Check This Out

I was looking at our electricity bill, which is finally going down for the year (our house has electrical everything, so our bill gets extra high in the colder months--basically October through late April). I noticed our average kWh usage per day is around 51 (92 in the winter!). I got sorta curious as to why it gets that high, and what each of our appliances uses. I came across this site to calculate energy usage. It's pretty interesting. Keep in mind that it only calculates one appliance at a time, so if you want to estimate the grand total to see how it compares to your utility bill, you have to keep track of them all separately. Also on the main homepage are ideas to lower your energy usage. Earth Day Every Day!

Speaking of going green, a while ago I wrote about having to choose between the city recycling and the residential home recycling programs. Turns out the choice was made for me. I got a note from the residential home saying they would be picking up our recycling one final time and they encouraged their contributors to use the city recycling program. They were actually part of the committee to implement the city recycling program. So that takes care of that. It's actually a lot easier for me because now I don't have to sort the recycling. Not that it's difficult or anything, it's just one of those chores I dislike, such as folding and putting away laundry or emptying the dishwasher. And the residential home will collect recyclables from small businesses so they'll still be making money, and everybody wins.