DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Don’t let Bush and Cheney lie to you — conservation is a very real means to an end. I always thought I was pretty energy conscious, but even so I was able to easily carve a substantial chunk out of my electric bill.

This graph shows my total KWh usage (top line) versus PG&E’s “baseline” usage (bottom line) for the past five months. My lifestyle has not changed dramatically… I am not living in the dark or eating from styrofoam plates. I simply replaced a dozen incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, and became more vigilant about turning off unused devices, including computers. The result is visible: nearly a 40% drop in total KWh consumed.

I suspect some of this savings is due to the change in weather over the past few months. However, the whole county grew warmer, and the baseline KWh allowance did not change radically. This tends to indicate that the weather is not solely responsible for my drop in consumption, or the baseline ought to register a 40% drop as well.

PG&E’s proposed pricing changes impose penalties for usage over baseline, so the convergence of these two lines translates to real dollars saved. Sure, I spent some money on CF bulbs, but those are getting cheaper all the time, and I only had to buy them once.