Thousands and even hundreds of years ago the human species roamed the planet with one goal in mind, survival. Fast forward to the future and we discover that our very survival depends on the availability of energy and technology. In fact, widespread loss of electricity is considered just as dangerous as the use of a weapon of mass destruction. Humans simply can not live without electricity!
So, one can imagine how detrimental to my living it must have been the decision to limit my energy usage for a 24 hour period. As a way to make it less burdensome for myself I decided to have the 24 hour period a day where my commitments would be least affected, which happened to be the Sunday prior to Memorial's Day.
The first decision I made to reduce my energy usage was to sleep as much as possible on this day in order to reduce the amount of appliances I would have to use. Second I targeted the air conditioning which was an energy guzzler. I made sure the house was shaded in order to reduce the heat accumulation inside the house. However, seeing how the temperature was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit I had to at least use a fan.
Showering is one of the areas where a lot of water and energy is expended. For this part I am too used to taking warm showers. However, I waited till later in the day where I would want to take a cooler shower and once I did take a shower it was a much shorter shower than I am accustomed to.
To minimize energy expenditures I made sure to only walk to the destination I needed to go to. Considering that I decided to save energy on a weekend I didn't really have to go places which were far away. Instead of eating out like we do on most weekends, we cooked at home.
One area where I could save very little energy was my phone and laptop usage. It was not that I needed these electronics for my leisure activities I required their use for school work and other commitments. At the very least I tried not to use electronics for leisure which in turn saved the amount of charging that needed to be done. I also drastically reduced the amount of communication I had with friends in order to accomplish such a feat.
The area other than air conditioning where I probably made the biggest impact was unplugging all electronics not in use. This included our televisions, toaster, microwave, and even the small objects such as lamps.
Overall, even though I conducted this experiment on a day where it was supposed to affect me the least, it still changed the way I was able to conduct myself throughout the day. Without having ready accessibility to a microwave I feel like I ate less that I usually would. I also gravitated towards eating more fruits since they needed no preparation other than washing.
While many of the changes I made, such as transportation, are not feasible in the long run the smaller changes are something that I can implement. Unplugging electronics, for example, is enough to make a small impact. The air conditioning is also not as necessary when I can close the binds and darken the house enough to make it cooler.
To prevent using electricity I would like to find more ways which I can position furniture in the house in order to allow natural light to brighten the house. This would save a lot of energy and be beneficial for our health. Another change I can make is to get acclimated to taking shorter and cooler showers. If I can accomplish taking cooler showers they will automatically translate to taking shorter showers. It is through small changes such as these that every home can become energy efficient and we can all do our small part in preventing excess pollution from harming our environment.
So, one can imagine how detrimental to my living it must have been the decision to limit my energy usage for a 24 hour period. As a way to make it less burdensome for myself I decided to have the 24 hour period a day where my commitments would be least affected, which happened to be the Sunday prior to Memorial's Day.
The first decision I made to reduce my energy usage was to sleep as much as possible on this day in order to reduce the amount of appliances I would have to use. Second I targeted the air conditioning which was an energy guzzler. I made sure the house was shaded in order to reduce the heat accumulation inside the house. However, seeing how the temperature was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit I had to at least use a fan.
Showering is one of the areas where a lot of water and energy is expended. For this part I am too used to taking warm showers. However, I waited till later in the day where I would want to take a cooler shower and once I did take a shower it was a much shorter shower than I am accustomed to.
To minimize energy expenditures I made sure to only walk to the destination I needed to go to. Considering that I decided to save energy on a weekend I didn't really have to go places which were far away. Instead of eating out like we do on most weekends, we cooked at home.
One area where I could save very little energy was my phone and laptop usage. It was not that I needed these electronics for my leisure activities I required their use for school work and other commitments. At the very least I tried not to use electronics for leisure which in turn saved the amount of charging that needed to be done. I also drastically reduced the amount of communication I had with friends in order to accomplish such a feat.
The area other than air conditioning where I probably made the biggest impact was unplugging all electronics not in use. This included our televisions, toaster, microwave, and even the small objects such as lamps.
Overall, even though I conducted this experiment on a day where it was supposed to affect me the least, it still changed the way I was able to conduct myself throughout the day. Without having ready accessibility to a microwave I feel like I ate less that I usually would. I also gravitated towards eating more fruits since they needed no preparation other than washing.
While many of the changes I made, such as transportation, are not feasible in the long run the smaller changes are something that I can implement. Unplugging electronics, for example, is enough to make a small impact. The air conditioning is also not as necessary when I can close the binds and darken the house enough to make it cooler.
To prevent using electricity I would like to find more ways which I can position furniture in the house in order to allow natural light to brighten the house. This would save a lot of energy and be beneficial for our health. Another change I can make is to get acclimated to taking shorter and cooler showers. If I can accomplish taking cooler showers they will automatically translate to taking shorter showers. It is through small changes such as these that every home can become energy efficient and we can all do our small part in preventing excess pollution from harming our environment.
I really enjoyed reading your introduction! I too did this activity over the weekend. It's funny that you decided to sleep as much as possible, when I was doing this assignment I found myself with a lot of free time, most of which I used to lounge around and finish reading "The Wolf on Wall Street". It was a great break from school. I hadn't thought about showering later in the day, but that was a great tactic to use. I actually showered the night before, but since the goal of this assignment is to carry out what we learned and apply to our everyday lives, showering towards the warmer part of each day would make using cold water easier.
ReplyDeleteOne of my biggest problems was with food as well. It was hard to eat anything that didn't require a microwave, I found myself snacking on granola bars and fruits throughout the day as well.
One thing that I think we both will continue to do after this is to unplug what we aren't using, that in itself, if we stick by it, will help make a small difference.
I also completely agree with your last statement, it is through small changes that we can all become energy efficient, we all can do our part.
Great post!