“Electricity Nazi.” That’s what MissMeliss called me the other day. My first Killing the Kilowatt post reported on my overall success in a more than two-year war with energy consumption here in our home. For the remainder of 2007 I’ll be posting each quarter, sharing my on-going effort to keep the numbers headed down. Here are the first quarter figures for the past three years:

- 2005: 3,074 kwh
- 2006: 2,693 kwh
- 2007: 2,288 kwh

I won’t make you do the math. The first year I brought our consumption for the first quarter down 381 kwh, and for the second an additional 405 kwh. Since I started keeping records in 2005, our energy use is down 786 kwh for January, February, and March. (Understanding of course that the energy figures are actually for the previous month. I just decided it was easier to go with the date of the bill.)

Using the same rate figure from my first post (0.3155076 cents), the 405 kwh we cut over last year saved us $127.78.

The biggest difference I have to report in the progress of this personal campaign is the fact that I’ve had to abandon the 15 minute rule. I, like many folk, used to think that if you were going to return to the room within 15 minutes it was cheaper to leave the light on. The Mythbusters, however, disproved that notion and so I’ve set about training myself to turn lights off no matter what.

I did not realize how much I relied on the 15 minute crutch and now catch myself turning around dozens of times a day to flip off a switch. As I’ve written before, undertaking this campaign with R. in the house is not easy. There’s one light in the kitchen that she prefers to have burning all the time. Now, without discussing it with her, I’m going to leave it off during the day and until I put her to bed at night. Then I’ll flip it on because she doesn’t like looking down a dark hall into the kitchen. I can respect that.

In the evenings when we watch TV in the breakfast room, I’m being diligent to make sure all other lights in the house are off and that when I need to go into another room, I do it without turning a light on. The mercury vapor driveway lights throw more than enough illumination in my room to get me to the bathroom and back.

When I work in my tiny office at night, there’s no reason for the lights in my bedroom to be on. The only “monster” apt to come out of that darkness will be feline and carrying a foam ball asking to play.

The next quarter will be harder. The numbers to beat are:

- 2005: 6,148
- 2006: 6,070

Obviously over the first quarter those figures illustrate the effect of the first half of a Texas summer. But look at what I’m facing in the third quarter:

- 2005: 9,897
- 2006: 8,666

Summer is really hard on my efforts because R., like many elderly people, is totally heat intolerant. We have no shade over our roof, so it’s tricky to fiddle with the thermostat. Gradually through the course of the afternoon the house heats up and by five o’clock it’s stuffy in here for about an hour. I now understand that running fans is not counter-productive to what I’m trying to do and will actually help the air conditioner to work less. So, stay tuned. The battle continues.

Note: I have combined the text of this post and the two relevant posts it cites into an editable article at the Infinite Notebook Community. The Community is a wiki and I would love to see my readers get involved in the discussion and information sharing (about this and any other subject, including whatever is on your mind — don’t wait for me to bring up the topic!) Wikis are about pooling ideas, experiences, reactions, and recommendations. Don’t be bashful. Just sign up for an account to be a writer (totally free) and I’ll get an email to approve your membership.

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