Conserving Water and Energy ....

After my tenants vacated their room in my apartment, I decided to see how much usage of water and energy I can use. To my pleasant surprise, I chalked up a total bill of $18.12 for the month of November. Thereafter the bills hovered around $28 because I had guests in my home.

I had even called up Power Supply to double check that indeed my bill was accurate.
The officer affirmed and even congratulated me on conserving energy.

Some of my friends who read my blog were quite puzzled about my low consumption. I shared that I never use the air conditioner or fan, as my apartment is blessed with the wind blowing most of the time! I also never use the water heater as I love to shower with cold water as I feel more refreshed. However, the cold water is not as cold as the water I am used to bathing during my years of growing up in Penang! I do not need a big refrigerator as it is easy for me to buy fresh fruits and vegtables from the market and shops nearby. I also have little patience for ironing; hence I never use the iron all these years. I prefer to wear materials that do not need to be pressed. Once my client gave me a Prada silk blouse. After wearing it once, I gave it away as it was so easily crumpled and needed ironing. Gosh! The blouse cost $285/-!! Dry cleaning is recommended and I dislike having to fork out money to dry clean clothes.

I find that it is more wasteful to rinse water running from the tap. It is more economical to catch the water in a basin and use just sufficient water to rinse off
the soap.

I would recycle water which is used for washing vegetables,fruits, etc. for my many potted plants. During rainy days, the plants would be watered as the heavy rain would sometimes hit the corridors. Then I could use the water for flushing the toilets, washing the floor, etc.

Once I walked past a hotel and found many condensers at the side. It suddenly dawned upon me how hot the air was. While the interior of the building is cool, it is extremely warm outside and the condensers add to the heat. Since then, I made it a point not to turn on the air conditioners unnecessarily.

My heart went out to the poor little koalas in Australia who came down from the trees to beg for water. Let us all not take our resources for granted, and let us be good stewards of all that we have received. Let us practise good habits of energy usage, so that when the Authorities come in with measures to control usage, we will not feel the intense inconvenience and pain. We will then be able to say, "Hey! I've been doing that all the time! No sweat!"

Gan Cao