As with any challenge I would like to be able to measure my results.  At the moment I am lacking ways of measuring the benefit of my actions.  I started to think how I could measure what I was doing.   I came up with a few ideas…..

  • Number of rubbish bags I put out per week
  • Cost of my grocery shopping (should go down if I am growing some of my own food, buying less cleaning products)
  • Amount of electricity used per quarter (compared with same time in previous years)

I am interested if anyone has other ideas of how to measure progress.  I would love to be able to say I saved x amount of trees and reduced my carbon foot print by so much…..etc.

FIRST MEASURE – ELECTRICITY USAGE

Today the ClimateSmart Man came to do an energy audit on our house.  For those of you not familiar with the scheme, the Queensland government will send out an electrician to change your incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents, replace your shower head for a water efficient one and install an energy monitor.  All this for $50.  Now if you live in Brisbane, the Brisbane City Council will rebate that $50 back to you.   It may take  few months but basically it means the service is free.  I like that!

We were given 15 new CFL light bulbs.  They are just the standard ones.  No dimmables :( and none suitable for downlights.  Even still, I didn’t realise we hadn’t changed quite a lot of our basic light bulbs over yet.  We basically have only been replacing light bulbs as they die. 

Our shower head was already a water efficient one, thanks to another government scheme a couple of years ago when Brisbane was suffering badly in the drought.  

And we now have an energy monitor!   These monitors tell you how much energy you are using at any one time.  You can set an alarm if it goes above an acceptable level (you choose the level) so that you can run around the house turning stuff off that isn’t being used.  I am addicted.  I plan to run the house normally for a few days to get a base daily usage amount, so that I can then know if I am improving on it.  Then I’ll put in the new light bulbs.