Published: September 04, 2008 09:42 am         

In These Otsego Hills

Now that summer has drawn to a close and fall is fast upon us, we are busily reviewing how we might save money, particularly in the area of energy, in the months ahead. There is no doubt that cutting back as much as possible will be in our thinking.

Our main problem, of course, is that we have in previous years cut our energy use to what we assumed was a bare bones minimum. We now think we may have been wrong.

We must say that one of the smartest moves we have made regarding energy was our decision in 2000 to replace our boiler, which produces both our heat and hot water, with a newer more energy efficient model. At the time we told ourselves that we would eventually recoup the cost of the new boiler. Of course, we had no idea at the time just how soon that cost would be recouped. Between the drop in the amount of oil we use and the dramatic rise in the cost of a gallon of oil, we think it is safe to say, although we must admit we haven’t done the math, that the new boiler has more than paid for itself.

In fact, according to our records, we used 1,685.9 gallons of oil in the 1996/1997 heating season. This past year, for the 2007/2008 heating season we used 735.5 gallons of oil. By our calculations that is a decrease of 56.3 percent in the amount of oil used between 96/97 and 07/08. More importantly, from our checkbook’s point of view, if we were still using the 1,685.9 gallons of oil during this last heating season, we would have spent $4,887.42 instead of the $2,132.21 we did spend. Of course, we cannot credit the entire drop in the use of oil to the new boiler. At least part of the decrease must be attributed to the fact that, given the layout of our heating system, we are able to significantly reduce our oil use by dropping the temperature in our various heating zones. In fact, two of our heating zones are set at 50 degrees. The third zone is set at 55 degrees and our fourth zone is set at 62 degrees.

Last year, unless we had company, we used only those areas in our house served by zones 3 and 4. And yes, there were times when we thought it was on the chilly side.

However, this year, we are seriously considering lowering the thermostats even further so we may well come to the conclusion that last year was a walk in the park. And other people may come to the conclusion that they would actually rather not visit us in our house, a decision that we will certainly understand. We also hasten to point out that we have also attempted to reduce the amount of oil used by washing all our laundry in cold water and taking showers at the gym following our routine of pool therapy there.

When it comes to the use of oil, we have to think that every little bit saved helps in the long run.

Of course, oil is not the only energy use we are trying to reduce. We also have our sights set on the electric bill. In fact, this summer we have tried a system of moving air in the basement with box fans to reduce the humidity instead of plugging in the somewhat expense to run dehumidifier. And we think it has worked reasonably well. At least we do not feel the basement has labored under undue humidity this past summer.

And we have changed the light bulbs in those lamps and fixtures which we use the most to compact fluorescent bulbs. Not only do these bulbs presumably save electricity but they also tend not to heat up the house as much as traditional incandescent light bulbs, which is a good thing in the summer. Of course, in the winter we may well miss the heat of the traditional incandescent light bulbs. Or perhaps we shall have to go to a system of summer lights and winter lights. This will definitely be the case in the kitchen as our overhead kitchen light is an enclosed fixture for which the use of compact fluorescent bulbs is not recommended. We don’t use it much in the summer, but will come winter when there is much less daylight available.

Of course, we do have some reservations about the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which calls for the phase out of incandescent bulbs by 2012.

Hopefully someone will come up with a new light bulb that will work in enclosed fixtures, globe bathroom lighting and chandeliers, all of which would not seem to accommodate the compact fluorescent bulbs particularly well. In fact, the wee-we tried to put the compact fluorescent bulbs in the light on our garage but was unable to as the bulbs would not screw into our lighting fixture. So, unless steps are taken, it seems to us that a fair number of people may find themselves in 2012 with lighting fixtures which they can no longer use. And while we don’t know about the feelings of others, we tend to think such a situation would not make us particularly happy. In closing, we have no idea if any of our plans to reduce the use of energy will prove to be beneficial. But we have to think that at least we will have tried. In fact, we tend to enjoy the challenge of cutting back on our energy use. We think it gives us a certain pioneer spirit and fully intend to explore the possibilities of expanding our conservation to include our use of water, and hence the sewer. And we would also look at the use of our vehicle except that we really already normally drive it so little, that we can’t quite imagine how we could drive it less and still manage to do that which we feel we need to do. But that doesn’t mean that if we won’t be able to find something sometime somewhere that we can cut out.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths

The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer St., Cooperstown, N.Y. 13326, by telephone at 547- 8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.