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Saturday, December 6, 2014

Experiments and a bit of fun

I get a kick out of trying new ways to cut my energy use so today I tried washing dishes with the water heater turned off. Because I use a tankless water heater all I had to do was shut off the circuits powering it. Then I poured the pot of water I keep on the wood stove (for humidity) into the sink. It's surprising how little water there is when spread out like that. After the pot heated up again I added that and it was a comfortable level. Rinsing was done with cold water.

Conclusions: I can see why people used to only take one bath a week when this was the only way to heat water. Still, it wasn't that much work, mostly a matter of planning. Not much fun in the summer heat! I also understand the benefit of having a water tank attached to the stove...but I have no desire to make that change.

I got the results from my annual blood labs and am feeling pretty good about all of it. One thing was way off - thyroid levels. Which explains my being so cold and fatigued lately. That doesn't worry me; an adjustment in meds and I'll be feeling better in a few weeks.

Have you heard of George Ezra? I saw him on the Graham Norton Show and got a kick out of such a voice coming from that young face. This video makes me chuckle:


1 comment:

Leigh said...

Glad to hear your blood work was so good. Sounds like the thyroid will be a relatively easy adjustment (?)

One thing about using less energy (for me anyway) is habit. It's just so easy to turn on the water faucet, for example, but it's also easy to heat water on the wood stove. I find if I can change the habit, it can make a big difference.