(wall stickers from Hu2 )
Today challenge is this one ::
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity — explore no-energy
alternatives to accomplish your daily tasks.
Are we going to "eliminate" or "mitigate" ?
Just to be clear up front :: we are not going to live without electricity.
So mitigate we will try to go.
I know my husband and some family members read this blog :: I don't want them to freak out !
We will keep our fridge, our washing machine ( I truly enjoyed the grape stomping bath tub style in the movie : I am willing to try it out one day), our dyer [Ya, ya : I know shame on us for the dryer :: but, look we live around Paris where we have about 4 months of dry season and the rest of it we are soak wet and cold...so...here you go: dryer !].I am not saying I am proud of it though, I am just being pratical, for once... We do get the laundry to dry out when days are sunny or breezy. They smell better anyway.
We will keep our fridge, our washing machine ( I truly enjoyed the grape stomping bath tub style in the movie : I am willing to try it out one day), our dyer [Ya, ya : I know shame on us for the dryer :: but, look we live around Paris where we have about 4 months of dry season and the rest of it we are soak wet and cold...so...here you go: dryer !].I am not saying I am proud of it though, I am just being pratical, for once... We do get the laundry to dry out when days are sunny or breezy. They smell better anyway.
We will keep our TV ( we have only one that we watch sometimes but use it mostly for DVD carefully screened by maman...) and our computers ( ours like in 3, ahem... :: a year old laptop for each parent and a big one bought second hand 6 years ago..). Girls are not addicted to TV at all : they play a lot with wooden, recycled dolls, ( Emmaus = Goodwill / garage sale) toys or dress-up. We also enter the board games age with Alana. Craft making is big too. They have a special drawer in the kitchen and we share a space in my atelier. And reading (or pretending to for Tessa) is a BIG emphasis in our family.
Add to all of these ... a brand new iPad for Mummy ( a Santa gift !) ... and two cell phones among them my new iphone (a cool upgrade for me and my old one has been recycled by our phone provider as a second hand phone...)
Oooops , i know : if Colin's wife Michelle was addicted to her TV screen, I am definitely addicted to Apple... And this will remain as is for the moment.
Gotta have some addictions somewhere, right ?... Right.
Well, I have two : some magazines that I love buying & all the i.something. Voila.
But to power all those gimmicks we trade the regular EDF french electricity company powered mostly by nuclear :( for a fantastic electricity supplier called ENERCOOP. After intensive research (I am a Capricorn, so when I say Intensive :: I mean INTENSIVE) I found out that their founding member is.... GREENPEACE and a big organic food store called BIOCOOP. No more hesitation : we made the change. So even though we still have and use our appliances we are powered through GREEN ENERGIES. So we feel like we are actually doing something in the end.
In my little business, I use very little energy. Besides walking across the courtyard to go to my studio, all i need is my sewing machine, some music, some direct daylight, my screen printing tools, my creativity and some brain cells...
In my little business, I use very little energy. Besides walking across the courtyard to go to my studio, all i need is my sewing machine, some music, some direct daylight, my screen printing tools, my creativity and some brain cells...
Of course my ideal house will be this one. It is "Guest House" where we stayed a year ago to celebrate our wedding anniversary with our girls. It is a self sufficient house powered by solar and wind.
Things we need to improve to power down ::
* turn off computers at night to avoid the ghost power
* install a drying rack inside to cut down on use of dryer
... and get away from this computer !
Bye bye !
Bonjour Lila, je ne parle tres bien francais, mais je suis heureuse de voir ton/ta blog. Je fais aussi No Impact Week et je pense que n'avoir pas de l'ectricite ni de gas au milieu d'hiver est un peu fou.
ReplyDeleteJe dis au'revoir maintenant parce que je dois ecrire mon blog sur c'est idee folle.
Bon chance avec la reste de cette semaine. Peut etre je te verrais (?) (I will see you) chez mon blog?
Hi Celyn,
ReplyDeleteI admire your efforts in trying the "No Impact Challenge" week. I say in my head, without committing to the world, that I'll do this every day. And in some areas, I succeed and in some areas, I need to improve on. But nevertheless the awareness is better than nothing, right?
Energy is a huge problem in my town as our utility bill, no matter how hard we try, never seem to be low enough. Short of totally turning off my electricity, our bill is so much higher than, say my friends upstate NY.
I am trying though. One area where I need to improve on terms of electricity is not TV's or Computers. But appliances that produce heat...like stove, dryer, water heater, and microwave oven. I don't have the latter so that's easy but I can't live without my stove top and water heater. Although I try not to bake but I need hot water.
Anyway, let's keep trying!