SAVING ON

OCTOBER 2008. Suddenly the Dept of Water and Power doubled my bill. They did the same to two neighbors, each in the 600$ area. (Mine is lower, 220$ for sixty days as I signed up for poor people discount. You can do that in any city, btw.) So seeing this horrendous bill,  I phoned up the DWP (we call it,) and asked why electricity water and sewer use which are all on that bill had suddenly, all doubled. They said 'you must be using more power.' I told them I wasn't. You could hear that clerk shrug. Just before she hung up. I asked my neighbors, what's going on, that's when they told me they had the same problem, double the bill with no extra power use.

So evenings, when it's dark, I have taken to using the last dregs of my candle collection. Bottom of little glass jar where there's a meltdown and a wick in the middle, I light it.

I went to market, note that these little candles have doubled! Tealights are 25c each at the Big super market, buying 10 at a time, but they are no longer carried at 99c store. AT ALL. SIngle candles are 99c! Know who has them cheaper? What does Walmart get for tealights? Those small candles in a tin cup?

So tell me,  Do you notice a higher bill on less use? The Oprah show said if you unplug every single powerstrip at the wall even if every PC and light and TV is turned off, you will find that you save huge amounts. From 250$ a month to 68$ a month the Oprah guest said. That's 400% savings. So I did that. I have stopped leaving porch light on at night. Fridge is a relic so it is prob using way too much juice but c'est la vie as my bargain frozen pollock is in there. 99c an lb from korean market. Can't unplug THAT! Can't afford a new fridge, haven't a dime extra.

What I always do is call my savvy pal Edythe and lo and behold, she had a theory or two. First theory was grim. 'They actually want us all dead. Don't you know they have robots to do every job? They're step by step breaking us so they can ship us off to prisons in UTAH.' Her second theory was, 'Bush did this to us, Enron and the other Energy corps told him to'. HOW? I asked. This is what she told me.

WHY DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME COSTS YOU MONEY!

Have you noticed that we haven't turned back the clock? and won't until Nov 2nd (DST began March 9)....See? It began earlier and goes later than any other country....a Bush decision w/ the con job that it would save energy.... truth is it caused/will cause everyone to use a bit more energy - not a whole bunch but just enough when multiplied by 100- million-plus households to put a massive chunk of change in the energy producers' pockets....another Bush admin swindle that has gotten NO PRESS even though his ties with huge energy producer ENRON are known. The day he won election, ENRON doubled prices to Calif for natural gas. My gas bill was double practically to the day!

Chisel chisel every cent, The Bush regime is horribly bent!

BUSH WHITE HOUSE ALLEGES that DST saves on lighting.” But there’s a tradeoff: DST also increases the demand for heating and cooling. “In early spring and late fall, DST makes people wake up during the coldest,
darkest part of the day, and so they’ll run the heat longer before they go to school or work.”

Edythe my  expert added. “At the same time, in the middle of summer when the days are hottest,” it stays light later. So, for example, “people might turn up the air conditioning when having dinner.”

So I look online and read that "Overall, the increase in residential electricity demand for climate control was greater than the decrease in demand for lighting, the researchers reported at a National Bureau of Economic Research meeting in February. Residential electricity demand increased by 1 to 4 percent, ultimately costing Indiana households $8.6 million more per year. Another factor, they noted, is the “social cost” of DST, in terms of paying for damages from increased pollution emissions. Increases in those emissions cost households
between $1.6 million and $5.3 million per year.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is currently conducting its own study of the effect of the 2005 extension of DST on energy use. Although Congress passed the 2005 law, it also required that DOE study the extension’s impact, and retained the right to repeal the extension pending the results. The study, begun in late 2007 after DOE finished compiling data on hourly electricity use from utility companies, will be completed at the end of June, according to DOE spokesperson Chris Kielich. Keep writing this guy!

Although such an extensive, large-scale study of DST’s impact is needed, “you can immediately see how problematic it is, because [the DOE study doesn’t] have a control group,” Kotchen says. However, extrapolating his own Indiana results to elsewhere in the country could also be problematic, he says. Air conditioning and heating costs can vary greatly across the country, as can lighting costs, and much of that also depends on the source of fuel.

“The major thing this raises is that we shouldn’t just myopically consider this an energy-saving policy,” Kotchen says. There are, after all, some worthwhile advantages to more waking time in the daylight. It can facilitate economic growth, cut down on traffic accidents and provide more time for outdoor activities.

That the law may be revisited or repealed might be heartening news to those who are tired of grumpily setting the clock ahead each spring. But meanwhile, “What time is it?” continues to be a highly charged question in
Indiana, sandwiched between the competing interests of farmers, businesses and people living at the extreme edges of the time zones.

So the question is HOW TO SAVE ON ENERGY?

TREES, the NATURAL AC. Hose all trees up to 50 feet high, every leaf. Plant trees all around the house. While dangerous out in high forest fire areas, it's not gonna create probs in suburbia. A garden on all four sides of the house, thusly wet down will create a refrigeration grid. As the breeze moves thru yard & house, (leave all
windows, doors open, just screen them,) you get an instant chilling of the home's interior rooms. Spraying near a window with a PC or other electronics not a good idea. Shut window before you spray

NATURAL LIGHT- Candles. Easy to make your own. Get a solar light, leave it on porch in back all day, nights bring it in to read by. They have a set of six solar garden lights for l7$. Leave it in sun all day, at night bring the group in, put one in each room so you never need to turn a light on or have candles going which cat can knock over and blow up the house. Morning, out the solars go to get their sunbath!

DRY CLEANING- wastes money. Wash all these items by hand. Blazers cannot be washed, but you can switch to sweaters which an be washed.

LAUNDRY - Air dry sheets and blankets on clothes line regularly rather than washing and drying them in dryer.  You really can get them clean. Once every 3 mos, wash them. Blouses/ shirts get armpits washed after every wearing. Immediately, by the wearer! Sink water, soap bar. Hang off closet doorknob. Iron in AM when dry.

In olden times, everyone washed their own undies at night. I hate to mess up bathroom so I hang on a hanger on a doorknob in my bedroom even though I live alone as bathroom is pretty when pristine.

NEVER USE A DRYER they DRINK up juice. Turn dryer into storage. String heavy line between two trees. Wrap bubble wrap on wire that goes on tree so tree won't be cut. HANG your wash in sunlight. Smells divine! (Don't put glass in a dryer as cats know how to turn them on and glass going in circles ain't pretty)

THE PHONE company, Energy companies all have POOR PEOPLE rates! CALL THEM UP! Ask and ye shall receive! Phone co sez you must earn under 22k for one person, per yr. "I can do that!"

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FROM A READER:
"I just saw your electricity page for the first time today, and I
thought I would pass along a couple more tips. PULLING power strips does
work. We're super frugal with our juice already, but we noticed at least
a 12% savings when we started cutting off the TV and computer that way.
Also, it is a myth that leaving a computer on (even on hibernate) will
use less power than booting it up when you need it. We also do not keep
any kitchen appliances plugged in -- anything with a little digital
clock, like a microwave or even a coffeemaker with a timer, uses
electricity the whole time it's plugged in. Only the fridge and the
electric stove stay plugged in -- and I'd unplug the stove if I could
move it!

If you have a chest freezer, keep saved plastic milk jugs filled with
water in it if it's almost empty. It will cool more efficiently and use
less power, plus you'll have some emergency water supplies on hand
without buying bottled water. Just be sure to leave enough headroom for
the water to expand as it freezes.

Also, I think Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts is a nationwide chain -- they
have bags of 100 tealight candles for around $6.00 here. Michael's will
also have them, but they are a little higher. Still -- pennies each, and
several make a decent light. I use a lot of the plain novena candles,
myself. They're a buck cheap at the Hispanic market and the glass
protects the flame from breezes.

We live in a tiny apartment (less than 600 square feet for two people),
and we still hang our clothes to dry. I have two drying racks from IKEA
and a little clothesline across the bathtub. So small space dwellers can
use that tip, too. It also makes your clothes last longer, since most of
the lint you clean out of the trap is just fiber from the clothes
themselves. I miss having a patio large enough for my racks, though --
everything smells better when it's dried outside.

We were recently without power for a week from Hurricane Ike, and that sort
of thing really changes your perspective on power use.  I would have given
anything for these items, in this order:
1) A fan.
2) The fridge.
3) The stove.

Notice that none of our really modern gadgets are on that list. I will
be getting a fold up camp stove and a better cooler to address the
second two on the list for next time, since I guess we can count on
having one of this monster storms every couple of years thanks to
climate change. However...

I think I probably would have killed for a fan, maybe literally. What
most people don't know is that anything constructed after the late
sixties in the south was designed to have A/C running at all times. The
newest places don't even have windows that open. It boggles the mind.
Our apartment isn't that bad, but it only has three windows -- and it
has (and this is ridiculous) a black roof that radiates heat into the
apartment all night long. That would be great for a northern winter, but
we don't have that. Besides the recent power outage, the A/C has broken
three times since we've lived there and it gets much hotter in the
middle of the night than it is outside, no matter how many fans you have
on. With fans, it hovers around 85 all night. Without fans, it goes from
85 - 95 degrees inside when it is around 70 - 75 outside. When it's 93
degrees inside your house at 5:00 in the morning and you haven't slept
in three days? That's when things get a little crazy...

But I digress. Most people waste electricity worse than even water. Most
conservation is a change in habit, not really a deprivation. And the
higher the bill goes, the more incentive you have. However, if your bill
goes up a lot suddenly, check your past bills and see if the usage is
really the same. If there is a big spike and your habits haven't
changed, make sure that your meter has really been read. A lot of the
time around here, they just estimate the bill and only really check your
meter reading every few months. If you get an outrageous estimate, call
them and be politely aggressive until they change your bill to the real
reading. Get all your friends to check their bills, too. So, now you'll understand...

     MY XMAS CARD THIS YEAR

     ON the front, the family all together, smiling and it says:
 
 

    Guess what I'm giving my family for Christmas this year?"
 
 

You open it

 

This family is hovering around a space heater."HEAT!" it sez!

I TRULY am predicting zilch dollars spent at stores for gifts! by ANYONE! They doubled utility bills, heat, water, gas, all of it DOUBLE! Check with pals in your town.
WRite me how it is in your town. ANITA at astrology @ earthlink. net

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THANK YOU ANITA. I love the course so far, could you email me the entire frugal SEMINAR? (Frugal living. Frugal Gardening, Building a Farm Home, Survival, Future events.)  I saw you want $2 so here's TWO BUCKS by PAYPAL going to ASTROLOGY @ EARTHLINK NET --Send the entire SEMINAR to me by EMAIL as soon as you get my payment. I will send you my email address ---well, actually Paypal includes it when they send you the note that I sent 2$. I understand that I can freely share the seminar with my pals and I hear you even invite us to post them on websites And for that I THANK YOU!

GOOD IDEA. If you want the entire seminar, The Future Archive, the SURVIVE the FUTURE ARCHIVE which is separate, Analysis of the Meltdown/ causes, fixes, the HOLISTIC archive, The EZ GARDENING SEMINAR, all of it emailed to you CLICK AWAY!

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