Happy New Year ... and welcome back to Reduce Footprints and Change The World Wednesday! It's nice to see you again!
If this is your first visit to our weekly challenges, you can learn all about them HERE.
Our last challenge, our first ever month-long contest, was all about reducing our energy use. How did you do? Personally, I thought it was a tough challenge! We did employ some new energy saving strategies ... we started using tabletop appliances in lieu of the stove and oven, we twisted off a few more light bulbs, and we used our water heater every other day instead of every day. Unfortunately, the weather got seriously cold in our neighborhood so we found it necessary to turn on the furnace. Typically we don't use heat at all in our home. Instead, we put on more clothing and cuddle up in blankets when we're reading or watching television. But this year it just got too chilly. Since heating is one of the larger energy drains in a home, our consumption actually went up.
I'm not sure how we could have done better but ... you can bet that I will be looking for new ways to cut back. Hopefully, by next year ... when we may, perhaps, tackle this challenge (or some version of it) again ... I'll have some new strategies to reduce our use.
So ... are you ready for this week's challenge? Here it is:
If you participated in our month-long challenge to reduce energy use, and were successful ... Congratulations! We'd like to hear about it so please write a post about the changes you made.
OR ...
If you participated but weren't as successful with the outcome as you had hoped, write about that ... tell us what lessons you learned and how you might tackle the same challenge in the future.
AND FINALLY ...
If you didn't participate in our last challenge, please go through your home and identify areas where changes could be made and write a post about that.
Remember ... post a comment saying you'll participate in this challenge and you'll become a member of our "Honor Society" (I'll start posting the list of honorees again next week). Write a post, leave us a link to it, and I'll Stumble and Tweet it.
So what do you think? Are you up for this challenge? I know that you are!!
On a side note ... our Winter Shopping Extravaganza directory is still open so stop by and check out all the wonderful artisans and their products. The directory will stay up until the first day of spring and can be found by clicking the link in the upper left hand corner of this blog.
That's it for this week! You know the chorus ...
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!
We were lucky here for a while, so we turned the furnace off. We are in a rented house with inadequate insulation so it's not always easy to keep all heating off! But the kids are used to sleeping in bedrooms of 14°C and they don't seem to get sick as much as other kids. Changed all our light bulbs and am still working on making new lighting that will allow led bulbs and still be attractive!! Still keeping the challenge in mind.
ReplyDeleteGreat to have you back!!
I did not participate in the challenge, but we do try and reduse our energy consumption as much as possible. We don't leave lights on when we are not in the room and have switched most bulbs to energy saving ones. My hubby is changing out most of the Christmas lights for LED ones.With the cold westher, we have not turned our thermostat up, but wear warmer clothes, and like you snuggle up under blankets when reading or watching tv. We have kept our sunroom closed up because it's not insulated very well and causes the heat to click on more. We have several things we would love to do this house to make it more energy efficient. We would like to install a dual fuel furnace, tankless water heater, new windows and doors, and replace the washer and dryer. So, we plug along and do what we can. One thing at a time.
ReplyDeleteWelocme back SF. I have participated in the 3rd option of this weeks challenge because I didn't participate in the month long one. I couldn't. I stumbled here and the post is up on Tomus.
ReplyDeleteAV
I'm a recent follower of this blog and was unaware of the challenge but have been working on finding ways to cut energy for about a year now.
ReplyDeleteWe changed out all of our lightbulbs except bathroom vanity bulbs, looking to find globe bulbs that are flourescent or LED.
We live in Las Vegas, so winters are very mild and we rarely, if ever have to use our furnace. We have been opting on cold nights while we are awake using our less expensive gas fireplace.
We used LED xmas lights; we use more counter appliances than the stove; we unplug our charging station for the cell phones, and turn off the computer every night.
We upgraded our washer, our microwave, our refrigerator and our water heater (fridge, washer and microwave we actually did two years ago.)
We have seen our energy bill go down by at least about 30%.
Aine
theevolvingspirit.blogspot.com
Hello and Happy New Year 2010!
ReplyDeleteThere are many ways to save energy. Here in a cold Canada it is rather challenging to save it when the cold is really COLD. I have noticed that I can only save energy to reduce the amount of using my oven or to decrease the amount of use my washer. The electricity is already reduced because I have the front loader machine so it takes less water.
I think if I look around would be able to find more ways of saving the energy.
Thank you for the thought provoking post!
Best wishes,
Zuzanna
Happy New Year! Looking forward to finding ways to go greener in the new year.
ReplyDeleteHere's to a healthy, green, great 2010!
As always - awesome changes!! Woo Hoo! :) Keep up the great work friend!
ReplyDeleteI always try to add layers rather than turn the heat up. We moved before winter and have heat included in our rent now. My DH considers this a pass to just turn it up! GRRR to him! Still my goal to keep it between 66/68.
ReplyDeleteCount me in. I think where we could improve is by unplugging the appliances that are not in use. Microwave, electric kettle, etc. That is how I hope to reduce energy use. Great challenge and thank your for keeping us on our toes!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theaccessorylady.com
I've posted up - I'm afraid mine is rather depressing:
ReplyDeletehttp://littlegreenblog.com/green-technology/energy-saving/price-vs-principles-again/
Great to see you again SF and thanks for getting the challenge going again.
warm wishes
Mrs Green