Light Bills and Laundry

 

We have a “light bill” at our house.  That’s what we call the bill for using the freezer, fridge, toaster, washer, the computers, and, of course, the lights.  I missed numerous plug-in stuff, I’m sure. We have never had a very low light bill.  For some reason, we have to make a special effort to keep that bill below a hundred dollars.  I have friends who use the dryer year around and claim that it makes no difference on the bill.  Well, it does on our bill.  So until the ground is positively covered in heaps of snow and the sun isn’t shining I hang the laundry outside.  On days when there is heaps of snow and the sun IS shining I will occasionally hang them out there. 

We had our electric hot water heater in tandem with the boiler system; so in winter when the boiler was up and heating the house it was also giving us “free” hot water.  In summer the electricity heated our water.  This summer the bill was hiking drastically.  It was rather horrifying to Elv who works very hard every day to make enough money to pay those bills not to mention feed and clothe us and have anything to give like it says there in the scriptures.  So he went downstairs and investigated. It seems we were heating water and dumping some of it onto the floor. No wonder that bill was high!

The jig was up with that old system immediately. Next thing I knew we were re-plumbing the whole system and adding in an inline gas water heater.  I am SO amazed.  Do you know how much space an inline water heater takes up?  It’s about the size of a large shoe box hanging on the wall! That’s it!  So now all those humongous tanks were obsolete!  

Out they went!  In that space is a sizable storage closet that has never before existed.  Amazing! And the bill?  Well I won’t even tell you how much difference it has made.  It would be too embarrassing.

But back to the laundry.  I have discovered that since we heat with wood stoves indoors, I can dry a lot of laundry on hangers and drying racks.  And no we don’t have our living spaces all taken up in drying clothing constantly!  The one stove downstairs is plenty of warmth and the resulting dry air to keep up with our laundry drying.

All this to say that we enjoy our efforts to not be too grid dependant. It’s fun to beat the system somehow and know that if the snow or wind takes out the power; we can still cook and stay warm.  Now to get that cookstove in!