Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Global Warming Wednesday: Home audit

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I want to perform an environmental audit of our home and come up with a plan for what we'll do to minimize our impact. Right now, my plan is to go from room to room, recording both what we're doing well and where we can improve. At the end of each entry, I've decided to divide my action plan into three parts:
  • To do in the next month. These are things I want to take care of immediately, though I'll give myself a month since I need to be realistic about everything I've got going on. This will include switching overhead lights to CFLs, something we've already started, though some fixtures will take a little more searching than others.
  • To do in the next year. These are things that might require a little more time, effort, or planning. It might also include new habits I want to adapt, since those can take some time to become second nature.
  • To keep in mind for the future. These are things that would be good changes, but need to be put off due to expense or balancing waste with energy savings. For example, the previous owners replaced the boiler and furnace. They bought units with OK efficiencies, but not nearly as high as we would like. Replacing brand new units right now, however, would be both prohibitively expensive and a potential waste when balanced against the energy and resources required to manufacture new ones.
I'm also hoping to come back with some more general posts again, though I won't promise anything until I get through my next set of exams, sometime in February.

2 comments:

moplans said...

phew. I thought you already had compiled these lists and I was all panicky that I have no such lists. Its all in fits and starts around here. I do my best.

Mouse said...

This is my attempt to organize my thoughts. I have a lot of ideas in mind--same sort of fits and starts as you. Somehow moving into the new house seems like a good opportunity to do this. Writing about it gives me a way to hold myself accountable.