Day 238 of our Green Year: Bulbs and Empty Sockets

Today, it was an easy task to take care of at the ranch. Months ago, early on in Our Green Year, Layla and I began unplugging anything not in use in an effort to keep vampire power from being a problem.

Well, recently I looked up at one of our lights with CFL bulbs in them and saw that one socket was empty. As a result, I began to think that the empty socket may still be drawing power, albeit only a small amount. This seemed like wasted power since there is nothing there to use the power. If you are going to have light while you are in a room, you might as well use all the power efficiently, without waste. I'm not an electrician, so I can't say if having a light in two of three light sockets in the kitchen is better than having a light in all three, but might as well use what we have.

Therefore, we went around the house today and made sure that all sockets had CFL lights in them. The argument could be made that leaving a socket empty can save energy, but we see it as more of wasted energy. One of the worst things for the environment is wasted energy, hence why we unplug everything.

If you have wasted energy in your home, whether it is heat escaping through windows, an open fridge or empty sockets, you need to take care of it.

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We did laundry today by hand and dried by the heat of the wood stove. As well, we cleared out some of the snow with the snow shovel. One thing everyone in the house has been doing to keep warm, without using extra heat, is wearing a toque. I started wearing one in our downstairs office, and before long everyone was wearing them. It is amazing how much you can heat yourself up by just wearing a toque indoors.

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