I often wear t-shirts at home in the winter, like I do in the summer. They are comfortable. But I rarely have the heat above 60 degrees in my apartment, many times it’s much less. T-shirts are comfortable, and are one of many layers I wear in the winter. Over the t-shirt when I’m home, I will often throw on a flannel or my wonderful blaze-orange hoodie that live in from October to May each year. Rather then wear a long-sleeve shirt, I’d rather wear a t-shirt and dress in layers. This way it reduces amount of wash, as only the lowest layers need to be washed regularly, and it still keeps me warm.
This past month, I was noticing how high my utility bills really were. I guess shouldn’t be that surprised, but I guess I didn’t realize I was paying nearly $100 a month for electricity and gas for my apartment. That seems like it’s a lot more then it was years ago, but honestly I’ve been using autopay, and not paying much attention. It’s been creeping up, despite all my efforts to save money.
I try to conserve power whenever possible, because I understand that my power mostly comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Many years ago, I used to pay a renewable energy surcharge to ensure the energy I was using came from wind or hydro, but it looks like that surcharge has come and gone. With the high cost of power these days, I was thinking about discontinuing paying for it — but that’s now a moot point. Honestly, I am not sure how worthwhile paying that extra money really was — most of utility-scale renewable projects were going to get built at any rate. Eventually, my hope is be off-grid when I own land, so I won’t be burning that much fossil fuels for electricity, although I expect to be using fossil fuels for my truck and machinery, for the foreseeable future.
Conservation is my priority. I’ve never kept my heat above 50 degrees most of the year, although in exceptionally cold weather I’ll turn it up to 55 or 60. Without use of the electric radiator upstairs, it really never gets much above 55, which is fine because I kind of like it cold. I wear a sweater and climb under my sheets. I don’t own an air conditioner. I don’t have Internet or television at home, all my lights are energy efficient bulbs, although I admit the LED strip I built uses more energy then I would have liked. I do however tend to operate it at lower output levels, but the power supply I have is only about 85-90% efficient.
I do need to find ways to reduce my power usage, and try to get my bills down. Obviously in a few weeks I expect the thermostat to be turned to lowest setting, so the natural gas boiler won’t be running except for whatever waste in built in the system — a few therms because it’s impossible to turn completely off at my apartment. I’ll turn the hot-water heater breaker off anytime I expect to be gone more then a few days for camping. The refrigerator can’t be turned up much, otherwise it gets too warm in my experience. Most other things I try to leave unplugged and turned off when I’m not home. I don’t have Internet or Cable at home, so there is nothing along those lines getting used, and my big monitor and computer speakers for the most part is turned off except the rare times I’m actually using it.
So I was pretty pissed to see my landlord removed the bathtub faucet from my shower when he fixed the leaky bathtub faucet. Not because I ever took baths, but that was how I filled my water containers for camping. As he ended up replacing the entire faucet and ripping out the wall while making the he also installed a cheap waterproof wall over the sheet rock, that doesn’t match the rest of the shower stall which is yellowed plastic. I guess it doesn’t really matter, as the rest of my low rent apartment is falling apart, and honestly I’d rather pay less in rent then have a fancy bathroom. I did figure out how to use my kitchen sink to fill the water container. I’m not sure if my landlord would be happy to find I’m taking 3 or 6 gallons of water each time I camp, but I figure it’s probably a net savings to him, because I’m not flushing toilets or taking a shower while I camp. My lease (which has long been on an auto-extender clause) bans outdoor watering and car washing, but is silent on filling water jugs for camping.
I know a lot of my colleagues have much nicer apartments then I do. But I like my location and like how it’s cheap. I can get free Internet by walking down to the library or the park, I have public transit to take to work, and plenty of places to walk to get some exercise. While things are wearing out in my apartment due to age and somewhat my neglect after living there for ten years, renters don’t normally fix up their buildings themselves, and landlords only fix what is critical when a tenant resides there. No need to nice appearances when you not renting to a new person. I’m fine where I live, and in recent years have gotten the mold under control by using excessive amounts of concentrated bleach.
Some people dream of owning a house with marble kitchen tops, a big screen television, and hardwood floors. I’d rather own a house where I can burn my own trash, heat with wood I harvested, and power things with wind, sun, or micro-hydro. I also don’t mind firing up a gas powered generator – I’d rather burn gasoline that I bought for actual electricity used then send a check to an invisible entity plus a bunch of connection fees, that are bulk of my bill. Raise animals for meat, hunt and shoot on my own land. Sending your garbage to landfills and expensive trash fees suck. I hate sending my check every month to some distant utility, where they burn large quantities of natural gas, coal, and nuclear material to keep the lights on. I do pay a surcharge for so-called green energy like wind and small-scale hydro, but ultimately I recognize it all comes from the same big industrial pool known as the grid. I do support greening the grid and fixing urban problems like increasing recycling – but in the mean time, I’m all for making my own life more sustainable and less reliant on the urban systems.
My apartment is just a cheap place to stay when I’m making money in the city. I rarely spend time there except to sleep at night. I keep investing and saving money that will ultimately be used for buying land, and an inexpensive cabin or micro-home, somewhere that is low tax and regulation. I really prefer to spend my weekends in the wilderness, camping by a fire, listening to the birds and the wind. I like the colorful lights and music, and just enjoying those long summer nights – or the cold winter nights which seem to be eight months out of the year. I look at camping as my temporary home, a place where I can practice for my future to be.
It's great when you find stuff for free that you can use for camping. And when I'm not camping, I can leave it in my kitchen for easy packing and unpacking.
They are comfortable. But I rarely have the heat above 60 degrees in my apartment, many times it’s much less. T-shirts are comfortable, and are one of many layers I wear in the winter. Over the t-shirt when I’m home, I will often throw on a flannel or my wonderful blaze-orange hoodie that live in from October to May each year. Rather then wear a long-sleeve shirt, I’d rather wear a t-shirt and dress in layers. This way it reduces amount of wash, 
as only the lowest layers need to be washed regularly, and it still keeps me warm. 
I guess shouldn’t be that surprised, but I guess I didn’t realize I was paying nearly $100 a month for electricity and gas for my apartment. 
That seems like it’s a lot more then it was years ago, but honestly I’ve been using autopay, and not paying much attention. It’s been creeping up, despite all my efforts to save money.
Many years ago, I used to pay a renewable energy surcharge to ensure the energy I was using came from wind or hydro, but it looks like that surcharge has come and gone. With the high cost of power these days, I was thinking about discontinuing paying for it — but that’s now a moot point. Honestly, I am not sure how worthwhile paying that extra money really was — most of utility-scale renewable projects were going to get built at any rate. Eventually, my hope is be off-grid when I own land,
so I won’t be burning that much fossil fuels for electricity, although I expect to be using fossil fuels for my truck and machinery, for the foreseeable future.
I’ve never kept my heat above 50 degrees most of the year, although in exceptionally cold weather I’ll turn it up to 55 or 60. 
I don’t own an air conditioner. I don’t have Internet or television at home, all my lights are energy efficient bulbs, although I admit the LED strip I built uses more energy then I would have liked. 
for the most part is turned off except the rare times I’m actually using it.
