I like to think that every little bit makes a difference, so I’m going to try avoiding the use of my air conditioner this summer. The only caveat to that rule is if temperatures break 100 degrees, at which point I’ll use it briefly. Being I live in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, temperatures are often fairly mild, although I have to admit the past few summers have been getting noticeably warmer and warmer.
I got an air conditioning unit installed about three years ago since the townhouse I live in has all the hookups and electricity built into it. The only thing missing was the compressor, which I hired a company to install. I have to say, it’s been really nice having air conditioning on those hot days, and because I live in a city that provides electricity at about half the cost of other areas (the city generates and sells its own electricity), it hasn’t been that expensive to use it… which leads to another problem and the source of my inspiration.
I notice that a lot of people in my area leave their air conditioners running all day long and year round. I think cheap electricity is a huge culprit, and people have gotten way too comfortable leaving their windows closed and air conditioners cranked up high. I find it ironic to hear air conditioners humming 11pm at night when it’s about 40 or 50 degrees outside, especially when these homes have built-in air systems and fans that take in and circulate outside air. Perhaps the city needs to raise electricity rates to increase revenue and encourage conservation. When you hit people’s wallets, I notice they tend to listen a lot more closely.
Back to my personal goal. This summer, even though I paid a premium and purchased an ultra-efficient air conditioning compressor and condenser coil that uses half the electricity of the standard units, I’m still going to try and limit my use. When I use my air conditioner, I notice my electricity bill nearly doubles, which is a clear sign that it uses a lot of electricity (even though it’s “efficient”). Apparently, my air conditioner uses Puron, which is supposed to be safe for the ozone. To keep myself honest, I’ll post each time I use my air conditioner and let everyone know how long I used it for. Let’s just say I don’t plan on posting.
I often find turning on a couple fans and opening my windows does the trick just fine. In fact, it’s even nicer because I get to enjoy the fresh air. In the worse case, if it gets really bad, I’ll just walk down the street and jump into the swimming pool.
I recently read a statistic somewhere saying the average household pays 23 bills per month. This sounds a bit high to me personally, but let’s run with it. It could very well be possible with water bills, homeowner community association bills, cell phone bills, cable television bills, gardener bills, house cleaner bills, internet bills, credit card bills, electricity bills, gas bills, car bills, and all the other bills we get each month. For those who don’t use electronic bill payment or sign up to receive electronic bills, I highly recommend it.
I’ve been using electronic bill payment for years. I’ve never had any problems with electronic bill payment from my bank account. It’s fast, efficient, and it automatically ties in with your bank account records. With electronic bill payment, it’s a no brainer. You don’t have to worry about dropping off your bill into the mail or the Post Office potentially losing it. The biggest benefit is that if you pay anywhere near 23 bills a month, the amount of money you save from not buying stamps is huge. Currently, stamps cost 41 cents each, and it’s increasing to 42 cents in May. At 23 bills per month, you are paying over $113 per year in stamps, and you know the cost of stamps will only rise! Can you think of anything you’d like to do with $113? I sure can!
We often hear about large scale green projects, such as the installation of huge solar arrays or wind power farms, new fleets of biodiesel or hybrid vehicles, or new multi-million dollar green buildings. Even at TTMYGG, we love the large scale projects that have huge, positive impacts on the environment. However, as an average consumer, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed about what you can do to help the environment.
Imagine if each person used one less paper towel each of these 216 million trips. Could you use 1 instead of 2 pieces of paper? Could you use 2 instead of 3 pieces of paper? If everyone used just 1 piece of paper less, that would mean saving 216 million paper towels each day. Sure, a lot of paper towels may come from recycled paper, but think about the amount of energy needed to recycle, refine, manufacture, and distribute this amount of paper. Small actions really do add up, and indeed, every little bit helps. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to help save our environment.
