CHUCK IN A BOX

I suppose I SHOULD focus on the fact that we used 1, 127 LESS kWh of electricity this January billing compared to the same period last year but, I’m still a bit pissed that my electric bill was only about $28 less expensive.  I guess with the 18% increase that was approved last year for Dominion Power by the Virginia General Assembly I should be glad it was less at all but, I was expecting a bit more of a savings for using considerably less electricity.

So, it seems that some of our energy saving ideas and practices are actually working.  We’ve swapped out most everything to CFL bulbs; we’ve got our programmable thermostat set to 68 while we’re home and awake and goes down to about 62 when we’re not home or asleep; we’ve hooked up all our little energy vampires to surge protectors that can be turned off when we are not using them (at work or while asleep); we’re paying more attention to what we leave on when we aren’t in a room; we’ve put an insulating blanket on our hot water heater; and we’ve vented our dryer indoors to help offset heating costs (as well as adding some moisture to the air and some nice smells – YAY dryer sheets!)

Keith really wants to go ‘off the grid’ and have solar, wind, etc. but that isn’t too realistic living here in Petersburg.  Eh we can’t even get curbside recycling pickup (Colonial Heights, Chesterfield, Richmond, Henrico, Hanover, etc all have it) so I doubt the city would offer any assistance converting to alternative sources of energy.