The Instant Energy-Loss Diet: How to Massively Reduce Unsightly Power Consumption Overnight
Gas prices are sky-high and people are hurting. Is it market speculation, tight supplies or the first throes of peak oil? And, if it’s the latter, how can civilization survive?
Well, residents of the small Alaskan capital of Juneau are showing us how. Following an April 16 avalanche that severed the city’s main power lines, Juneau found itself forced to cut its energy calories big-time literally overnight. It was that, or face energy bills double or triple or many times more than the month before. The good news: society didn’t collapse.
How did residents do it? Let’s count the ways:
- Lower the temperature in your hot-water heater
- Have one person in your office turn off and unplug appliances at the end of the day
- Unplug unused appliances at home; boom boxes and cable boxes are particularly bad energy hogs
- Turn off your PC if you’re not using it for a couple of hours or more
- Turn thermostats down when it’s cold out, up when it’s warm out
- Rearrange furniture in your home to take advantage of natural lighting
- Replace incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs
- Use power strips that let you turn off multiple appliances at once
- Unplug your clothes dryer and use a clothesline instead
- Replace your showerhead with a more efficient model
- Take shorter showers
- Turn off the TV
- Use space heaters or air conditioners to heat or cool only the rooms you need to use
- Check seals on windows, doors and refrigerators
- Keep a flashlight handy for late-night bathroom trips instead of turning on lights
- Have camp lanterns and hand-cranked lighting handy
- Cook quick meals in the microwave instead of using the oven or a slow-cooker
- Don’t wash clothes unless they really need it; wear items two or more times if not offensive to yourself or others
- Wash dishes by hand in a single sinkful of water instead of using the dishwasher
- Switch to a wind-up alarm clock
- Grill outdoors instead of cooking inside
- Remove lightbulbs in multi-bulb fixtures where one or two bulbs will do
- Turn off heat or air conditioning when not at home (or leave on just enough to keep pipes from freezing, or to keep plants and animals comfortable)
- Turn off unnecessary store and electronics displays
- Vacuum refrigerator coils to ensure top efficiency
- Empty and unplug duplicate fridges, freezers, TVs and clocks
- Start car-pooling, walking or cycling
- Turn off plant and fishtank lights, and relocate plants and fish to sunnier parts of the house
- Cancel your cable/satellite TV service
- Run your shower just long enough to get wet, then turn off, soap up and turn water on again just long enough to rinse
- Cut down on Internet surfing, computer gaming, etc.
- Take “sink” baths instead of showers
To see what other tips Juneau’s energy-conscious residents have, check out .JuneauBlogger.
Mankind has had their ‘cheap oil’ pause, now, on with it! survival full steam ahead! Science is just beginning to see a profit in moving away from oil, and we will experience a colossal paradigm shift in values, but we will be better for this! Once we are free of the benzine molecule, our female half will rest easy, free from a major cause of breast cancer, and our male side will have one less stress. The 21st Century will see many of the 19th century standards knocked down, oil it appears is the first one to go!