Reducing My Utilities Bills

Lots of year over year progress and but, more then last month

I got my latest electric bill...

25% less usage then last year and 45% less cash. That is good but, the bill is too expensive. I need more ideas. I want to cut my bills by a lot more.

Meter Read Date	KWH Read	KWH Usage	Number of Days	Average Daily Usage	Charges this period
08/22/2006	92672	2833.00	29	97.69	$ 806.78
08/22/2007	12276	2095.00	29	72.24	$ 449.78

Aaron

New blinds in my kitchen

For the last 5+ years we have not had blinds on our kitchen window (behind the sink)

However, that windo gets the morning and mid-day sun. So, after a comprise with my wife. I bought standard gloss white faux wood blinds. These should reflect out much of the sun when it will heat up the house.

After tax they were less then $60.

Now that summer is winding down and the tempature will hopefully soon start to drop I am looking for more home energy saving ideas.

Aaron

Signed up to try to be on a field trial for a GM fuel cell prototype

I just signed up to try to be on the trials of a GM fuel cell prototype hopefully I can get one.

General Motors will soon put fuel-cell SUVs in the hands of 100 lucky consumers. You could be one of them.

If I got one it would be both fun and cool and help the country and environment,

Aaron

100 degrees plus...

Well is has been a hot last two weeks. I talked a few more people I now into going totally CFL. One has already done it. The AC has been on more often then I would like to see but at these temps I am not sure what we can do.

But at 100+ degrees with my work schedule being so crazy I have been too busy to work on my own home. However I have been researching some small scale wind and solar systems seeing what I can afford.

My natural gas bill came in at 10% less usage then last year ($28)...

Month	This Year	Therms	Daily Average	Last Year	Therms	Daily Average
	Days			Days
Aug	28	21	0.75	29	24	0.83

Aaron

Plug in Hybrids combined with flexible fuel is what we need

I am hoping by the time I retire my car that I can buy a plug in hybrid and plug into into my energy self sufficient home (with solar and/or wind).

This is not technology of the distant future it is technology that is available now that needs to be mass produced. Whether the normal user gets 100 MPG (or more or less) that is an 80% reduction of fuel usage in the US if we get to 100 MPG that combine with flex fuel (some ethanol) the US could be energy independent within  20 years if we made up our mind.

FYI the US auto companies walked away from this technology more then once in their history and now they want to slow the fuel standards improvements.  I say originally said 45 MPG in five years I think we should say 90 MPG in 10 years as well.

Personally if it means never having an a gas hog like my wife's SUV I am all for it. I lost that fight and keep paying for it at the pump.

Aaron

Politics and Money Prevent Common sense

The Democrats complained the OIL industry caused the Republicans no to make progress on MPG standards which I believe is true but today, you have this Democrats won’t wage battle for mpg standards.

I also, love this article as well showing how the Republican and Democrats are both being bought at the expense of the country our future. Who's buying the next president? This is why on either side of the polemical spectrum regardless of your reasons for reducing oil dependency (economic, environmental or both) neither side wants to do anything.

The Democrats will let lawyers sue to get cleaner air and the republicans will do nothing about the oil companies so the only thing that happens is us and our families pay and pay. 

Wherever you stand on global warming raising the MPG standards is a good thing for the country and the benefits for the economy and the environment are important.

Get congress to raise it to 45 MPG by 2012 and set a minimum MPG of 30 MPG on all cars, trucks or SUVs. I would also like to see increasing mileage standard on ALL not covered vehicles. Then by 5% increase year over year on both. That is my idea.

Why not the US auto industry needs to retool anyway if they want to survive. They would be better off retooling to the future needs of the country then holding onto the past. Since cars have very long lives we need to raise the standards now so 5 years after that date the impact are realy felt.

Give me you opinion on this and give me more ideas to save money and energy around my home.

Aaron

116 of 307 of my CO2 offset plan

Today I gave away 16 CFLs to someone who could really use them. This plus some other one I gave away brings the total to 116 since April.

They plan on installing them tonight.

116 of 307 (they 307 was based on the worst case math). I help them financially, the environment and when they see the impact they will probably want to do the rest of their home.

So I have offseted 38% of my calculated CO2. Note the calculation was made before all the work I did on my home but, that is my plan before the end of 2007 (a friend pointed that out). Presently if you calculate the number it would be less the 200 CFLs to offset my families CO2. 

Aaron

I need more ideas

I am looking for more ideas...

Reminder my pockets are not deep but, I am looking for more agressive ideas to save money and energy at my home.

Please help me.

Thanks,
Aaron