Save the L-16's!

November 21, 2010 2:57 PM

How would you get a roommate to be more energy efficient in a solar powered, off the grid abode?

My new partner is having difficulty adjusting to my energy situation, although is getting better as of late. I am looking for simple things to help a sensitive person to adapt to limited energy use and this style of living.

posted by woodjockey to Human Relations (19 answers total)

Provide some kind of instant feedback on energy usage. Most folks will moderate their energy use once they actually know what it is and start to understand the impact of wasting it.

And in all fairness, this is a pretty atypical situation for most folks so a lot of patient education is probable needed.
posted by Long Way To Go at 3:03 PM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I would make monitors of energy use and supply visible. You could have a central monitor saying "battery power at 20% (5 gW remaining)" and then, next to the light switch, a fixed sign saying "lights using 4 mW/sec" and below that a constantly-updating timer showing "Time = 58m24s. Power used = 3.2 gW." You could also have Power Usage Yesterday stats showing X amount = water heating, Y amount = kitchen applicances, Z amount = lighting, and maybe a monthly chart showing how total power use has fluctuated (hopefully gone down) over the month.

(Caveats: I don't know if these things exist, and I don't know if power remaining is even measured in watts.)
posted by salvia at 3:05 PM on November 21, 2010

Bike hooked to a generator, with a comparison of how many hours biking it takes for a 45 minute hot shower?

Anyway, what a cool problem to have!
posted by sammyo at 3:07 PM on November 21, 2010

It seems like there are two completely different questions here: (1) How to I get my roommate to use less energy? or (2) How do I help my significant other adjust to the fact that we have less total energy to use?
posted by muddgirl at 3:16 PM on November 21, 2010

Encouraging him/her to wear more layers (and having blankets around!) to deal with what I assume is an environment kept at least a few degrees colder than what he/she is used to.

Cold showers=short showers. Nobody wants to stand under the water if it's freezing. If keeping shower time short is difficult, try suggesting lowering the temperature.
posted by R a c h e l at 3:31 PM on November 21, 2010

I have a colleague who is in the process of developing and commercializing a home energy accountant that measures and reports how much energy each appliance uses. Alas, it is not on the market yet, nor is there anything else available that does this well yet. But keep your eyes peeled -- the technology should be available within a couple of years!
posted by Jacqueline at 3:40 PM on November 21, 2010

Be resigned to simply running out of power, often, until they either figure it out
or quit you.
It's super inconvenient, but it'll make a big impression on them when they are
unable to do the things that they want.
This way, the system is the bad guy, the nag, the control freak; not you.

Are you on lead/acid batteries? Have an alarm go off when you hit an atypically
low voltage on the batteries (roughly indicating state-of-charge. I don't have to
tell you this).

After that alarm goes off, you will be living in a state of super-frugality, but with
perhaps enough power to run the fans for the fireplace at night (say), so you
are not endangered.
posted by the Real Dan at 4:01 PM on November 21, 2010

I would not want counting monitoring things. I would find that awful. I'd rather help with some guidelines for lower energy living. In writing. So that I could take them all on board, and implement them on my own without being constantly schooled.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:04 PM on November 21, 2010

Were I in that situation, I would want a chart of some kind of equivalences -- a hot shower for 10 minutes = running the lights in the living room for 6 hours = 5 minutes of the microwave, or whatever. Something that would help me understand what things were really terrible vs. less terrible and what I needed to really focus on.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:10 PM on November 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

In this situation I think what would be most helpful to me was concrete advice on adaptive strategies. This might require you to be more consciously thoughtful about how you've adapted your habits in ways you've maybe long since internalized. Of course delivery of this kind of information can be tricky, I imagine it could be easy to interpret as power nagging.
posted by nanojath at 4:59 PM on November 21, 2010

People differ in how they like to receive advice. For example, all the talking in the world couldn't get my mother to recycle her newspapers - what it took was a trip to Clayoquot Sound and seeing the clear cuts for herself. In this light, I would wager that as your partner comes to realize the benefits and special things about living in your situation, she'll become increasingly better about working within your limited energy set-up. Help her/him see the beauty of how you live and things just might work themselves out.
posted by analog at 5:14 PM on November 21, 2010

If you put comparison charts up, you invite negotiation, because the unit costs are so small.

"Your long, hot shower just cost us $1."
"Sounds like a goddamn bargain to me."

Save it up until it's a significant amount.

"Where are we going?"
"Special dinner and night out."
"Wha...?"
"We saved $100 bucks this month because of X, Y and Z. Want another beer?"
"Yeah! Cool!"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:14 PM on November 21, 2010

I would suggest just letting your partner run your batteries down once or twice (not great for them, sure, but once or twice won't be a big deal). I think it is much easier to think more frugally about energy use when the consequences of not being frugal are so much clearer.
posted by ssg at 6:09 PM on November 21, 2010

Make a symbolic link between your batteries and those in the house.

"Sorry, dearest, but you left the light in the kitchen on. G'night."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 6:13 PM on November 21, 2010

(I may have drastically misinterpreted your use of the word 'partner'.)
posted by obiwanwasabi at 6:14 PM on November 21, 2010

I would not want counting monitoring things. I would find that awful

To each his/her own. Just to share why I'd like it, I'd like to know, "8 volts remain, so I can take this long shower! I might not have much juice to read by later, but who cares?" Or vice versa: "if I want to watch that movie later, I'd better shower quick now." To me, it'd replace a constant sense that I should try harder and use less with the empowerment and self-determination of being able to budget for whatever mattered most to me that day.
posted by salvia at 7:07 PM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Kil a Watt is a device that monitors energy use by individual electronic devices, providing instant feedback. it might not work for centralized power-using items, but could be a good start.

If you get one or two simple wind up timers, that might help.
posted by annsunny at 7:20 PM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Make a symbolic link between your batteries and those in the house.

"Sorry, dearest, but you left the light in the kitchen on. G'night."

... if you want to be single. That saves energy too.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 6:06 AM on November 22, 2010

If you put comparison charts up, you invite negotiation, because the unit costs are so small.

In my case, I thought the comparison chart would help me understand the impact of my choices. I wasn't thinking that I'd actually calculate my power usage/cost every day and trade one thing for another. I'd just want to have a sense of what was really, really terrible and what was okay in moderation, and what had a minimal impact.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:37 AM on November 22, 2010