Winning the war on Natural Gas

With our electricity now 100% renewable and the purchase of an ultraefficient car, we're now going to concentrate heavily on natural gas, because this is now where it's easiest to cut our carbon emissions. In fact, we're at "war on natural gas" for the next two years. So far we haven't been able to do much because many of the structural changes to our life will be in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Or have we?

I looked at our gas bill for last month, and we reduced our May consumption from 2.8 cubic meters of gas to just under 2 cubic meters. A 30% reduction? How did this happen?

I'm thinking it must be the new showerhead which I love. It works really well and this thing cost only $12 at real goods which is a lot cheaper than new windows, or a new water heater or furnace.

My wife said that she didn't like how it rinsed her hair, but this was the last complaint I heard several months ago. She's been fine with it since then. The old showerhead is still in a drawer in the bathroom and can be reinstalled any time. All these things we do are completely voluntary, and in our house, we are not ascetics... we love luxury, but we make luxury efficient.

The great thing about this showerhead is that I don't ever think about "taking too many showers". I'll take 2 or 3 a day on weekends when i go bike riding or mowing the lawn.

In addition to it being a low-flow showerhead, it also has a shut-off button. For me I'm tall so it takes forever to soap up. I've acquired a new habit of shutting the thing off while I soap up, that must be where the 30% is happening because it takes a while for me to get soapy.

Pay us a visit, the more the merrier! We'll never run out of hot water!