September Riot Summary

OK, I've found the actual Riot calculator here. So here are the results for the items I tracked for the month of September 2011.

transportation 47 % of US average
electricity 410 kwh 45 % of US average
heating/cooking 13 therms 16 % of US average
garbage 26 lbs/4 people 5 % of US average

I've checked the water meter to measure our water use for next month. For heating/cooking this is a monthly measure in a non-heating month. After a year, I can use the yearly version of the calculator to assess this more fairly. I'm surprised that our electric use is this high. Come spring I will try to reduce our dryer use with an outdoor line. Otherwise, I'm not sure where we can cut back too much. Transportation was a bit higher than normal this month because I took a vacation in Cape May with friends I hadn't seen in 20 years. It was worth it. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is in a more typical month. I'm pleased with the garbage numbers and this is sort of what I expected. I've been very good about reducing our purchasing of things that create trash, especially food items, and I've been trying to compost as much as possible.

I'm not sure if we'll ever get down to 10 % of US average for electricity and heat, and I'm not sure if I'd like the life that would entail. But it's a starting point to reduce further. I'm glad that we're already using half the amount of the average American. That's something.