analyze my resource usage

almost $120 every month to pay for phone service (land line + wireless). That’s $1440 / year. I don’t know that I even spend that much on food.

I hate talking on phones.

There’s something wrong here.

81 kWh! Sweet! (Although, I spent much of my time away from home!)

I have one more month left living here… let’s see if I can break 80 kWh!

I forgot I had this little program running in the background, that logged what I was doing every minute I was on the computer. Of the 152 hours I’ve spent on the computer since I started this program running (that was apparently on March 23rd, 1752 hours ago, meaning I’ve spent 13% of my waking hours on the computer… yikes!), I’ve spent:

29 hours (19%) working on various music-related activites
24 hours (16%) uploading pictures to Flickr
14 hours (9%) doing e-mail
7 hours (5%) IMing people
7 hours (5%) at a terminal in my home directory (wha?)
6 hours (4%) working on a present for someone
5 hours (3%) on Facebook
4 hours (3%) designing covers for some CDs
3 hours (2%) on thesis stuff (that I did mostly on my laptop)
2 hours (1%) here on 43things
2 hours (1%) on Google Maps
2 hours (1%) on the Opera “Speed Dial” screen (again… wha??)
1 hour (1%) on Google Calendar or iGoogle

and 46 hours (30%) doing a whole slew of other random activities that will take me way too long to sort through and categorize.

Hum. I’m not really sure what can be improved on here. Oh wait. I know. SPEND LESS TIME UPLOADING PICTURES. :) I guess I did take a lot the past couple months… still, that’s an average of 2.5 minutes per picture… I’m sure I can speed that up a bit.

Will not report back in a few months. Sorting these things is time-consuming!

Edit: Streamlined picture uploading a bit. Now I can just point & click at stuff, instead of typing a lot. Maybe I’ll spend less time doing it now?

on the last tank. But that was with a bunch’o city driving so that’s cool.

Got a new air filter today (the old one was disgusting). We’ll see how that works out.

for the month of May. That’s right near my calculated goal, save getting a smaller refrigerator. And that was with lots of baking. (Granted I spent a lot of time away from my house but still…)

Time to move on: gasoline. Typically I get 27—28 mpg. I’ve been being more conscious lately with my foot. I was rewarded last week with 32 mpg on a trip to Lake George (with a loaded car no less), and 35 mpg on a trip to Bash Bish Falls (I think it helped that I had someone with a lighter foot than me drive half the distance). This is probably also due to lots of highway usage, it being summer (in my mind at least), and a recent oil change (between the 32 & 35 mpg tanks).

The 35 mpg is a new record, BTW. I doubt I can beat that for next week but I’ll try… 32 mpg maybe?

April’s bill came in: 106 kWh. That’s only 6 kWh down from last month. BUT, it’s still the lowest I’ve ever gotten. My goal for next month will be to get in the two-digit range.

Electricity. I’m at 112 kWh in the month of February (down from 144 kWh in November!). Let’s see if we can break that down, assuming I’m here and awake for 8 hours each day:

Mac mini, idle: 25 W * 16 h/d * 31 d = 12 kWh
Mac mini, active: 35 W * 8 h/d * 31 d = 9 kWh
Monitor (LCD), idle: 3.5 W * 16 h/d * 31 d = 2 kWh
Monitor (LCD), active: 30 W * 8 h/d * 31 d = 7 kWh
Thinkpad (on sometimes): 20 W * 4 h/d * 31 d = 2 kWh
Toaster, used 5 min / day: 1500 W * 1/12 h/d * 31 d = 4 kWh
Refrigerator: 75 W * 24 h/d * 31 d = 56 kWh
Computer room light (58 W fluorescent): 58 W * 8 h/d * 31 d = 14 kWh
Kitchen light (2×13 W fluorescent + 20 W fluorescent): 46 W * 8 h/d * 31 d = 11 kWh
Dishwasher (once a week, air dry): 1200 W * 1 h * 4 = 5 kWh
Al

aaannnndd… that’s 122 kWh total! Sounds good! But still I wonder where that extra 30 kWh was coming from during the winter months (I don’t have electric heating… maybe I cooked on the stove more often?). And there’s lots of little things I’m ignoring (like the clock in my microwave). Anyway! Action items:

Short term:

Get sleep mode working on my computer. Savings: 12 kWh.
Keep lights on in only one room at a time. Savings: 11 kWh.
Use desk lamp (13 W) instead of room lamp (58 W). Savings: 11 kWh.

Long term:

Get a smaller fridge! I live alone, I don’t need a full-size one. Savings: 28 kWh.

So, short term, my goal is to save 34 kWh per month, giving me a target of 78 kWh for my April electricity bill. Long term, I’m looking at a target of 50 kWh… that’s less than HALF my current usage! :)

Will report back in a month…