It's raining outside which, surprisingly, is a good thing. It's been hot and dry here for weeks and weeks with the only rain being the odd extremely light shower. I can hear the grass and trees sighing in relief. I've watered my veggies, flowers and pots as they need it, but unless the grass was near the paddling pool, or got some overspray, it was on it's own. I'm actually fortunate - the only grass we have is in the back yard, and even though we face south, we don't the hot sun on it all day due to the mature trees at the back of the yard. Our deck stays sunny, but the yard gets filtered light at the hottest points of the day,which is lovely.
I just received my hydro bill. I've been working to reach a 10% reduction in usage to receive a rebate. Let's just say I was shocked to see that I'm 75% over last year's month and now only at 6% for the year. Sigh. Not sure I'm going to get that rebate now as I only have until September 1st. I think I'll have to turn it all off and live somewhere else to do it! I can't figure out why so much more, other than I've put less on the line to dry this summer than last. But surely that's not the only reason. Now to figure it out. Even if I don't reach the rebate, it's good to find out where I'm 'leaking' out the energy as that's money in my pocket either way if I stop it.
I've recently redone my bedroom and a few other spots. When I have time, I'll share what I did. I've reused a few things by redoing them and they look marvelous! Since I'd had the old bedroom suite for somewhere close to 20 years, I didn't feel bad about getting a new one. I'd say I'd gotten my use out of it, and then sold it to someone else so it will continue to be used. I plan on hanging onto this one for some time as I really like it. Being pine, and from IKEA, it's not an endangered wood, and it comes flat packed, which means it saves energy in shipping since they can pack more into a container. Granted, it used WAY more of my personal energy to put it together, but I suppose we can say that's a good thing. :-)
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I just signed up to do the same Hydro bill reduction ... it's starting to look like a Catch-22 type of thing, because when I compared last year's bills to this year's, I was shocked to see how much the rates have gone up! What's really happening is that even though we're using less, we're paying more. So I'm wondering if Hydro is taking rate increases into account when figuring out if we qualify for the $75 or not ...
Yes, you do have to wonder about that. Save energy, pay more.. hmmm.. I guess for the greater good we're doing the right thing. We now have to just figure out how to save 15% or more to actually see a difference in the bill. I've got a way to go there. I'm thinking 6% is better than nothing - and I'd be paying even more if I'd not made it this far.
If only we could afford solar panels...oh, and live somewhere that has enough sun for them!!!
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