When you conserve energy in your home, you can maintain or
actually improve the quality of your life. To conserve
energy doesn't always mean to 'cut-back.'  Conservation can
simply be a result of increased awareness.  A small example
would be to turn off the lights when you leave a room.  By
noticing how you use power, you can also find where you're
wasting power, and change that by taking some painless and
positive steps.

Electricity streams into our houses in an apparently
unlimited supply. People rarely even think about power
unless they're in the middle of a blackout, experiencing an
outage caused by weather, or opening the monthly bill.
You'll have more money to spend on better things when you
conserve energy and thereby decrease your electric bill.

I never have an electric bill because my home is off-grid.
Meaning that all the energy my house requires is created
using my stand-alone systems: a wind generator, solar
panels, and a small hydro-electric generator.  Since we
generate all the energy we use, we have a strong awareness
of ways to utilize energy effectively, without waste, and
maintain a high living standard.  If the idea of living off
solar panels gives you an image of a rickety cabin with two
lights and a woodstove, forget that.

The truth is that our house is just very energy efficient
by design, with state of the art appliances: dishwasher,
washer and dryer, 3 computers, a sound system, TV and DVD,
and definitely more than 2 light bulbs.  We are able to
have all these conveniences on our stand-alone power system
because of our practices of conservation.

We run our entire house on about 3 kilo-watts a day - less
than the daily usage of most refrigerators.  The reason
this is possible begins with our heating and cooling
system.  This is the biggest energy user in most houses. If
you're starting from scratch and building a new house,
simply design an energy efficient building from the
beginning - properly situated houses can use passive solar
for heating, and ventilation with overhangs for cooling.
Existing buildings can be remodeled, or fitted for gas.  To
use electricity for heating is utterly wasteful.  Heat is a
by-product of electricity.  Gas is an alternative that is
much better.

The second reason we can run a modern house using so
little energy has to do with appliances.  As the ones you
currently have come due for replacement, make their
efficiency your top concern in choosing new appliances. Our
refrigerator, for example, is so well designed for energy
efficiency that in a 24 hour period it draws less power
than a 100 watt incandescent light bulb would in 5 hours.
The fridge was more expensive initially, but over time the
reduced electric bill (or in our case the fewer solar
panels necessary) makes it worth it.

The good news is that you can be conservative without
needing to remodel or rush out and buy new and expensive
appliances.  One easy and inexpensive place to start is to
use compact fluorescent light bulbs.  They give better
light for 23 watts than a comparable incandescent 100 watt
bulb.  The compact fluorescents come in every size and
style, so you can have one for everything from a desk lamp
to an overhead fixture. The compacts are longer lasting by
far, and they've become very affordable.  They could cost
as much as $20 each when they first appeared on the market.
However, if you get them on sale, nowadays you can find
compact fluorescents for a couple bucks apiece.

When you conserve, you'll save money, thus adding to the
quality of your life.  But what's even more satisfying is a
consciousness about how you're using electricity. Earth's
resources are tapped to create electricity for human use.
For example, coal is mined and then burned for electricity,
leaving gouges, toxic tailings, and polluting the air.
Rivers are dammed and nuclear plants create radioactive
waste.  It's taxing to the planet, but when each of us does
something to conserve, that much less drain on Earth occurs
- improving everyone's quality of life.

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