You can put your water heater on a timer so that it is only on when you are home. Just remember to have it turn on a bit before you need hot water as it will take a while to get warmed up.
Unplug everything that isn't being used at that moment. Alot of things draw energy when they are plugged in, but not on.

Also dry clothes without your dryer. Dryers suck up the most energy in your house!

I can't believe that your electricity company is trying a 50% hike. That is unbelievable.

-renee

America has woefully insufficient and overloaded power grids. I think we should all expect some major increases in our bills, and plan for it as best we can. I'd like to see more companies going on sliding scale billing. Those consumers who make major efforts to use less should be billed less per KWH and those people who continue to build McMansions and waste power in other ways should be bearing the brunt of the costs. It might force more of them into conserving when it hits them in the purse.

Christy, you have come to the right place, because making an effort to be green when it comes to energy can pay off in savings.

Even simple things like using curtains and blinds and opening and shutting them to take advantage of solar gain or creating dead air space for insulation in cold weather can make an impact on your energy bills. Even gas furnaces use blowers and blower motors use electric.

Browse through the posts already on this forum for lots of hints. Keep your freezer full to run more economically. As I use down my meats over winter, I sometimes fill milk jugs with water and put them on the shelf. It gives emergency water in case of outages(for people on pumps) and is also handy in warmer weather for using in ice chests instead of buying bags at stores.

"I'd like to see more companies going on sliding scale billing. Those consumers who make major efforts to use less should be billed less per KWH..."

This is exactly how I feel and what could be a better incentive to conserve? I'm doing just about everything I can to conserve. My KWH show that, but still my bills go up. People response to $. If they could actually see how it would mean more $ in their own pockets because of efforts they made I think more people would make the effort. Those who didn't want to should pay more. Right now, the sins of some are passed on to everyone. That's wrong.

Right now I'm getting ready for the annual summer rate increase do to the increased demand because of AC. I don't use AC and manage to get through the summers in good shape. Once the temps hit 75 F, the AC units start humming away all around me. That's stupid. Just open a window.

Kevin

Electric companies are a business. They don't want you to conserve so they will most likely never offer the "use less pay less" plan.
If we all use less I bet they will jack up the price so that they are making the same amount of money in the end.

I see what you are saying, but power companies are a regulated business who must operate under certain guidelines. Those guidelines are set up under government auspices and we supposedly have some say in what our government does. We need to understand that the more pressing the need for energy, the less the costs to environment will be considered. So, the time to start planning was decades ago. Letting out a big sigh here.

I fully appreciate what you are saying about profits, and the money pit where a lot of our dollars and federal incentives go for exploration of new or alternative sources. But, at present brown and black outs are their headache and the population is expected to double in twenty years mostly from immigration. If we do not have the infrastructure now to support the use, something is going to have to radically change or we'd best be preparing for the crash. I understand some power companies are already billing in this way.

I have long been a fan of "pay your own way" when it is at all possible. The trouble with raising energy rates to a level that reflects their actual costs, especially for higher-volume users*, is political.

They're discussing an increase to the state gasoline tax here (it's one tax that actually has gone way down in cost because of inflation, yet it's expected to pay for more all the time and they're not "making it up on volume"). The predictable cry is that a higher gasoline tax will act as a regressive tax on poor people. Yet cities and counties here can (and do) add to the sales tax at will. That's regressive, too, but somehow the argument of "buy less" works for sales taxes and not for gasoline.

What I don't understand, however, is how people continued to pay for gasoline when it was $3/gallon, only starting to change their behaviors at that cost. Now that it's down to $2.49/gallon, who would be hurt by a 50 cents bump in the gasoline tax? People were paying that much before. So it fosters some longer-term changes in people's decisions -- not living so far from where they want to be; not driving a bigger vehicle than they need to. The increased funds pay for mass transit (which is abominable around here), which everyone can use. Those are good things.

In the meantime, out of some well-meaning deference to leaving poor people out of the solution, no one pays the additional tax and no one reaps any benefit. And, of course, no politician who cares to be re-elected will touch this political "third rail". *rolls eyes*

* (I'm speaking of individuals here, not businesses.)

Make sure your refrigerator is full - uses less energy to cool a full fridge. You can just fill up used bottles with water to keep it full. Same for the freezer.

I started using a clothesline recently - haven't had the bill yet to check the results - but I can tell you I love hanging out the clothes. It seems to actually take less effort than the dryer, because I can hang out many loads of wash, then I sort them as I take them off the line.

Also, put your TV, DVD, VCR on a plug strip and turn it off at night. those things use electricity even when they are turned off.

Of course, replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescent - see if your town (or even electric company) has special offers.

That's all I can think of right now!

in the long term as power gets shorter and shorter, it isn't infinite.

people are going to have to look at house design none of our communities are building efficient homes, and before you look to this avenue you need to be aware of working outside the square and comfort zone, lots of latteral thinking.

we have our hot water system regulated to only use power between 10pm and 7 am each day that is heaps for us as we make showers a quick thing keep showers to 4 minutes, install shower supply units that allow you to turn the water off temporarily while you soap up and wash then turn it on to rinse with. or sahre baths wash the cleanest first. auto washing machines and clothes dryers, dishwashers, insikerators can all be dispensed with, wash dishes by hand and only when there is enough for us that is every second day, use a twin tub washer this way washing the cleaner clothes first you can do 3 loads of washing per water fill ie.,. ours takes 90 litres so that is 30 litres per load saves power and water.

we have lots of sun so we use a clothes dryer vry seldomly, but people over here waste power by religously using their clothes dryer. even this inefficient how doesn't need heating and only needs some passive cooling processes retro fitted, but we looked for that so used our head to buy with and not our heart.

use fluro lights or those socket type fluro bulbs. here in aus' our homes generally rely on a single light unit in the middle of a ceiling in equivalent to a standard size space of say 4 X 5 meters, we don't have all those individual systems like we seem to see in pictures of you homes. don't turn a light on unless you need it.

over here from where we stand our average power bill per annum is around $700+AUD.

we are now living in one of what we call a suburban macmansion, and not in our designed eco' home that only needed 1 light to illuminate the whole home enough to see to get around with, and on nearly 2 weeks of the month the approaching/full/receding moon did the job.

in our sub-tropics it needed no heating or cooling, and it can be done in all climes just in more extreme cold climes it needs more exacting land aspects and home orientation thinking.

if the roof isn't insulated then do that also the best way is to have the insulation under the roof cladding proper, roof cavities are the big downer for modern inefficient homes. modern homes don't have enouhg overhang/eaves it should be 1 meter wide but no less than 600mm, this keeps a lot of extreme conditions off of the outside walls.

just how we see it.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

Well put. Little or no thought seems to be put into efficient housing design here, since so few homes are custom built anymore. When one hits the market with good energy ratings on windows and insulation, it's considered energy efficient. But, there is so much more can be done to make it that way. My two hundred year old home makes better use of of design by taking advantage of orientation, materials etc. than most modern homes. The bulk of the windows are south facing, the north facing walls essentially don't even have windows, except on the ell. The overhang of the roof keeps the sun out well in the hot summer, but allows it to enter in winter, it was well thought out. Much like a chicken shed. It takes many days of intense cold to chill this house down and likewise many days of intense heat to heat it up in summer and the remainder of the windows allow for good cross ventilation.

In those days energy costs weren't even pertinent, save the fact you had to go out and down trees to heat, and that was incentive enough to try to design comfort into the building.

My daughter and her husband are just moving into a home built by the owners themselves. One side of the house is earth bermed, the north side and good use made of tree planting. The interior rooms are well lain out to allow one small heat source to warm the entire house. Their entire year's fuel cost is less than most homes here for one month, according to the seller's history.

Instant on features on tvs, CD players, and anything that has a little light on are all eating a LOT of electricity. Put them on a power strip and turn the power strip on and off with the switch when you use the appliance.
Try a LED nightlight- light sensing type that goes on only when it is dark enough.

Go through all electric gadgets of every kind, and get rid of some. We got rid of our electric can opener, the microwave, waffle iron (now use a cast-iron one), bought a couple of old phone with no wall-wart (wall wart plugs are a sure sign of lots of electricity drawn), etc.

Turn off the computer (and the monitor, and the printer)every night. They use almost as much power sitting on and idle as they do when in active use. No kidding!

In other words, get rid of appliances, turn them off with a power strip, replace appliances with non-electric ones, go for the efficient ones. Good luck.

Wow! Lots of great ideas. I really need to go around and see what appliances I have, and can replace. I've pulled out all of the plug-in air fresheners, but don't know what to do with them. If I throw them away, they go to the landfill. If I give them away, someone else will be wasting energy. So, they're in a drawer :) What about burning fires in the winter? I have a blower, is it better to burn a fire and heat one room? Or use the heat, and not burn a fire? Also, is it efficient to leave a ceiling fan running, or turn it off when not in that room? I didn't know how much energy the clothes dryer used. I'm planning on getting a clothes line for in the basement and outside. Thanks :) Christy

wash dishes by hand and only when there is enough for us that is every second day

I will beg to differ on this one. Your dishwasher may be more efficient than hand-washing. My ASKO uses a bit less than four gallons for an entire wash. Other efficient dishwashers use less than six gallons per wash. My faucet can put out 1.5 gallons per minute. So for a few minutes of full-blast faucet use, filling a dish tub or rinsing dishes, plus a little electricity, I can put a full load in the dishwasher (which I do) and be done with it.

Turn off the computer (and the monitor, and the printer)every night. They use almost as much power sitting on and idle as they do when in active use.

That last part is true. But newer computers and monitors and printers, many of which meet Energy Star requirements, use only a few watts of power when they're "sleeping". My Macintosh can be set to sleep after a specified period of inactivity or even scheduled to sleep and wake up. There is strong evidence that the thermal stress of heating and cooling computer components is a prime cause of their early failure. Unfortunately, manufacturing computer circuitry isn't really "green" yet. So switching off the computer and all may save energy now, but it will be lost if the item fails because of the heat cycles of switching on and off.

I've pulled out all of the plug-in air fresheners, but don't know what to do with them. If I throw them away, they go to the landfill. If I give them away, someone else will be wasting energy. So, they're in a drawer :) What about burning fires in the winter? I have a blower, is it better to burn a fire and heat one room? Or use the heat, and not burn a fire? Also, is it efficient to leave a ceiling fan running, or turn it off when not in that room?

Welcome to the conundrum of being "green". :-p There are very few decisions which are absolutely "green" when you look at all of the problem, as you have.

My $.02 on your air-fresheners is that they eventually will end up in a landfill anyway; if you toss them, no one else will be using up electricity powering them from that day forward. Filling landfills is not cool, but, in this case, it seems to me to be the lesser of the evils.

As for the fireplace, most fireplaces are constructed so that plenty of house air (likely already warmed to some minimal level so your pipes don't freeze) is sucked out the chimney along with the fire's combustion byproducts. The ceiling fan? Treat it like a light -- if you'll be out of the room long enough that you would switch off the light, switch off the fan.

I think the exception to switching off fans would be to use them on a very low speed in winter to circulate the hot air normally wanting to collect on the ceiling. I've very high ceilings by modern standards (twelve feet) and a foyer at the staircase where heat just loves to shoot up. A fan running gently at the top returns this wasted heat in winter. If you think about it, on a very hot day outside, using fans could even be counter productive. The air rushing in shall be no cooler than the outside ambient air. If it's ninety outside, the fan pulls ninety degree air into the house, no? We feel comfort standing in front of it simply by the evaporative effect of it on our sweat.

I often turn the fans OFF in daytime on very hot days and only turn them on at night when the air outside is cooler than the air inside. I still leave the windows open in daytime, but let down the blinds and tilt them to block letting sunlight in. Oftentimes the house stays cool well into the day that way.

Another appliance using energy to save energy could be the humidifier. Adding moisture to the air made dry by forced air furnaces will make you more comfortable at lower temperatures and be healthier for your skin. When we installed central heat, we went with hot water heat.......so it's not a big issue with us, but if I have the gas grate on in the kitchen to heat in milder weather, I have a tea kettle on it to do the same thing as a by-product.

g'day calliope,

house design is something that is indoctrinated into us making us believe that what they offer is the best and prettiest, so they appeal to the heart, and that is how unfortunately for latteral thinking many people buy real estate "with the heart", when they use "the head" they then get a better outcome.

and all those things insulation. glazing on modern inefficient macmansions are nothing more than band-aides and will have wide and varied results on almsot each and every application.

if you start with good design and all that goes with that then all those band-aides become real advantages.

g'day steve,

we hand wash in a 15 litre basin (so obvioulsy we can't fill it as it would overflow), so the flow rate out of the tap makes not an ounce of difference. and the other benefits are that we use no power to actually wash those dishes, and the detergent we use is very low enviro' impact (unlike dishwasher detergents) so the waste water can be used to water plants.

and again calliope,

as the home we designed had no heating then humidity was not a problem (getting rid of it in summer is in our climate, but good design will look after nearly all of that) so there was no power wastage from those aspects, the plan with adopting a design is to clad it in a material that works in your clime, so plan to build an efficient home that needs as least as possible heating ie.,. say a current poor design requires heating 9 months of year then plan to build a home that cuts that back to 6 months of the year (yes you may have to wear more clothing inside but that is a whole lot eco' friendlier than using power), some have their homes so cosy they walk around dressed like they are in the tropics i'm sure that can't be good for their or the environments health.

if you read our 'eco' home' essay i give examples of how much other than power resources people are using to get through their winters, you can extrapolate the total resource factor into that.

we searched high and low for info' on what is truely good design and this is the end result and it worked, of course we learnt a lot and if we get the opportunity to do it again there are some other add ins we can do to make it even better, but we are streets ahead when compared to a system that supplies such poor design and then creates band-aide industries to try and turn those "sows ears into silk purses", won't and for the main doesn't work.

len

Well I wish I had the option of 'good design'. Unfortunately, we are a single income military family, and move every 4 years. So, we have to buy what we can afford, and then move again. What I really wish is that 'going green' was more mainstream. We're trying to work with what we have :) Christy

Very few of us have the option of having homes of "good design" and are locked into retrofitting or as ken says trying to make silk purses out of sow's ears. Having a home custom built, or building one yourself isn't always an option. Homes are built for the masses anymore, even very expensive ones and energy efficiency, as you said, hasn't become mainstream yet. If people chose to spend their $$$s on those qualities, instead of bigger and fancier more builders would jump on the bandwagon. They don't build them out of social consciousness, but for profit.

calliope & christy,

that's the whole crux of the problem realy, the indoctrination into badly designed homes is fairly complete, and when you consider that up to 75% of those homes are also built on the wrong aspect and take orientation of the home into that there are not going to be very many homes that you can buy out of the new or used home lots that will be able to be run with noticable efficiencies.

but on the other hand a lot of people do get to build their own home from scratch but they always or nearly always follow the indoctrinated model with some "we love that" variation. need to keep the heart out of these decisions and use the head a whole lot more, and that means oodles of latteral thinking, thinking outside the "box/square" and working outside your comfort zones.

and the squares we are in and the comfort zones around us are all indoctrinated, a fairly hard mold to break most of the time. and the current climate in the home design area won't change while we home buyers keep buying what "they" dish out.

we don't need macmansions we need affordable comfortable homes, at the time we built ours it cost around $50,000AUD the nearest affordable steel plan home (macmansion style no options away from that style that is all they want to build for us) then was around $80,000AUD, that is a big saving for a young family well for any family, and then the home was so much cheaper to run. it had lots of benefits to suit the local conditions ie.,. it was termite resistant in its own right without the use of any chemicals or barriers, it was also fire resistant ad it had almost no combustable material only furnishings, it was Cyclone proof beyond the minimum standard of normal homes, and the list goes on.

Even the plumbing was either exposed or easily got at for repairing or adding to, all modern homes have hidden plumbing so when a fault occurs or addition is needed it requires in a lot of cases the removal of wall sections and alot of mess to complete the task.

'christy', in your travels abd wanderings from this home to that home, have you ever noticed in like climates how one home may be more comfy that anotehr even if someone else yo know through association happens to be living in it, these differences will be there, and they aren't differences by design they are accidental as a builder/planner may have given some homes better aspect and design lent itself to better orientation.

we see here our home is that bit more comfy than the one our daughter rents a couple of kilometers away, our young neighbours over the road can't figure why our living area is heaps more user friendly on the comfort side than what his is. the best tools are a compass, and powers of observation with good analytical skills, and being able to figure the suns track over the season.

when we buy a home before we step through the door the compass comes out, and if it is the wrong aspect we don't go any further, drives real estate people crazy, but deep down they know we are right they just want everyone to be like the lemmings and just buy a place because it looks pretty or has a pretty view whatever.

when people buy cars and fridges etc.,. they are more astute, yet the biggest thing they buy gets cursory attention to detail.

when you look at a concept if the first words/thought are won't/can't/yuk then you have locked yourself into the box, make your thinking why/what/how.

thanks for the great chat hey?

len

This is our first home that we own, our first duty station we weren't married yet, so we rented. I had no idea how to buy a house, I picked this townhouse by myself. My DH saw it after closing. It is 20 years old, and has some tings I would definitely change (that compass would have been helpful:) Living in the DC/Baltimore area is expensive, greatly reduces our options. We moved here almost 3 years ago, during the big 'seller's market'. As it was, there were 10 bids in 2 days, and we paid 20k over the asking price. We got it by 5 bucks, clever realtor :) Anyway, we're trying to reduce our electric bill, with rates likely to go up. One of the hardest parts is the heating and cooling. In the winter, we get little sun shining on the house, and in the summer, we get heavy afternoon sun on the house. It's a 2-story with basement. I have put magnetic strips over the 2 vents in the basement, so we don't heat/cool a seldom used room (It can get REALLY cold playing pool in the winter!). We've installed ceiling fans in every room, helps with heating and cooling. The front of the house is usually 5 degrees warmer than the back of the house. Unfortunately, the kids room is in the back. I ran the heat higher than I usually would because her room was SO much colder than ours. So, I have some things to look at before we purchase our next home!! Yes, good chat :) Christy

g'day christy,

you will no doubt in your life together have the opportunity or need to purchase another home maybe in some other town or suburb? but the laws of averages say that will happen, i think the averages are that we will own between 5 and 8 homes in our lifetimes. we are up to #6 and not because the law of averages says that! it is just things change and we need to change and often those changes mean moving home.

not much you can do when buying and living into the unit market, units are only built to cater to intensive living style that is getting as many people onto 1 patch of ground as is possibl/practicable. but you may find that some units are that much more comfy than others naturally, if you look into it you will find by accident rather than good design they have some aspects about them that lend themselves to the things we are talking about in planned good design.

our current home though exactly the same plan built home as the young couple over the road is far more comfy than is thiers, and it all comes down to orientation of the home (quiet accidental by the builder) all we need to do is add some passive cooling and we'll be pretty right not perfect or not good like it would be if homes were designed and then aspected and orientated correctly.

if you read our 'eco' home' essay you will see the orientation of the layout inside the home also comes into play, and also includes things like the best side of the home for car accomodation etc.,. a lot in it but once you are familiar with the forces at play all too easy.

it didn't matter to us how different than the indoctrinated norm' our home looked like, we built it anyway and it worked and lots who came along later saw it worked, many turned away at first site because their heads where full of the implanted dream.

at all times when buying real estate or building a home "make all decisions using the head and not the heart" you will always come out on top then, those who buy with the heart generally end up not wanting to be there as reality can shatter the dream. Nevre let a real estate agent implant a dream or feeling into your thought pattern when you are viewing a home let it be known early you will see the right aspects of the home as your needs desire/require, they will always take you mind and your eye away from less endering factors of a property, they are there to simply sell property and amake money they are not experts on homes or land. and at the end of a viewing don't criticise the property you just looked at simply without any explanation say "it's not for us" and leave it at that.

if you buy in an area that is covered by a cevenant, read and understand the limiting factors of that covenant and if you find that there is too much imact going to occur then don't buy there, look somewhere else never be rushed to buy and never never be rushed into signing.

len

Hello - this is a late post for this thread - Winter 08.

I too live in the BGE area and just had to pay $568 bill for Nov/Dec...That's not even the cold months yet! (Terrified to see what the next bill will bring).

Very few people have the option to design their own house - we need practical advice to fix things as best we can. Our house is about 100 years old, but not large at all by today's standards. It is very inefficiently designed for energy - we are all electric. Our heat is forced air base board. (not my choice - that's just the way it is).

So - once again - along with the original poster - we need help and advice. This is what I've done so far, but I doubt that it will make much of a dent in our bill:

Bought a bunch of those cloth "snakes" to put in front of door stops and windows.
Purchased space heaters for the kitchen, living room and one bedroom. I'm not sure if that was smart or not - the whole house being electric - we are still using electricity one way or the other. Any thoughts about that?
I try to open and close curtains depending on sunshine availability.
I don't know what to do next.
Insulated curtains? If so - what kind?

We BGE'ers need practical advice and help! Anyone out there have some more practical suggestions?

I like to go through the Lehman's catalog to look for non-electric options. (They have a website, too.) I do not use a clothes dryer. I live in New Mexico. Sometimes in winter the laundry won't dry completely on the line. I bring it in, and hang it on a large Amish-built wooden rack. It will be dry by the next morning.

I bought a non-electric fan for my wood stove. It is a small unit which sits atop the stove. The heat rising from the fire causes the fan to work.

I gave up my microwave. I don't know how much power those draw. I invested in a solar oven. Cloudy conditions prevent use of a solar oven, or short days in winter. During summer I can keep the heat level lower in the house by cooking outdoors in the solar oven. I've successfully roasted chickens, baked breads and cakes, cooked pots of beans, baked meatloaves, etc. When I use the oven in my kitchen range, I turn it off ten minutes before my cake, or whatever, should be finished baking. If I don't open the oven door, the heat will be retained at the proper temp for those few minutes.

I bought a pair of insulated curtains for my bedroom. I do think they have been very helpful in cutting down drafts from the window. The window was caulked, but it is still drafty. I haven't had the curtains long enough to know if they will keep the room cooler in summer.

Some folks cover the inside of their windows with plastic in winter to keep heat in the house. I haven't been able to bring myself to do that. I think it is ugly, and I like to look out from my windows.

Lorna

There is an ongoing series in Mother Earth news about retrofitting homes for energy saving. This month's has some good ideas: compact fluorescents, stopping "vampire" power losses by unplugging TVs etc as has been mentioned.

Other ideas from me (happy I moved away from Baltimore before the rates went up) Turn down the thermostat to 60 or slightly less at night, 65-68 during the day. And put on a sweater! (channeling my mother here) And if you humidify the air, you'll feel warmer at lower temps. Have functional curtains or blinds on every window and be religious about opening them in the day and closing at night in the winter and the reverse in the summer. Make sure all your doors are weather stripped. These are all things you can do even if you move often as Christy does.

I live in a home built in 1923 here in St Pete FL. Older homes have NO insulation and it use to be a energy sucker. Last year I was able to talk a company into insulating my walls. Big difference no more cold days of winter I have insulated all my outside walls, a layer in the foor space and another layer in the attic. I built a cover to go over my attic stairs the kind that lift up into the attic. Simple box with hinges cover the stairs when I am not in the attic and I added some insulation on the top to keeps out the hot air in the summer and cold air in the winter. I added a solar barrier onto the rafters to reflect out much of the solar heat that hits the roof in the summer and added 2 solar attic vents and 2 electric powered vents. One blows air into the attic and the other pulls it out. Attic is cooler which makes the house cooler. I've replaced all my ceiling fans with Energy star fans that use less electricity. Last summer I was able to set my A/c at 82* and be very cool all summer long. I went from using 32KW per day (24hr period)down to using about 20KW per day(24hr period). This winter my last bill was 565KWH per month. The lowest it has ever been. I have a timer on myhot water heater for one hour and it sits out in the sun for the rest of the day. I'm going to get a solar hot water heater. Later on this summer I will be getting a 3.5-4.0 KWH PV system installed on the roof and west side of house to get the most amount of sun to generator power. In the winter I use a propane stove that is installed in my fire place to heat the house and it does great. Next year I want to get a wind turbine installed to make power on windy days to send back to power company for credit. Soon I will be making more power than I use and will have credits from the power company so my bills should be zero.

I want to make calculations of heat energy efficient house for cold countries such as Russia, Alaska of USA and Canada. This house use energy of wind and heat energy of soil.

I am finding sponsor for this works. The sponsor will be used technologies that will be developed.

See details in this doc-file:
http://simulations.narod.ru/energy_efficient_house.doc

Just my 2 cents worth
"I'd like to see more companies going on sliding scale billing. Those consumers who make major efforts to use less should be billed less per KWH..."
I live in Charlotte NC and last sumer we were in a major
drought the water company ask for conservation in water usage.that they would not raise rate if everone conserved
water .we were under restrictions and as a result the city
used less water and conservation efferts were good.
WE as a city had done it cut our water usage our reward
this spring the city aprroved a rate incress for the water company some 12 to 15 per cent incress.The water company siad that becuase everyone had done such a good job conserving water that there profit had droped and that was the reason for the incress.
So my question is a sliding scale just going to drop profits
and incress rates any way

CONSERVE REUSE RECYCLE
GREEN ON A MISSION
THINK GLOBAL ACT LOCAL

Blueangel

Blueangel, same here with the successful water conservation effort and now a rate increase due to decreased use - Grrrr! And the gas & electric companies are constantly lobbying for rate hikes too - makes it a real math quiz to determine if personal conservations measures are working or not! I figure the next hit will be when the State realizes that high fuel prices are curtailing travel and gasoline sales, thus their share of the highway gas tax bounty ...... so they'll raise that tax too! Whaddaya wanna bet?! End of rant :o)

Lots of great suggestions on this site and in this thread, many of which let me smile and say to self, "Self, you do that !" - insert pat on back. One thing I haven't read (or have missed when reading) on the HVAC end is the value of appropriate landscaping, particularly the cooling, AC saving aspect for warmer climes.

Good placement and forward thinking w/trees & shrubs can make a huge difference. I'm not claiming expertise here, I had the help of very knowledgable folks. Evergreen versus deciduous and mature size potential are key, with attention to the angle of the summer versus winter sun.

My yards/plantings are in their sixth year now, and besides being amazed at how large and well they've grown, every year I better appreciate the master plan that was employed at installation. The east and west walls are now quite well insulated/shaded by trees that will, by the end of this growing season, shade the second story "hot" windows. My south facing sunroom is a solar collector in the winter, reaching 75+ degrees by mid-morning on a sunny, 40 degree day and passively assisting w/heating the house until late afternoon. But, come summer the changed sun angle and the leaf out of trees shade it entirely, save an hour or so of later afternoon sun. And one more season of growth/height on the holly tree should take care of that!

I think this qualifies as a 'green' concept - energy conservation thru natural beauty!