Cutting the Energy

When I moved into my first apartment, last year, I paid very little attention to my personal energy consumption habits. The only preventive measure I remember taking was changing the 60W and 100W incandescent light bulbs to 13W and 26W compact fluorescent bulbs. Lights and appliances were always running, but the only time I paid any attention was when the bills came. Strapped for cash, and inspired by Dr. Byrand’s Human Impact on the Environment course, I vowed to change my morbid consumption habits.

In the beginning, it was hard to break my worst habit of leaving the lights on. I was always walking back into rooms only to turn off lights, and the lights were only a fraction of the problem. It was almost painful breaking the bad habits. Constantly being disappointed in my own memory and having to walk back into a room was a pain. Constructive criticism from my roommate also powered my desire to break my bad consumption habits. It was a slow process, but eventually I started to care enough to always turn lights off.

The apartment began to have a more peaceful feeling to it as I started cutting back on energy. Birds started to replace the sounds of television as background noise, and sunlight began to supplement for much of the light I used too. I started using the bear necessities. Everything was simple and I enjoyed it. Seeing the price drastically reduced on my Alliant Energy bills was enjoyable too.

The battle to reduce my energy consumption has been rocky. I still sometimes leave appliances on, and my most recent major failure was allowing the air conditioner to run constantly. Central air is expensive! Every day is a day to learn though, and I must continue finding ways of making positive changes. The learning may be simply working on breaking bad habits in my mind, but its better than nothing.