The Lesser Of ...

In my quest for conservation, I wonder sometimes about the choices I make. Or don't make.

With water, which I am greatly concerned about, I wonder if I am better off washing an oversized load. The rule of thumb is to not wash until you have a full load so I suppose so.

Then there is bathing. Do I shower, or take a bath? I had always heard you use less water in the shower, but I wondered how that could be so. So two nights ago I took a bath. The tub filled in under 3 minutes (which is the short little time I am trying to stay in the shower).

Today I took a shower, but plugged the tub.

Apparently you do use less water in the shower, because in 3 minutes the tub was nowhere near as full as it had been when running water through the spigot. It looks like it would take a 6-minute shower to fill the tub through the showerhead.

The difference is the length of time you get to stay in the hot water. If you take a tub bath, you can soak your sore aching muscles. You can't do that in a 3 minute shower. You barely get clean in a 3 minute shower.

Then there is electricity. I try to cut stuff off but all kinds of things are "instant on," apparently still using wattage. My computer, for example. And my printer.

So I began cutting off the battery backup completely, which hopefully cuts the computer off entirely. I also began cutting off the printer.

Then I noticed that every time I turned the printer back on, the ink jets primed themselves. I think that means the printer is using a little ink every time I hit the on switch. I wondered if the printer uses more ink than it saves in electricity when I cut the printer off. It takes fuel to make the ink, after all. Plus there is my expense - am I saving money or losing money?

Then there is the electric heater. If I use the electric heater and just heat one room, leaving the rest of the house cold, but end up having to cut the furnace on to heat the rest of the house anyway, which has become much cooler, am I really saving anything? We haven't cut the furnace on yet this year, but we'll have to soon.

And then there is the fireplace. My fireplace only works with an electric blower, because it's really a stove insert. If we use that, and have to run the electric blowers all the time, what are we saving?

It's a conundrum, is what it is.