The Sacrifices of Conservation

Today I took the time to fix the dryer -- Yoli & Tyler mentioned the other day that the laundry room felt like the Amazon. I cleaned out the exhaust vent and fixed the leak.

I also, finally, discovered and fixed the problem with the stereo. Now we get sound, and, just as important, I put the entire system on one of the powerstrips that I already had behind the cabinet and put it in an accessible spot. Now, the subwoofer and the standby receiver, which for 6 straight years had been constantly on, can now be turned off when not in use. It is off as I write...

This is a classic case of a phantom load. I'm going to guess that I'll save about $10 a year in energy not to be powering this stuff. I am never home alone, so I rarely get to use the stereo (as the resident metalhead). At least now it's not also drawing energy while I'm not listening to it.

$10 bucks, that equates to say 90 kWh per year. My solar panels would take 10-11 days to produce that much energy. What this is telling me, is that I should have done this first. I should have spent the effort to find and eliminate these phantom loads well before I bought solar panels.

Without a tool to help me identify what each load in the house draws, I am only guessing. I guess 90 kWh. If I could know ahead of time how much each item drew, I would likely have discovered this earlier and acted earlier. Ten dollars a year, what, eighty cents a month? Who gives a shit about eighty cents? I'd lose that much in 3 seconds with a single pull of a slot machine in Reno.

The thing is, I knew about that subwoofer ever since I bough it. It is out of sight. Every so often I'd have to get behind the TV, and then I'd see it and think 'damn!, that thing is on all the time'...but I still didn't do anything about it. The subwoofer is a perfect example of what a fucking waste of money I've spent on things earlier in my life. How many times have I used it? Fifty? Seventy Five? And what did I spend...$189? $249? I don't even know.

Granted, when I do use it, I enjoy it...but I have finally learned that the acquisition of such shit doesn't make me any happier. I spent more time thinking about it being on than listening to it! When it woofs for the last time, I will not buy another. I will accept that I may not get to hear the bass lines of Exodus or Death Angel as they were meant to be heard. Such are the sacrifices of consumptive conservation.

So I will spend the time, in the near future, to hire professionals to analyze my house and list out the changes I can make to 1) be more comfortable in the summer/winter and 2) reduce energy usage. These things will likely be as obvious as the subwoofer load, but because I choose not to 'see' them, they are eating away at my paycheck and comfort.

This will change.