Extreme conservation

[buddysmellgood]

I have an idea for a protest. What if, on an appointed day, we all consume as little power as possible? Shut down absolutely everything you can. I like this idea because of the play on power. If a vast number of people do it, it will be noticed. It's easy to do. You don't have to meet up, so everyone can participate. And it meets an worthy objective.
What do you think?

[magellan]

1. What about on Inauguration Day?

Even if you can't get to DC or a state capitol protest, it's a way of joining in.

Here in FL, because of the hurricanes this year, we have a generator that we can run for essentials. (Not exactly environmentally friendly, but there's no sense in ruining the food in our fridge, and we run our business online so for us it would be imperative to have some ability to function 'off the grid'.)

I like this idea!

[buddysmellgood]

2. It would be interesting to see how far people would take it.

We wouldn't want anyone to put themselves at risk, obviously, but a person probably could shut off the refrigerator for an hour without damaging food. I thought of California and how people were asked to conserve energy there. It seemed to make a difference. Homes don't use much power relative to business, but people could conserve at work too.
Inaugaration would be perfect as it represents a continuation of our slide into dark times.

[magellan]

3. I'm quite happy to 'go native' for 24 hours

We'll put perishables in our coolers and live by lamplight. Heck, we did that for 6 days after hurricane Charley blew through (without a generator). But we don't have kids or live in a cold place. And January is a pretty cold month for much of the States.

Of course, if people really want to make a statement they'll find a way to do something for an hour or two, at a pre-arranged time. There has to be massive, concerted participation for the utilities companies to take notice.

[SouthernStar]

4. Thumbs up

This is a good idea. You've got my vote. I sort of like candles. They have a nice mellow ambiance to them.

[BeFree]

5. Every Tuesday

Take off on Tuesdays.

Lots of things slow down on Tuesdays as it is: Air flights, all travel, a lot of businesses have slow Tuesdays. TV's best nights are Tuesdays because people stay home. If we could ever organize ourselves to slow down every Tuesday, we eventually make an impact, cause it will be a 52 time a year occurrence, and missing one or two would be cool, no sweat.

Take off Tuesdays.

[buddysmellgood]

6. Interesting. A sustained conservation movement that meets

environmental goals and make a political statement. Doing it on a regular basis allows us to build the movement and spread the word.
Now, how do we get 56 million + Americans to do it. I bet Canadians would join us too.
kick

[politicat]

7. Start with your local peace and justice and liberal organizations.

We set the day - I like the Every Tuesday idea - and then chat it up. Email it to your local groups, print some flyers and take them to the library, that kind of thing. Make it viral.

Just like we did with the elections... we get it going one person at a time, one doorbell, one phonecall at a time.

Pcat

[mulderig]

8. a way to make it last

In addition to making a concerted effort to use less energy for 1 week, we by necessity have taken this idea further. Living in a drafty old house built in 1906 which had no insulation we did the following.....

We air sealed the house. In effect we cut down on the air leaks by sealing the inside of our home in the ways recommended here:

Our leaks went down from a whopping 6700 cubic feet per minute on a blower door test to 2100 cubic feet/min. It was not expensive and most of it we were able to handle ourselves.

We did hire a contractor to blow in some cellulose behind the knee walls on our 3rd floor, but we hired a non profit company to do it. They plows some of the profit from our and other jobs into a homelessness prevention & job development program. In addition they provide subsidized low cost service to 30,000 families each year. So it was a win - win situation as we are saving $$$$ this winter and not paying it to the GAS Co. :evilgrin:

A great site on air sealing and building science is:
http://www.buildingscience.com/housesthatwork/airsealing/default.htm

M.