Electricity & Energy |
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Green Power (Mike Forbes - Moscow, ID) Just recently, our utility companies in Moscow, Idaho, began offering power generated from renewable energy sources. The two companies, Clearwater Power and Avista Utilities, began offering power generated from landfill gas (methane) and wind, respectively. Clearwater Power offers their power from the Coffin Butte Resource Project in Corvallis, Ore. The power is generated by recovering methane that naturally escapes from landfills and using it to run gas-fired generators. As a customer, you purchase 100 kwh blocks of power from them for $4 per block. This is in addition to your regular bill. Avista Utilities’ program involves purchasing blocks of power from the Stateline Wind Project located west of Walla Walla, Wash., on the Washington-Oregon border. The project consists of more than 450 turbines capable of generating 300 megawatts of power. As a customer, you purchase 55 kwh blocks of power for $1 each in addition to your regular bill. You can figure out how much your bill will go up by taking your power bill and looking at your usage (we’ll use Avista rates in our example). Find how many kilowatt hours (kwh) you used last month and divide by 55, giving you how many blocks you’d need to buy to be 100% wind power. Since Avista doesn’t let you purchase partial blocks, I’ve rounded up my figures to guarantee that all my power is from the wind. Their program doesn’t guarantee that the power you use each day is wind generated, but that when they have to purchase power on the open market, they will buy that much wind power instead of hydro power, and someone in their service area will be using wind power. Jan usage: 300 kwh I found it interesting to note that Avista’s base electricity rate is $.051/kwh and if you use all wind power your rate becomes $.069/kwh, well below the nationwide average of $.0824/kwh. This January, Washington state became one of the first states to REQUIRE utilities to offer green power for their customers. These are pretty exciting steps for big business and government to take. I’m not going to count my chickens yet, but steps like these are definitely in the right direction. To find out if your utility offers this program (I know that most Washington utilities do), contact your utility company. Many utility companies have websites that explain their green power program.
Hot Tubs (anonymous) Hot tubs do more than soak people in warm water. They also soak people's money away. Using electricity to heat hot tubs is very expensive. We didn't want to waste that electricity, or spend that money, so we decided not to get a hot tub. Then we tried a friend's wood-fired hot tub. No electricity. Just use scraps of wood (they use tree branches trimmed in fall prunings). The stove sits in the water and heats it up to the right temperature in an hour or so. The company makes these cute cedar hot tubs, and includes the wood-fired stove. They are called Snorkel Stoves. We really like ours. The best things in life are free (like soaking in water heated for free). Check out their web site at www.snorkel.com or call them at 800-962-6208.
Limelights (Elaine Vincent - Denver, Colorado) I have discovered a great new product. It’s a nightlight that is supposed to cost only two cents a year to operate (yes, I said two cents per year). That’s much less than any other bulb-type of nightlight. It’s called the Limelite, I guess because it glows green. It plugs into a regular wall socket and is made from some crazy space-age material. It never gets hot like bulbs do. It just will not burn out, they say, and is offered with a lifetime guarantee. Whatever weird stuff it is, it’s a great night light for us. We got ours from Austin Innovations through their website: www.limelite.com, 512-339-6765. Six bucks.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and Full Spectrum Light (Anonymous) Every winter I got really depressed. All the classic symptoms: weight gain, sleep disturbance, anxiety, fatigue, sadness. When spring comes with the chance to work in my garden, and I feel great again, until fall when I have to come back inside. I read and studied and looked on the Internet-- I finally realized that I had SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. I really missed the sun. I needed more light. The amount of sunlight I got in my northern latitude home just was not enough for me. I found information from several dozen scientific studies about SAD. The symptoms were the same. And the solution turned out to be wonderfully easy. I bought some full-spectrum lights (good ones, they look like regular flourescent tubes, but the light is softer) in a box. I set the box up in my kitchen and every day, I sit in front of the lights (within two feet) for one to three hours daily, reading the morning newspaper and eating breakfast. At my office, I replaced the old flourescent tubes above my desk with the full spectrum bulbs also. What a blessing this is. Now I do not fear the coming of winter, and I feel good all year. I am sure that most natural food stores and co-ops carry full spectrum bulbs now, but I bought mine from Full Spectrum Solutions (888-574-7014). They have a website at www.fullspectrumsolutions.com.
The Sleeping Lady Showed Us the Way. (Ramona Hollis - Seattle, Washington) I've heard about the Sleeping Lady resort for several years. But what really got me interested in learning more about the place was the really different kinds of people who told me about it. My hard-core eco-warrior friends told me about this multi-million dollar showcase for the latest in energy conservation technology and appropriate materials. My traveling companions who are always searching for a new exciting destination told me about this gorgeous new resort. My music-lover pals told me about this new intimate auditorium which was the ideal place to listen to live classical music. Of course, I was intrigued. They all were telling me I had to go to Sleeping Lady, a conference center built by an incredible woman, Harriett Bullitt (of the Bullitt Foundation of Seattle)in 1995 on the banks of Icicle Creek near Leavenworth, Washington, about 120 miles from Seattle. Since we were working on the design for our house, we were looking for answers to questions about which materials can best replace cedar for decking and siding or questions about how to best save energy in our climate. We took our questions (and our desire to see a great string quartet and our desire for a weekend getaway from Seattle) to Sleeping Lady. We got more answers than I could ever begin to list here to questions about energy saving and electricity usage. BTW, Sleeping Lady was recognized in 2001 as one of the top ten "green" projects in the US, according to the American Institute of Architects. We were thrilled by the concert at the remodelled auditorium there. And we had a great refreshing and invigorating weekend overall. If you visit Sleeping Lady, I'm sure you will be equally impressed (www.sleepinglady.com). A visit there will be the most delightful energy-saving research you will ever do. Really.
Wasted Electricity (Sarah T. - Spokane, Washington) We were wasting lots of money each month in electricity. And I bet you are, too. I didn't believe it until we looked very carefully at our own electrical usage. This is what we did to find the wasted power at our house. First, we turned everything off. No dishwasher, lights, etc. running. But the little wheel on the electrical meter kept on spinning. We were still using power. So, we started looking for hidden power uses. Some were pretty obvious, like the digital clocks on our microwave. We unplugged all those electrical appliances. But the meter kept spinning. The power surge strip on our computer had a little red light, so we turned off the strip. But the meter kept showing electricity wasted. What we discovered was that the little boxes (they are transformers, really) on the cords leading to many appliances are real power wasters. We unplugged all of them (the cordless phone, the cordless drill charger, the computer modem, etc). Finally, the meter stopped. None of those hidden power users are big draws of electricity, but together--and especially since they waste electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year--the electricity they use does add up. We calculated that we were going to save about $20 by turning them all off. And we discovered that we actually save about $30 a month. Things just are not quite as convenient (we have to plug things in, instead of just turning the appliance on, for example), but the savings are worth it. Plus, it really does make me feel safer to know that when we go to bed at night, all the appliances are really off.
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