We’re trying to reduce our energy consumption.  The first step was to teach the kids to turn off lights as they leave their rooms.  As you can imagine, Liam is excessively zealous (”Hey, I’m still in here!”),  Evan means well but rarely remembers, and Cara can’t generally reach any light switches.  But it’s a start.

The local power company came in today to install new thermostats in the house.  It’s a pilot program we volunteered for.  We get two new  programmable thermostats, which can even be controlled via a private web site (all the geeks out there say “sweet!”).  The power company gets to bump up our thermostat setting temporarily in order to prevent brownouts during the worst summer peak demand times.  Everybody wins!

I just ordered compact fluorescent (CFL) spotlights for the recessed lighting in the kitchen and dining room.  I also just managed to connect the house server to the powerline controls, so that the smart switches I’ve been installing around the house can start acting smart.  Both together ought to be a winning energy-saving combination.

I also just bought a battery-powered (rather than gasoline) lawn trimmer.  I hope to soon power the battery charger with solar panels.  Near-future plans involve putting all of our battery charging needs on solar.  Medium-future includes more panels and an AC inverter to run some lower draw devices.  Who knows, maybe full-blown grid-intertie is a possibility.

We’ve got a long way to go before I feel like we’re approaching “greenness,” but every little bit helps.  Now I’m gonna knock off this typing thing and go help plant the new vegetable garden.