Water Water Everywhere...

About a month ago we decided to stop using so much bottled water and invest in a new purifier. We have always had a faucet purifier, but I am very touchy about tap water and have a problem differentiating between tap water that doesn't go through the purifier and tap water that does. We were going through a lot of bottled water - I was using at least 2 bottles a day, which is not just costly but also extremely wasteful. So, we have started the process of curtailing that habit.

We purchased a Brita water pitcher - the model that is not technically a pitcher, but that sits in your fridge and has a little spigot on it. I still take a bottle of water to work with me each day and refill it throughout the day, but when I get home I use the filtered water to refill the bottle instead of using a new bottle. On the weekends I rarely use a bottle of water at all, unless we go somewhere and I want to take one with me. I have noticed that I drink a lot more water at home now, which is good. I think Scott hopes to figure out the monetary value of all this and how much money we will save as well as how many bottles we will keep from using. He's a geek that way.

My hope is to get to the point where I'm not using bottled water at all, but instead have a re-useable bottle that I can re-fill at work and home. So far I have not found a suitable bottle for this purpose. I like the normal water bottles because they are just the right size - all of the re-useable bottles tend to be way too big for what I want/need. The next step is to find that "perfect" bottle that I can use all of the time and stop buying bottled water all together!

Energy Optimizer

Today I applied for us to receive an Energy Optimizer unit through KCP&L (Kansas City Power & Light, our electric company). Basically, they upgrade your thermostat and you give them the ability to "cycle" your air conditioning on days that are extremely hot. On the hottest weekday afternoons from June through September, demands on KCP&L’s system are the highest. At these times, they may either raise the temperature a few degrees, or cycle the air conditioning compressor off and on for 15-minute increments for no more than 4 hours. This means that the air conditioner still circulates air, it's just not "conditioned" air. From their description they only take advantage of this option between noon and 5pm on weekdays, and we're never home then anyway. It's good for the environment and our electricity bill!

The cool thing about this is you can control your thermostat from the internet! We would be able to turn it up or down from any computer hooked to the web, which will be great when we are on vacation or if the weather changes drastically during the day. It would be nice to turn the thermostat way down when we go to North Carolina to visit my parents this winter, but turn it back up from their house before we head home so it's a comfortable temp when we get there! Convenient and wallet-friendly!

I don't know how long it will be before I hear back from them about getting it all set up - they have 1,000 units in place in the KC area already, and it sounds like the demand is pretty high, so I don't know how long it will be before we get called. I look forward to it, though. I think it's great that KCP&L is offering a program of this nature. I hope that a majority of KC residents take advantage of it!

Cutting the Paper

For many years we have relied on paper towels at meal time, to clean up messes, to wipe our hands dry. I have always understood how wasteful this is, but just couldn't get out of the habit. Last weekend we started the process to finally break it. We bought some inexpensive but nice cotton napkins that we can use a few times then wash. Bought them in a bunch of pretty colors, too. I think we spent $18 and got 12 napkins. We also bought a package of 6 bar mop dishcloths for cleaning up messes - $8. This way we can use our handtowels specifically for our hands, rather than using them to clean up messes and then not wanting to wipe our hands on them. =) For me I guess it comes down to getting excited about a change so I want to do it, and then eventually just getting used to it and making it part of the routine. We'll see how the napkin thing is going in a month.

Getting Started

I've always been interested in being eco-friendly, but haven't always had enough information or time or money to really make the changes in my life that are neccesary. I may not have any more time or money now, but it seems like every day we hear more and more about the awful direction our society is taking by continuing on as we do. So, we are attempting to take simple steps to make our lives greener. I'm not talking huge things like buying only hemp clothing or digging a hole in the backyard to pee in. I'm talking gradual things like making the effort to recycle more things that we wouldn't neccesarily think to recylce, trying to fix or re-use items rather than running out to get a new one. Day by day we will work to incorporate small changes into our lifestyle that will lead us toward being green and away from being wasteful.