Green Living as a Marthon

Over the years I’ve watched families attempting to green their home and lifestyle, only to see them become annoyed and frustrated with relatively small achievements and incremental progress. To those families, I offer the picture of green living as a marathon, not a sprint.

The Marathon

Green living comes along slowly as a combination of relatively small steps that ultimately lead up to larger impacts. For my family of four, we have been working on an experiment in eco living. Having sold our beautiful Mount Airy home in favor a 1950’s south facing split level home in Wyncote, we have spent the last two years moving slowly, but surely, towards a green existence.

Strategy

Yes, we did buy solar panels, a pellet stove and energy star appliances, but those big steps are part of a larger overall strategy.For example, through mindful living and a slightly anal use of lighting and heating, our family was able to reduce its energy bills by 36% over the previous January. 12% of that can be attributed to the use of a pellet stove, but the other 24% can be attributed directly to lifestyle management and efficient appliances.

It’s not a big deal really, turning off lights, adjusting the thermostat and turning off non essential appliances via power strips can really make a big difference. Now adding the solar panels, we saved an additional 13% adding up to a total of a 49% savings for this January over last year. The funny part is that there is still lots more to do: installing insulation, caulking the tops of walls and replacing inefficient lighting fixtures.

It’s Not About Being Perfect

To be honest, we have not been perfect. After installing 8 down lights in our living room, we realized that we offered the perfect escape for the wonderful hot air coming from our pellet stove – oh well, its marathon, so we don’t sweat the mistakes because we know the overall direction is positive.

It’s About A Strategy and Keeping At The Marathon

Through my experience, I know we could not have made such progress without a strategy to guide our steps.

For more info on our house, visit www.ecoswank.blogspot.com for more stories about a family going green.