Competition

Last year we joined the Cool California Challenge and we did again this year.

Each household enters information about electric and gas use.

Cities compete based on households' total usage.

At the moment I am in fourth place for Claremont.

When I saw that the thermostat wasn't working and D. couldn't fix it,

I figured the silver lining was that it would improve my numbers for the competition.

Today the repairmen came.

I always ask them to send a skinny person.

That person has to go under the house and crawl under a couple rooms to get to the furnace.

D. did it last night in the dark and despite unplugging it and plugging it back in, it still didn't work.

Today the people reset something and we are warm again!

Solar washer and dryer

March 2009

Many people call a clothesline a solar dryer.  I love mine so much I have a whole folder for laundry photos!

We don't really have a solar washing machine, but since I always do laundry when it is sunny AND we just learned we had permission to turn on our solar panels, it is almost as if it were a solar washing machine, right?  (If D. weren't in lab I would ask him the right way to say that - forgive the informal term.)

D. is concerned that you can see the panels from the street because they were set near the edge of the roof in order to catch the most sun.

I am sure D. could have done this project himself, but the people he hired did a great job.

And they let him join them on the roof to watch the progress.

Not only can we check our energy use while we are at home, we will be able to check it remotely, too (although I have no idea why would want to do that!).

I think we have enough new stuff for now.

Cool California Challenge

I am not quite sure how the cities are chosen for the Cool California Challenge, but Claremont was excited to participate in the program sponsored by the California government, including universities, and non-profits.  People compare their carbon footprints by tracking electricity and gas consumption along with driving habits (and not flying habits, thank goodness).

Midnight Monday night was the end and even though Claremont (population 37,459) was ahead of Riverside (population 313,673), it didn't finish that way.  It was a sad morning.  If you were wondering, Rancho Cucamonga's population is 170,746.

It was nice that our household was ranked sixth in the city.

It helped that we didn't use air conditioning,
but if we used solar power we could have done better.

You can't win 'em all.