Energy in my life

Hi again

This week is the last week of eco my flat, and so there a couple of things to wrap up.

ENERGY

Television

So there's a spectrum that describes people's approaches to energy use/conservation. On one hand, there's people who leave the lights on in full sunlight, heat pump at 23°C, or perhaps having a 30 minute shower everyday (which uses lots of water in addition to the energy to heat the water). There are also people who leave electrical/electronic appliances on when they are not in use. A good example is the “I’ll be back in 5 minutes, so I’ll leave the TV on” situation. More often than not, because of our lackadaisical nature, the person will be gone for an hour, and they TV will still be going with full sound and colour.

Hottie(s)

At the other end of the spectrum, there's some who switch off the lights when they leave the room, regardless of how brief/long they're gone for. Also, at this end of the spectrum, people do not use heaters at all. Instead, they go for the hot water bottle and blanket combination. Maybe they have cold showers too (I’m talking 12-15°C water here, in an ambient bathroom temperature of <10°C). And perhaps they’ll build a solar heater to heat up the water that feeds into the hot water cylinder.

 

I guess I fall somewhere along the spectrum in between those 2 extremes. I like to think I'm closer to the end of the spectrum that uses only that which is necessary.

Singing a 5 minute song in the shower

In the warmer months, I shower 4 minutes, using a shower timer to ensure I don’t go over the time. A couch surfer at our flat (that’s you, Holly) once told me something interesting about showering. When she was living alone in a shack, trying to finish some paper/thesis, she had this approach to short showers: Sing a song that would be of (approximately) 5 minutes in length, and when the song ended, so would the shower.

But I digress. It’s the peak of winter right now, and I’m having an (approximately) 8 minute hot water shower every 10 days. It’s not perfect, but it means that the power bill won’t be shocking. At the moment, our power bills are around $120-$140, for 4 guys who are fairly eco-minded. That says a lot to how we use energy around the flat. Also, I spend a lot of time the University, so it means I’m using energy that’s already been used to heat the space regardless of the presence of 5 or 50 students.

Incandescent light bulb

With regard to energy use in my room, I use an eco-bulb for my desk lamp. The room, as a whole, is illuminated with a single 100W incandescent light bulb. Yes, unfortunately there were at least 2 eco-bulbs(compact fluorescent light(CFL) bulbs) that blew in that particular lighting fixture over my 3 years at Hooker Ave. I suspect it has something to do with the wiring so perhaps I will let my dear landlord know about the situation.

As for electronics, there’s a radio/alarm clock that is quite old and should probably be replaced with a new one, but the fact is, where would the old one go when a new efficient one comes along? Should it be sent to the dump or Freecycle?  I think the latter would be more appropriate. However, this can be extrapolated to a bigger picture. When newer, more efficient models for computers/televisions/come along, where do the older, inefficient ones go?

Landfill

Vampire power!!!

There’s an important aside I want to state here. Vampire power, as standby power is sometimes called, can cost the nation money, even if it’s a meagre few cents a month. Tim got an energy meter, which plugs in between the appliance and the socket. It can measure the energy consumed by the appliance measured, among other things. I did some measurements and then some calculations, and found out that it costs $20 a year to leave our washing machine on standby 24 hours a day for a whole year. Sure, that’s not much, considering how much we spend a year, but this is just 1 machine, in 1 house, in a nation with 1.6 million households. Extrapolate the amount of potential vampire power, and compare the effort needed to reduce/eliminate it, and the choice is obvious. The next time there's a faint hum in the kitchen, it's probably a speaker or a washing machine that's been left on, draining some not insignificant amounts of power. Please turn it off. Thank you very much.

Laptops are more environmentally friendly

Anyway, back to my laptop's energy use. My computer is a laptop, so that’s points scored for energy efficiency compared to a similar desktop machine. My laptop is usually charged to full power, then immediately unplugged from the mains. So, the laptop runs off battery power until it's almost empty, then it's charged again. This usually takes 2-4 hours to happen, while the battery discharges fully in between. I use to leave the battery in the laptop while it was plugged in to the mains electricity, which is not the ideal method, as the battery may discharge and charge, but only in small amounts. This reduces the lifespan of the battery. Fortunately, I was talking to Laura of The Sign of The Prancing Pony flat, and she was using the method as I described before. The other way is to unplug the battery while the laptop is plugged into the mains electricity.

Oil heaters

For space heating, I have an awesome 2.4kW 12 fin oil heater I bought from Trade Me when I first moved in 3 years ago. I have very rarely used it this year, and the result is reflected in our lower power bills this year. I also have an electric blanket, which I turn on just 15 minutes prior to getting in bed to make the bed less of a cold grave and more of a sanctuary.

Curtains are opened during the day, and shut around dusk. Katie Nimmo from the energy workshop mentioned that the easiest way to heat up a room is if it has dry air. This can be expedited by leaving windows open (during the day) for around half an hour. The warm, but moist air leaves the room, leaving cold, dry air to fill the space. This may seem counter-intuitive, but I’ve done it to my room, and it makes the cold easier to bear.

Sunrise

Did I mention having a lifestyle such that you rise and retire with the sun saves heaps of energy? It’s not very practical, perhaps, when sunrise and sunset are 7.30am and 5.30 pm respectively at the depths of winter, as most of us are used to doing things up to at least 9pm at night. I have to say I’m not a morning person, so it’s something I’m working on. Seriously though, if everyone did more during the day and less at night, the lights would not be on for so long, as well as the space heaters. Result: a better lifestyle and a less consuming culture.

WASTE

This section is just included for completeness sake.

With paper waste, if it has an unused side, it goes into the scrap paper stack; if it has things written/printed on both sides, it goes into the recycling. Old receipts are also recycled. Batteries are taken to old battery bins at University, which are subsequently taken to some battery recycling facility. Metallic items are collected in a scrap metal container, to be sold later (hopefully).

p.s. Biking is as fast as driving in Christchurch (within reasonable distances), just ask Shanti or Gabby.

Bicycling