Green Light Reflections

The results are in. I got my Duke Energy bill two days ago and I can now see how Phase I of Project Get Off the Grid has affected my energy use and, consequently, my monthly energy bill.

Here’s a quick summary of the plan for those who haven’t read earlier posts about Project Get Off the Grid. Since I live alone in a relatively small, one bedroom condo unit and I’m not there very often because of work and travel, my home energy needs are already small, roughly, according to my monthly Duke Energy bills, $44 or 520 KWH per month. Although that’s already way below the average for a one-person home, I still wanted to see what kind of impact I could have on my energy use by changing some everyday habits.

In Phase I of Project Get Off the Grid, I resolved to do the following things:

• Turn off any lights that didn’t have to be on
• Use natural light whenever possible
• Unplug my cell phone, blackberry, and laptop unless they were charging (this means I never had a fully charged device plugged in)
• I should also mention I turned off my thermostat during the last week or so, because we had some unseasonably warm weather

Simple as that. I wasn’t perfect all the time, but overall I think I did a pretty good job. More importantly, I developed some great habits. So, with no further delay, here are the results:

Basically, just by being more disciplined about turning off lights and, occasionally, my thermostat, and eliminating “phantom” charges associated with some of my portable devices, my electricity use and monthly bill went down by 18.8% and 7.7%, respectively, versus last year (I guess Duke Energy snuck in some price increases). My new habits saved me about $0.12 per day or, if I continued them for the next eleven months, $43.80 per year.

To some, $44 over the course of a year may seem somewhat inconsequential, but consider how it would impact someone with a larger electricity bill. If someone’s monthly bill were, for example, a more normal $100, saving 7.7% would represent cumulative annual savings of $92.40. Not too bad.

Plus, in terms of actual energy use, I was 18.8% more efficient, which I’m pretty pumped about, because that’s the true measure of how I’m affecting our environment. The savings are just icing on the cake.

There’s simply no reason why any person, Average Joe or not, shouldn’t be developing the same habits I did over the course of the last month or two. It required virtually no effort and didn’t cost me a cent. In fact, it saved me almost $5, a number I expect will grow tremendously as long as I maintain these new habits. To top it all off, I’m helping the environment. And that’s just Phase I. In Phase II, which I’ll introduce shortly, I’ll be incorporating other energy saving techniques to reduce my dependence on the Grid even further.