Home Energy Squad!

I mentioned a while back that Louis and I attended a home energy workshop.  While we consider ourselves friends of the earth, we did pick up a few tips that we hadn't thought of before.  Things like making sure to run loads of laundry back-to-back so that the dryer doesn't have to re-heat each time, or that lights plugged in don't suck up energy when they are off (and thank goodness--Louis has now stopped this little habit of his).

Part of the deal of the workshop was that if we paid $30, we'd get the Home Energy Squad to come out to our house and install energy-saving devices.  So we signed up, and it's already been over a month since their visit.

They rolled up in their van, and thankfully looked nothing like this (Greenzo!).



After determining what items to fix/replace they got to work.  Since we already have a programmable thermostat (set to 55 during the day that I swear was at 53 degrees when I came home the other day), that was out.  We opted for light bulbs, lots and lots of swirly light bulbs.

Which explains this:

What?  You don't keep a basket of light bulbs around?

I'm a little ticked off, though, because one of the lamps with a new CFL bulb now hums for the first 20 minutes it is on, and they replaced our flood lamps and the sensor is not working.  Hmph.

They did some other nifty stuff.  Like putting an aerator on our bathroom faucet.  And then I went and wasted approximately the same amount of water we've been saving by leaving the water on to take this photo.  But let's pause for a moment and enjoy how cool it is that I have a camera that can capture this type of "action" shot.

And lastly, I probably would have paid $30 alone for this project.  This is our side door that leads to our basement.  The basement that does not have heat.  I imagine this door had been letting in a lot of cold air.

So they installed weather-stripping on the outside of the door.  Very cool.  I had no idea this even existed.

Whoa.  This is really what the door looks like from the outside?  This.  Is.  Ugly.  But...it's on the side of the house, so the likelihood of doing anything is pretty slim.  I already have way too many projects dreamed up for the summer as it is.

And finally, they replaced the weather strip at the bottom of the door.

In related news, our energy bill came today.  And was $7 less than in December, but in December it was oh, $50 higher than in November.  Eek!  People, we keep the heat at 55 during the day!  It is a rare day when it actually can heat to 65 by evening.  I don't wear a fake Snuggie because I think it looks good.  Okay, okay, so I think some of the December expense is due to my cookie-baking and keeping the oven constantly running.  Here's hoping spring gets here, and fast!