An experiment
At the beginning of last week, we decided to do an experiment. We wrote down the reading on our electricity meter, and then used all our appliances as per usual. We left on our computers, had tvs, etc, on standby, switched on lights like we normally do. It was a relatively normal week.
This week, we are going to do things a little differently. 
We are not going to go without power entirely… phew! But we are going to try to do without it as much as possible. We are going to turn all the appliances off at the power point. We won’t leave the computers running all day or on overnight. We will make a conscious effort to turn off all lights as we leave the rooms.
We were going to have a “harsher” non-electricity week, but dh said he wanted us to compare with doing these small changes first. So, we will put that off to another week. I’d say the week after, but my parents are coming to visit and I don’t think they will appreciate only having candle light in the evenings - lol! What we did last time we studied the Middle Ages was go an entire day without electricity. That was fun! We might do that again instead of a whole week.
So, next week - I will check my mail in the morning and then switch off my computer. I will check it again in the evening, and then switch it off. I will not be blogging 
and I won’t be checking other blogs! Don’t worry, I’ll catch up with all of you the week after! I’m sure it will be fun. The reason I will not be using the internet other than for emails, is because I am banning the kids from using computers too next week, and it isn’t fair if I am on it all the time. Besides, I want to use the time to spend with them, either playing board games, doing puzzles, or other non-electricity activities.
We will check the meter reading tomorrow morning and write it down. The Monday after it will be interesting to see what difference our electricity savings week has made…
Have a great week everyone, and I’ll update you in a week and tell you how we went!
Oh, by the way, it is Spring down here!!!
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:12 am
I’ll be very interested to see how your experiment comes out! The one thing I have been doing is to dry as many loads of clothes as possible without the dryer. Its been the hottest August on record here and our AC is running nonstop and the electric bill is very high!July was hotter than June and with using the dryer less in July our electric bill was actually a little less even though it was hotter. I hope that less dryer usage will make a significant difference this month!