric has to do things like work 8-7 on Tuesdays and I never see her except when she’s sleeping, etc.
Anyway, on to the topic of this post: we haven’t turned on the AC yet. It’s been in the high 80s this week and normally, the AC would have been on weeks ago. But once we got started, pulling in breezes with our new windows, being able to make it one more day w/o it, Eric got excited and wanted to see if we could last until July. It’s like our wintertime trying to make it till November w/o turning on the heat (and we live in WI, remember, so this isn’t easy!). Over the weekend, we bought 4 small box fans to help out on this quest. Couldn’t find what we really wanted: We have one old fan Eric’s had for decades that is as large as the window opening and has a thermostat on it (it modifies the fan speed depending on the temperature). The only thing with thermostats was a short and wide window fan that cost over $30 and can only be used in a window. So we got cheap ($13 each) fans with just a 3-speed control at Fleet Farm. Oh, what a difference it has made. 1) Maggie always woke up from naps and in the morning drenched in sweat. She hasn’t since the fan’s been in her room. 2) We put two in the den (computer room) which has cooled off that room as well as given the person sitting there a breeze, and it’s just barely enough to waft into the living room as well and help there. This morning, after turning it on, the temp in the LR dropped one degree in under an hour. The extra fan is for the guest room, although we are currently using it in our room as it’s quieter than the old one. We have to decide if we prefer the thermostat or the quiet.
And as to how hot it’s been, even at night? I HATE having fans blow on me. Usually, the fan i nthe bedroom isn’t turned on till Eric goes to bed so as to not bother me much. The last two nights, I had it turned on when I went to bed! And I wanted it turned towards the bed.
The fans do not seem to have changed our daily usage of electricty or only slightly. I’ve been writing down our daily numbers each morning so that I can compare things like leaving the computer on all night or what a difference the AC will make.
June 13th, 2007 - No peaches this year
For the last two years, we’ve bought peaches in bulk from Tree-Ripe Citrus which trucks them directly from the growers to WI (6 blocks from our house is one stop). Maggie’s absolute most favorite food is peaches. She’s had a freezer container of them almost every single week all year. Mom and I have enjoyed dried peaches in the winter. I had plans to buy 50% more this year and make peach nectar, too.
And due to the freeze, Tree-Ripe has canceled their peach season. I’m heartbroken.
And I need to find something else to fill our freezer for the winter. Unless I buy them at the store. But Tree-Ripes were so very good I don’t know if I’ll find the same quality. They really were tree ripened. Some fruit has to be eaten immediately. I had to process most of them within a week. The last time I bought at a store, they were mostly hard (at least if buying in bulk boxes). Will need to figure out the price per pound I’ve paid before and see if it’s worth buying them regular. I guess if I find a sale….
Re 90% food reduction: While not local, the peaches are in bulk and shipped and sold in a way that reduces energy.
June 2nd, 2007 - Electric reduction
I just signed up for 8 blocks, or 800 KWh, of renewable energy each month. It only costs $1/block now; the last time I checked (years ago) it was about $5. By using renewable energy, I can count my electric usage at 25% of the actual KWh. This reduces our electric usage to 20% of average! Woohoo!
May 26th, 2007 - Recent purchases
Speaking of 90% reduction….it’s a little weird to write of things we’ve bought recently, but actually most of them fit right in:
- Cotton shower curtain: While not organic, it is unbleached (went with the natural color, although a hydrogen-peroxide bleached white is available) and grown without chemicals. Pretty close to organic. And the store I bought it from is in Madison! I’d hoped to skip the shipping and buy in person, but I wasn’t able to go to Madison for the last meeting I had there. It was lovely to get rid of the old, mildewed, too long vinyl shower curtain liner. I wasn’t as excited to lose the old, ripped vinyl curtain, however, as we’ve loved the design since we bought it for this house: A “photo” of dolphins, fish, coral, etc. But it had ripped out half the holes, and the repairs with clear duct tape only lasted so long, too. I personally paid for half, figuring a nice vinyl curtain and liner would have run about $25. It does come VERY large and the first wash shrinks it quite a bit. I couldn’t believe it actually would, but it fits perfectly! As they say, it doesn’t billow, it’s soft and dries easily. It’s so much easier to wash, too, as I can put it in with the rest of my lights once a month, and it doesn’t drip up the stairs to re-hang like the vinyl would!
- cloth pantyliner: I’ve thought about this off and on, and a discussion on Emme’s Urban Sustainable list made me finally commit to trying it out. I ordered a sample from a place that had a good review (I’ll post later my own review and links). They are expensive, and maybe I could make my own, but imagine the savings I could have! Actually, my savings won’t be all that great until I replace tampons, which I will try as well (sea sponges), as I use the cheapest, largest box of pantyliners.
- two-wheeled wheelbarrow: The cheap one-wheel we had just wasn’t doing it. For one, it tipped so easily that I couldn’t put much into it. For two, the crossbar, which had no bolts or screws, fell out at least once per use. So we spent nearly $90 on a new one. Couldn’t get it in metal, so the barrow part is plastic, but I guess at the larger size it makes sense weight-wise. We love it already–it’s so much easier to haul the wood chips. Which means we get more yard work done more easily.
- snowblower: not necessary, in my opinion, and not much to do with the 90%. But it is something we’ve talked about since we bought the house. I do enjoy snow shoveling, but not as much as I used it. Going out before the hike to work just isn’t the thrill it was the first few years when I had a lot less to do! (Not to mention the physical issues I now have like sciatica that simply make it more difficult to do.) We did buy it on an end-of-season sale, and we got one that fits our needs rather than getting the next higher model, which had some nice but unnecessary features. Eric looks forward to doing our neighbors’ sidewalks a few times, as they have taken care of ours in past winters. Oh, and we bought an Ariens, which is made up in Kaukauna.
- stuff at garage sales today: Nothing too exciting. I went to about 10 sales, and most were a bust. Oh, 90%-wise, I decided to be careful about driving all over town and restricted myself to the north side plus one really good one on the south side. I ended up with a second one there that was good, and it wasn’t out of the way at all. While I like sale-ing, I’m concerned about the miles I end up driving around each Saturday. If I go out to just one section of town and only spend 2 hours, I will be just as happy–sometimes happier–and use less gas. I made on completely unnecessary purchase. For $2, I got a brand-new-looking mini muffin tin. Like I make muffins all the time! Or desserts! Totally an impulse buy. Now I have to make something in it to justify it…. My other purchases were clothing for Maggie and a kitchen timer. I put it in the living room for time outs. It’s an old fashioned analog one, woohoo!
May 22nd, 2007 - Carbon offset for 90% reduction?
This month, my church is participating in an “alternative way to church” to encourage the greening of our lives. Since I cannot bike, walk, or carpool to church (50 mile round trip, with a toddler), I decided to buy carbon offsets for my drive. I actually purchased them for the entire year! I chose to use The Carbon Fund because it’s a non-profit (and is a 503C charity!). Using their calculator, I estimated that if I go every week, it cost about $17 to offset the drive all year (I don’t go every week, but sometimes I end up going twice for other events). I was quite surprised that it was so low–I originally was just going to offset for the month, but figured I may as well do the whole year at this cost.
Unfortunately, the project is state-wide, and there are no provisions for being counted as participating if you offset instead. But maybe my idea will be passed on to the organizers next year!
I’m not sure how to account for this offset in my 90% reduction calculation. I looked back at yesterday’s data, and I’m not sure how I figured it. Today, I’m coming up with 100 gallons per person per year. I think I used numbers from Quicken at home and here I’m just using a generic 6000 miles instead (which is more, actually, than we drove in the past 6 months). Anyway, if I actually went to church every weekend, that would be 2600 miles over a year! Maybe I do go less often? Anyway, I offset once a week, so we can count that anyway. So, if I offset our usage to 3400 miles, at 3 people, that’s about 57 gallons per person per year or 11.4% of the average.
Unfortunately, it’s no longer winter and we tend to run more errands in the spring/summer (things like garden supplies!) and I don’t mind driving after dinner anymore (since it’s still light out), plus I go garage saling almost every Saturday. I will try to cut down on that, since I don’t really need a ton of stuff anyway….
May 22nd, 2007 - Garbage update
Garbage
* the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* Us: 0.8-1# per person per day, or about 22% of average
I updated yesterday’s averages after weighing 2 weeks’ garbage this morning. We had about 48# in the container, which included bags from pet food (only in about once every 6 weeks), some materials from construction (not a lot, but some), and the container itself. I weighed the morning’s litterbox findings, for an average of 1/2# per day. I estimate the same for dog poop, but I’m not when Eric last scooped, so not sure if any was in there or not. (Why would the 10x bigger dogs have the same weight in poop as the cats? A number of reasons: a) Cats’ includes litter weight. b) Cats’ includes pee. c) we don’t always get all the dog poop. and d) I’m not sure I actually want to weigh a dog poop. Maybe I will…..)
I should weigh a couple more times to get an average. But I’m pretty delighted to see it at 22%. I knew it was less since we put out so little garbage, are consciencious about recycling, compost food waste, and don’t buy a lot of processed foods or junk products.
May 20th, 2007 - 90% reduction?
Emme at Simple Living is trying to reduce her emissions by 90% in the coming year. When I first read the rules, I didn’t believe I could get anywhere near that kind of reduction. I even commented to that effect. But today, after reading her stats (first link above), I decided I should at least figure out my current stats. The info below is taken from her post, but with my family’s averages and comments. I encourage you to try the same exercise. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I’m already far below average in a few places. And that encourages me to actually try to join in and reduce further. Maybe I’ll shoot for an overall 50% reduction or even 75%, even though I can’t reach 90 across the board. As Emme says, Remember this is 90% below the average American - not 90% below where we are now!
(Garbage amount updated Tuesday. Also updated %ages because I realized sometimes I said % below average and sometimes % of average! I’m shooting for 10% of average, so I made sure that’s listed.)
Gasoline.
* Average American: usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* 90% reduction: would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* Us: 84 gallons per person per year, 16.8% of average (only counting this year, which has no long trips yet)
That’s far better than expected. I originally looked at it personally, and do not know how I’d cut my usage since I go to church 3-4 times a month, which is a 50-mile round trip. But I forgot that usually two of us go!
Electricity.
* Average US usage: is 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH.
* 90% reduction: would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH
* Us: average 722 kwh per month. So, we are about 20% below average. Or 80% of average.
Natural Gas + Wood Energy
* US Average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR.
* A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR
* Us: ave 33 therms/month which is 60% below average. Wow. I didn’t do the math right in my head and though we were nearly average. (Hey! Math majors don’t use numbers after calculus!) That’s 40% of average.
It is unrealistic for us to go 90% below average here as we live in the north. We refuse to freeze during the winter…. 100 therms/year wouldn’t keep us in heat more than 2 months and we need heat for 6 months of the year. We already keep the heat to 68 during the day (7am-7pm since we have kid and Dad at home all day) and 55-61 during the evening/night/early morning (I get up at 5am). For health reasons, I don’t think we can put the heat any lower. We had hoped that our new windows would keep the house warmer, but that didn’t show up this winter. :( Maybe it will keep it cooler this summer (electric AC).
Garbage
* the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* Us: 0.8-1# per person per day, or about 22% of average
I doubt we can go that low due to the dogs and cats (two of each, poop is heavy. We keep it low by feeding very high quality food where we can, but there’s only so much you can do here). I have not ever weighed our garbage but should one of these days. I know we are far less than average, but not how much. We generally put out 1.5 32-gallon containers (not packed heavy) every 2 weeks. (After first writing, I updated with averages after weighing 2 weeks’ garbage.)
Water.
* The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* Us: 39-49 gallons per person per day. 392 cubic feet/month, which is 2932 gallons per month (7.48 g/cubic feet[updated–wrong number originally listed]) which is approx. 49 gallons per person per day (not counting Maggie; if I count her as half a person (she doesn’t use the toilet, for instance, but she does use water for cooking, cleaning, clothing, etc.), it’s 39 gallons/day). So we are at about 50% of average.
This would be REALLY hard for us to cut down. This number doesn’t even include the water I use at work (at least 5 gallons between drinking water and the washroom I’m sure). We can’t do the skip-a-flush routine, although I did so as a kid. We do launder only when it’s full if possible. We have a front-loader. We use a dishwasher (said to use less water, especially versus our dish washer’s preferred hand method) and only rinse really messy foods. I use water sparingly when washing up and don’t let it run when not needed. We take showers or baths only when needed. Relatedly, we use hot water rarely.
However, due to thinking about this, I did turn off the water while soaping up yesterday. I think I can only do this during the summertime, however. But I’ll try to do it more often. Every little bit will help.
Consumer Goods.
* The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods
* 90% 1k per year (new) Used goods are 10% (used from garage sale is 10%) Used from Goodwill, Church Sale, etc does not count against.
* Us: $6400/year, or 64% of average
This is another toughy. I know we spend less than the average person, but still spend a lot. If I’d done The Compact this would be easier to cut down on. I don’t know how I’d figure this one out. I could do it since I track in Quicken, but it would take a lot of work as I’d have to sort out thrift stores/garage sales, look at a bunch of different categories, etc. But a very basic estimate is $533/month for all of us, not counting the recent home renovations. (This included all budget categories that are typically spent at stores, not counting groceries as that’s food below.) Acck, my first estimate was that we were ABOVE average which I found really hard to believe. Then I realized that I’d included all the pet spending, which is mostly medical and food bills, so I took all of those out. At $1600 for the first 5 months of the year, that puts us over average if counted. Yes, we could cut our spending a lot if we got rid of our pets. But that’s not happening and I do not believe is an appropriate response if you can afford to have pets and truly enjoy them. I just have to remember they are a very expensive hobby!
Food.
* Local should be 70% of diet
* Bulk allotted 25% of diet
* non-local/Processed 5%
* Us: ???
We buy little local food, except in the summertime. Except milk. That’s pretty local ’round here!