-drive a Hybrid Honda Civic
-produce home elecricity with solar P/V
-hot water heating with solar
-heat home with air source heat pump
-buy electricity from Bullfrog Power
-buy carbon offsets for transportation
-dispose of only 6 bags of garbage annually
-compost all kitchen & garden waste
-advocate for renewable energy
-conservation & energy efficiency daily at home
-support local organic CSA
-sponsor a Green Homes Tour each spring
This post was submitted by Don & Heather Ross.
Hey another Canuk!
You’ve got your garbage down quite well and composting beats having it hauled around by the city and the composted into something I’d NEVER put into my garden (can you see weeds, dog poo, cat litter, diapers …).
It’s a pity that fuel efficient cars are not made any more - but the Civic / Fit / Echo / Corolla are about the best you can do without spending $30k+
We really miss our ’91 Chevy Sprint with it’s 1L 52hp engine and around 4.2L/100km or 64 mpg in the summer (low 50′s in the winter). Modern cars are 2x as powerful, heavier and can’t touch that sort of milage. Hopefully fully electric in town cars, with seating for 4 or 5 will come out soon (Mitsubishi iCar and MiEV).
So what is your energy use? Let people know what you started at and what you’ve achieved.
At my house we used about $750/yr in gas for heating and now it’s $250 (was 50 ccf/day average, now 16 ccf/day). Our electricity use has gone up with the high efficiency furnace, and moving to an electric water heater. We were at about 6.5 kWh/day and now are about 8.5 kWh/day (yearly average). That’s using an electric drier / oven and an upright fridge and chest freezer.
We could do more but we’re already getting nailed with going below the minimum billing for water; half of our gas bill is fees and connection charges and about 1/3 of our electrical bill is fees and connection charges (and about to get much worse with the move to those #@$#@$ “smart” meters as we get slamming with a rate increase and yet another monthly charge as we watch our electrical bill go up about 15%). We have no A/C and short of cooking everything at night we can’t shift our electrical use.
Comment by Eric — January 27, 2010 @ 11:51 am