Smart Strip making me feel Stupid

Do you want to hear how much money and energy my Smart Strip has saved me? Do ya? Yeah? Are you sitting down? This is rare! None! Nada! Zip! Zilch! And do you know why it hasn't saved me any money or energy? Because it's still sitting in its box after having received it as a gift months ago!! Although maybe I can burn the layer of accumulated dust on the box and call it carbon-neutral biomass? Or I could regift it as a White Elephant during the holiday season?


I love the concept of the Smart Strip. I've had friends rave about them. But when it comes down to it, I read the instructions and can't really figure out the difference between a 'Constant Hot Outlet,' a 'Control Oulet' and an 'Automatically Switched Outlet.' I did graduated from college a long, long time ago. I think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. Why is this so hard? And is the rather expensive Smart Strip any better than just a regular power strip that you take the nanosecond to turn on and off, as needs arise?

Do you use a Smart Strip? Do you have it connected to your TV or your computer? Do I need to hire a Smart Strip Electrical Consultant to show me how to best implement this energy-savings solution in my home? Or am I best off selling the darn thing on eBay and just continuing to turn on/off my regular power strips?

Solar EnviroMom! Now on the power grid!

While I realize this pales in comparison to Heather's big announcement of last week, I've got some news of my own (drumroll please…): Our photovoltaic solar system is on the grid! Since last Wednesday, we've generated 39 kWh. Many of which I've used to can peaches!

Wanna take a little tour?

Here are the 10 SolarWorld panels on the roof. Our installer was a total champ, leaving room so we could still access and clean our gutters of the troublesome needles that rain down on our roof with regularity. He also had to work around two skylights. A geometrical thing of beauty. Since our neighborhood is very hilly, the panels can only be viewed from our next-door neighbor's upstairs windows, and just barely from across the street.

Here is the new PGE bidirectional meter. This allows us to pull energy from the grid, and put energy onto the grid (a program called net-metering). If I've got it figured correctly, the teeeny arrow pointing left means we're sending power onto the grid (personally, I could use a few more flashing lights, bells/whistles, etc., but of course those would USE power, so forget it. I'm happy.):

This is the PVPowered inverter and solar kwh production meter. It's in our basement, right next to our new, up-to-code electric panel. I'll spare you the picture of that. The inverter hums quietly, and I enjoy looking at the total number of kWh we've generated when I'm doing the laundry. Or just passing through the basement. I intend to waste lots of time, staring mindlessly at this meter.

A couple of things I didn't expect but warmly welcome from our solar installation:

• Now that we are generating power, I feel protective of it. I don't want to waste the tiniest watt. I had heard that conservation hits home strongly once you go solar, and I'm a fine case in point.
• Having the solar panels on footings, elevating them off of our roof, has majorly taken the heat off our roof and consequently out of our upstairs' rooms. Granted, this was a pretty chilly summer. But on those few hot days, the panels took in the heat, and our house stayed so much cooler. We have an older house, and we've blown in insulation and replaced some windows, but all past efforts have failed to make our upstairs bearable in the really dog days of summer. Now the addition of the solar panels has changed that for the better.

I had really hoped this would get put in right at the start of summer. Ha, ha. There was also this big hullaballoo (how's that for a grandma term?) about the state being no longer able to afford to give the tax credits they'd offered for solar in the past. But all that worked out. And the work eventually got done. And the inspection was finally passed. Amen. For now, the sun's still kind of hanging around.

PGE sent us a letter stating that our "2.350 kW system will help reduce our household's carbon dioxide emissions by 2119 pounds every year." And a nice little window cling that says "I generate renewable power." Right on! Let the sun shine in!

Oregon: buy an Energy Star appliance in 2010 and save big

If you've been cursing your 20-year old fridge, dishwasher and washing machine, then it's probably time for an upgrade. Both the Oregon Department of Energy and the Energy Trust of Oregon are offering incentives that can knock a big chunk off the price of qualifying new Energy Star appliances. But you have to act before December 31, 2010. Check it out:

Refrigerator/Freezers: Get a residential energy tax credit for 25% of the purchase price (max credit is $90) plus an additional $50 from Energy Trust. As a bonus, Energy Trust will come haul away your old fridge and give you $30 to boot. Total potential savings: $170.

Dishwashers: Get the 25% energy tax credit (up to $80) plus $25 through Energy Trust, for a total savings of $105.

Clothes Washer: The maximum tax credit is $180 combined with $75 from Energy Trust for a whopping $255 in incentives.

In addition, Energy Trust provides lots of info on incentives for other home improvements like new windows (we recently saved a bundle on new windows through the federal energy tax program), high efficiency gas fireplaces and solar electric systems. Save energy, save money, save the planet! (No pressure or anything.)

Clean energy, visual pollution

I don't know much about energy policy, nor have I spent my waning brain cell power trying to understand whether 'clean energy' is truly clean. I want to believe it. My family pays a premium to get clean energy through PGE's Green Source program. Wind energy sounds about as clean as they come, and I've always bought into this type of bucolic scene that wind energy proponents like to toss around:

via windrevolution.com

Seems so peaceful. Tranquil.

A couple of months ago during a first-time visit to Palm Springs, my husband and I drove through a wind farm.

Truly one of the eeriest things we've ever seen, like we were on another planet. I'm sure that at one time this was a lovely landscape, but not any more. I get that places like Palm Springs (built in the middle of the desert for pete's sake) are probably looking at a grim future -- a day when our natural resources can no longer support the intense energy usage by this massive sprawl. But I fear this turbine trend will ultimately destroy some of the most beautiful, natural American landscapes. Here in Oregon it looks like the pristine Steens Mountain area will soon host a wind farm on private land leased by a struggling cattle rancher, and more sites are being actively solicited.

Is it worth the trade-off? Do we have a choice?

I have no answers or deep insights here. We have an energy problem. We need solutions. I like to imagine this impossible scenario: every energy user / household / business is given a monthly allotment of kilowatt hours, and once they're used up, no more energy! It would force people, businesses and industries to change their consuming ways and invest in better systems, make better choices. Instead of destroying natural habitats and marring the landscape in an effort to provide more energy, we would all be forced to live within our energy means. Feel free to shoot a million holes into this crazy, naive fantasy. An EnviroMom can dream.

How are you conserving electricity?

I've recently gotten hooked on the personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly, and while I was reading founder J.D.'s interview with his 'millionaire' next-door neighbor, this tip jumped out at me:

“Learn to figure your own power bill and know why it is what it is. People should learn about electrical use. That’s a drain on your monthly budget. Every penny saved on electricity is a penny you can use for something else.”

Obviously, if you're saving money on your bill you are also conserving electricity -- good for your wallet, good for the planet. So I looked up our electric bills from the past two years and discovered that this month's bill is $20 more than it was a year ago. In fact, every single month this year our bill has been between $7 and $40 higher than the previous year! Yes, the rate has increased, but our family's usage has also increased. Where? How? It doesn't feel like we're using more energy, but apparently we are. This distresses me.

So how can I figure out what's racking up our bill? Through another GRS post on electricity I discovered Michael Bluejay's guide to saving electricity. Now this is an amazingly comprehensive site and he covers it all, even explaining how to read your meter and what a kilowatt hour is. Here's something I never considered: I'm home alone five days a week for 7 hours a day, spending most of that time in my office. Yet the heat (set at 68 degrees) is running all day, warming the entire house! Bluejay recommends using a space heater instead. While I can't imagine us solely heating our home with space heaters, there's no reason I can't use one in my office and turn off the central heat during the day. Duh.

Here are some other ideas I need to implement:

• Get a Kill A Watt and figure out which appliances are energy hogs. (Maybe our second freezer is the culprit here?)
• Get a Smart Strip for the computer and entertainment center, which automatically cuts off all of that phantom energy that is always being generated even when these electronics are turned off. (Anyone using these? Any noticeable results?)
• Put the computer in sleep mode when I walk away. I need to put a sign by the door reminding myself to do this!
• Change out more of our recessed and overhead light bulbs to CFLs. All of our table lamps are CFLs, but I haven't been super happy with the light quality for the recessed fixtures. Any good brands to recommend?

The one thing I feel good about is that we've taught our kids to be vigilant about turning off lights when they leave a room. They are both the Light Bulb Leaders in our house and will not hesitate to remind their parents to flick the switch.

Have you taken a good, hard look at your electric bill lately? Have you made any energy-saving changes that have had a noticeable impact on your bill?

Voluntary power rationing: "lights out" idea

We recently had a few power outages, and thankfully they didn't last long, nor was our weather too severe. But what quickly occurred to me was that I'd much rather have heat than light. Ha! As if we could pick.

So I was inspired by this idea from EnviroMom reader Cris:

After power outages that our family experienced, reducing a 3 hour evening block to activities with no electricity, I had an idea. While my husband pulled out his guitar and serenaded us by lamp light, my daughter and I played cards, laughed and talked. When the electricity suddenly came back on, my daughter said, "Can we turn the lights out for a little longer?" What if families committed to one night a month for Lights Out, turning off all lights, computers, TVs etc (keeping furnaces and refrigerator and freezers running), shared activities by candle light or lamp light, and then shared these times through a Lights Out Blog? Thank you for all your hard work to keep us green.

What a lovely idea, and wonderful too that it is inspired by a green kid! Excuse me now while I go try to learn to play the guitar...

Downsides of cold water, no-sort laundry method

Dear Cold-Wash, No-Sort Laundry Method,

I hate to say it, but I'm falling out of love with you. As with all passionate affairs, perhaps I jumped in too fast... I know I didn't pay attention to any of the warnings from friends...

Washing laundry in cold water

Betty from our SW Portland GreenGroup was the first person to suggest washing laundry in cold water. I admit I was skeptical. So often we get stuck in habits and are just unwilling to try something new. Well, at least that's what I was feeling about washing all my laundry in cold water. Then I heard a little more about it via New American Dream's Beat the Heat, Wash in Cold campaign. I was shocked to learn that:

• 90% of the energy used in washing clothing is from heating the water
• If you wash 80% or 4 out of 5 loads on cold/cold, you'll cut 72 pounds of CO2 emission in one month
• If you wash 80% of your laundry on cold/cold for a year, you should save from $60-100 on your energy bills

So I tried it. And I can't complain at all. The clothing smells and looks just as clean as when I was washing on warm/cold. I can't believe I didn't try this sooner. I also worry a lot less about the laundry, because usually I forget to read the tags and don't know when to wash delicate things on cold. Now everything is on cold. And it's good. I'm curious now to compare some of our electricity bills with past years to see if we are really saving money too.

Do you wash on cold?

In with storm windows, and out with the screens

Fall is here. We spent much of the morning "battening down the hatches" as Cheap-o-Dad calls it. Translation: putting in the storm windows for insulation. In past years, we've been a bit lazy and have just left the screens in during winter (we have mostly old single pane double-hung wooden windows, but with newer storm windows built over them). However, I read recently that you get better passive solar heating if you take out the screens for fall/winter. So we did that too. Man, what a difference. I know I really want that extra light and heat as we head into this cold and gray time of year. We also raised all of our blinds on the eastern and western sides of the house, again, so as much light can shine in as possible (yes, we are very lazy, and we only put them all the way up this time of year, and only fully lower them on really, really, really hot days).

A simple switch to CFLs

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) are controversial. They require much less energy to work than incandescent bulbs, thus pump far less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, they contain mercury, which is a toxic substance. But if handled and disposed of properly, they should pose no safety concerns. I did a little research and found four sites that have dramatically reassured me on the safety and effectiveness of CFLs:

• This article at TreeHugger explains the recycling process of mercury.
• Snopes.com, the myth debunker, tells you how to clean up a CFL if you break it in your home. (read this!)
• Greenpeace explains how using CFLs actually reduces the amount of mercury in the environment.
• Finally, this very cool site -- A Simple Switch -- created by Phillips, provides a gorgeous visual tour of the environmental impact of switching to CFLs. (Make sure to turn on your volume.) Yes, they manufacture CFLs and have an economic incentive to get you to switch. But all of the arguments are valid. Work through the entire tour (on the far right, click the "commit to switch" button and follow it all the way through). Your kids will also love this!