[celstu1]

I would be so interested in a thread to discuss this stuff even further. I fear for human kind, I fear for our planet and the beautiful species on the verge of extinction. I fear for our water supply, I fear for our oil supply. Mostly though.... I fear that people do not know how STRONG they are, until they are put to the test, but there are no tests. Take away the supply of oil, see how people rebound. Sometimes it just takes an extreme measure to make people realize what they can and cannot do without.
I've started watching myself and being for conscience of my and my familys energy usage. Over the last 3 years here are some small things we've done in my household to help.
1. Got a new job with a way smaller commute, from 72 miles round trip a day to 4 miles round trip.
2. Started riding a motorcycle to do smaller errands around town for go for a 'sunday' drive. That gets 70mpg, instead of my car that gets 26mpg.
3. Recycling, recycling, recycling. We recycle just about everything that comes out of our household now.
4. Being aware of packaging and avoiding over packaged items. I do not need a box of something that is wrapped, boxed, bagged and bagged smaller, all for 1 item. Unnecessary.
5. Growing a vegetable garden.
6. Skipping a day of showering a week, sometimes 2. I seriously do not smell or get filthy dirty overnight that I need to take a hot shower every single day. (gross to some, maybe, but efficient when 4 people do it and skip 2 showers a week, that is 8 showers of 10 mins (minimum) of running water, plus the shampoo, soaps that go into the water supply)
7. Replacing appliances one at a time with energy efficient ones, new microwave, disherwasher and oven/stovetop. Next will be washer, dryer and refrigerator.
8. Had the electric company and oil company out to check the efficiency of everything energy wise in our house. We turn off the oil burner during the day when noone is home so that the water heater won't kick on when there is no need for hot water.
9. Program the heat/AC (if we even use it) to keep the house bearable tempature wise, but not hot or not cold. I could put my AC at 70 and sleep so good, instead I put it on 78 to take the humidity out of the house and sleep with short and tank and no blankets on. Same with the heat. I could keep it at 75 to feel warm and comfortable in my house, instead I keep it at 68 and wear a sweatshirt and use a blanket.
10. Got a water cooler at the house instead of drinking individual bottles of water, I know this is not ideal yet, but we are saving up for a softener/filtration system for the house so until then at least we buy water in 5 gallon jugs instead of small bottles.
11. Stopped printing at home from the computer, this took some getting used to, but now we realized we don't really need to print at home.
12. I do not shop at Walmart... I know they are affordable, but I don't respect their business practices. They hurt our AMERICAN economy by they amount of imports they stock.

here are things we are budgeting for to go even further
1. We are replacing windows this fall from the old single panes to a newer double pane.
2. We are looking into Solar panels to help with the electricity for the pool and other seasonal items that require a lot of electricity.
3. Installing on demand hot water so we don't burn oil heating a tank of water when noone is even using the water (we hear the furnace kick on to heat that water on a 90 degree day when noone is using it and it makes us both sad)
4. Installing a water softening/filtration system so the water is drinkable
5. Buying the rest of the energy efficient appliances.



It always comes down to money.... everyone wants a piece of the pie.... there is just not enough pie for everyone. Some deserve it and some don't.