Biggest Kitchen Table - Electricity and Water

Continuing with our Home Audit Rhonda Jean talks about electricity and water usage.

We've talked about this in a previous post called Riot for Austerity.

This is an area where we have paid considerable attention, because it's possible to be quite sparing in your usage of water and power in an RV. We have driven less than 1000 km (620 miles) in the past year, and thus used 3% of the average amount of fuel for transport. Our electricity usage was 19% of average. Heating and cooking fuel use was 10% of average. Water was about 15% of average. The fact that the toilet uses only a half-cup of water per flush, the washer uses only nine gallons per load, and we shower Japanese-style helps a lot.

And since that post, when my calculations showed that too much was going into the garbage, we've made a determined effort to recycle, we have a compost bin, we always use our cloth grocery and produce bags, and avoid overly-packaged goods as much as is possible.

I haven't gotten into the thrift-store shopping much, although I know buying second-hand is an excellent way to reduce your environmental impact. I just haven't had the extra energy to do it. The thrift shop here is inconvenient in that you have to park almost a block away and carry your purchases back to your vehicle. This is nothing for someone who is strong, but can be the killing blow to my day. But all in good time.

Little by little we do what we can to lighten our footprint, keep ourselves independent and live happy and fulfilled lives.