The
Green Corner
Everyday Care
of
God’s Creation
Coming Down from the Peak
by Vicki Coulter
answerthecall@cox.net
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| Cool Beans: For
some summer fun, let the kids fill an old sock
with dried beans, lentils or rice and tie or sew
the open end. Place this “Sock Buddy” in the
freezer to be ready as a personal coolant when you
reset your home’s thermostat to 78 degrees. |
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It is common in testimonies of faith to speak of
"mountain-top" experiences, those intense moments
when connection to our Lord is tangible. The next challenge
is to come back to the "real world" and stay in
touch with even part of that passion while going about our
daily routine.
In energy use, though, the "peak" is the
not-so-pleasant "real world" with which we need to
cope. In summer, electricity usage is at its highest from
noon until 7 p.m. , usually topping out between 2 and 6 p.m.
Businesses are thriving, residential and commercial lights
are blazing, and air conditioners and pool pumps are humming
madly.
Power companies manage their capacity around being able
to deliver electricity on demand during these peak hours.
Older, less efficient and more polluting power plants are
brought online to help, and unpopular plans to build more
plants become ever-more urgent. As caretakers of God's
creation, we see a critical need to focus our passion to
shrink this peak energy demand.
Reduce What We Can
Of course, the things we do to minimize our overall
electricity usage will bring down our peak load as well.
Home insulation and sealing will help an efficient cooling
system, such as a heat pump. It is easy to set a
programmable thermostat to 78 degrees when we are home and a
little higher while we are at work. We can stay comfortable
at the higher temperatures by sitting near a fan or cuddling
up to a frozen Sock Buddy (see photo).
Cooking with the conventional oven heats up the entire
kitchen and strains the cooling system. Using a microwave or
pressure cooker minimizes that strain. We can also cook
outside or use a toaster oven or crock pot in the laundry
room to help the home stay cool and save electricity.
The sun can work for us by lighting our home, while
blinds, awnings, and "low-e" windows minimize the
heat load. Deciduous trees planted to the east and west
shade our Georgian homes in the summer and allow the sun's
rays to warm us in the winter. Sunlight is put to even
better use by installing a solar-thermal water heater or
photo-voltaic panels to the roof.
"De-Peak" the Rest
We can easily and automatically shift electricity draw
away from peak demand periods by signing up for a load
management program with our local power company. Georgia
Power Company and Flint Energies will even pay us to do so;
residential customers get a credit to their power bill to
sign up and again after periods when the service is
activated.
The two companies' programs are very similar, each based
on a switch that is installed on the outside compressor of
the central air conditioner or heat pump. When the summer
electricity demand peaks, the switch is signaled to reduce
the amount of time it can cycle "on", while
allowing the fan to run throughout to optimize comfort. The
activation would only be for a few hours on the needed days
and would not occur on weekends or holidays.
There are a few differences between the two programs. The
Power Credit program of Georgia Power is just for
residential home owners and involves switches on only the
cooling compressors. Flint's Switch N' Save program is
available to renters with a signed landlord consent form.
Switch N' Save earns higher credits, but also includes
switches on electric water heaters and swimming pool pumps,
shifting their entire operation to offpeak times on days of
program activation.
All of us can shift some electricity usage to off-peak
hours with a little planning. Consider installing an
everyday timer on your water heater and swimming pool pump.
Do laundry in the cool of the morning, especially if you
haven't switched to air drying the clothes. Set the delay
timer on the dishwasher to run at night, and bake for the
church yard sale during cooler parts of the day.
Step by Step
As with coming down from the spiritual mountain top, it
is with mindfulness that we set out on our new course. An
important first step is to give close attention to
electricity use on the summer's hottest days. Then energy
reductions can be expanded to daily routines, and Green
Power becomes a favored option.
Soon we take the time to depeak other areas of life as
well. Bad-air days convince us to carpool, telecommute, or
take the bus to work. Drive times are adjusted to avoid
idling in stop-and-go traffic, and consumption becomes
moderated by reducing the need for the newest, hottest gizmo
on the market.
There is one peak we strive to keep, though - that
mountaintop passion for environmental stewardship. We have
been tasked with an awesome responsibility of caring for the
earth and the lives dependent on its resources. Step by step
our journey continues for this, His Creation.
Vicki Coulter is a volunteer with The Climate Project
and gives Environmental Stewardship presentations in Middle
Georgia.
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