Reducing Energy 101

Everyone knows that a huge part of going green has to do with reducing energy use across the board, or as I now like to put it, lowering my own personal carbon foot print, impressive terminology huh? But in order to figure out how much energy we use as a family I knew I would have to convert my watts usage over to kilowatts. When I looked on the Internet to look for a conversion chart this is one of the explanations I found;

Remember Energy is always conserved (such conservation is known as the first law of thermodynamics). Entropy is not. When you posses energy with the lowest entropy you posses the most useful form of energy for conversion to work. When you convert energy from one form to another, you create entropy (almost always) - and when you do, the process is called irreversible (because you generate entropy). In ideal cases you may have a process that does not cause any irreversibility, and consequently no entropy is generated. Electrochemical processes and processes where work is converted to work are such processes, but often not quite a 100% reversible. Anytime heat is produced and transferred from one temperature to another (i.e. across a temperature gradient)- the process is irreversible because entropy is generated.
Well certainly that explained it. This was almost as confusing to me as the time I tried to figure out my metabolic rate while standing on one foot with two fingers pressed against my neck while trying to count the beats with a stop watch in my other hand, as the cute little spandex red headed instructor encouraged me not to give up. For some reason my hearing is diminished when I exercise, maybe it has something to do with the amount of blood rushing to my brain, or maybe it’s simply that I can’t hear anything over my own self gasping for air. At any rate I thought I would have more luck trying to understand the theory of relativity than trying to convert watts over to kilowatts.
At dinner that night my husband asked me how I was coming along with my conversion project. “Well, I have decided to ditch that. Instead I think we’ll try to keep it simple by minimizing our usage.” Our sixteen year old daughter rolled her eyes and groaned, “Ugh. Like it’s not bad enough that you have switched my bathroom lights over to CFL’s and that I look like a clown every time I use make-up, but now you’re saying we can’t use the lights we do have?”
“No,” I snapped, ” I was talking about other energy uses, like the air conditioner, and the ceiling fan you leave running all night long.”
“Let me get this straight,” she snapped back, “so not only can’t we use the air, but now the ceiling fan has to be turned off. Hmm, I wonder how much worse my life could suck? Looking like a clown, not being able to sleep because I can’t have my fan on and what’s the other thing, oh yeah, and sweating like a pig all summer long – yippee.” She whined. I decided it probably was not the best time to bring up the subject of starting a composting pile. Yes, probably better to leave that for another day.

Going Green is not for the Dogs

We’ve all heard the saying, you can’t teach old dog new tricks, but I wondered if my two dogs, Max and Mocha, could learn to go green. Hmm, how to green a dog; I know I’ll start with their food. Okay to be honest I got a coupon in the mail for $3.00 off a bag of a natural dog food, three dollars! Seeing as they already ate that brand already, how bad could it be? I figured that Max probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference because at age 12 his taste buds were more than likely not what they once were. At first he turned his nose up, but finally relented and ate it. On the other hand, one year old Mocha had different plans. She picked out the new food, spit it on the floor, and then ate the old food still in the bowl. Cleverly, I had mixed the two together thinking that I would fake them out, not so much. I didn’t have much luck with the organic treats either.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to Mocha when she went out to do her business after dinner. She pranced out to the lawn, sniffed around, found the perfect spot, and when done came tearing up the driveway to claim her delicious reward. Foolishly I didn’t bring her inside the house before giving her the new organic treat. She took it in her mouth, dropped it, smelled it, and looked up at me as if to say, “You’re kidding, right?” Before I could get an old treat for her, she tore back down the driveway to terrorize the poor old beagle who happened to be walking down the street. His owner quickly snatched him up and glared at me like I was some kind of negligent idiot who shouldn’t even be allowed to pet a dog let alone own one. It was a look not unlike the look I received by the room of disapproving Mother’s when I asked, “Why must there be weekly meetings, wouldn’t every third week suffice?” It was the first and only time I ever attended a Brownie meeting with my daughter, but that’s another story.
I screamed at Mocha to come, then looked at the horrified look on the beagle’s owner’s face, and quickly changed my tone. “Come here Mocha my darling. I’ll give you a nice treat if you stop scaring that nice doggy.” I imagine the overweight beagle had not seen anything quite so intimidating as the 8 pound yorkie-poo Mocha jumping and bouncing around spastically as if she were a real live wind up toy.
I scratched the idea of store bought natural dog food and organic dog treats. Now I’m developing my own natural dog food recipes, because I still haven’t given up on the idea that you can teach an old dog new tricks, especially when it comes to going green. Not yet anyhow.

The Green Queen has Arrived!

Hello and welcome to my first posting...

This blog is a journal of sorts; a related account of my own personal journey into the world of Green. I have dabbled with it for the past few years, but now decided it’s time for me to get serious in my efforts, although serious would not be a good descriptive word for me. Let's simply say I'll be giving it the all American try.

I'll be blogging about my daily trials and errors while trying to truly embrace a greener lifestyle. Although before I begin let me first be totally candid with you; I am not going to be attending any rally's which could even remotely include sitting cross legged whilest tied to a tree. Quite honestly my knees would lock up and more than likely an ambulance would have to be called. But I promise to do my best by making environmentally sounder choices. I guess I'm just your average Jill trying to do better.

I truly thank you for reading, I hope you come back often, but most of all I hope you enjoy my journey.. Now sit back and enjoy because I have a feeling this could be one bumby ride!