BLOG
Moving off the grid?
“When are you moving completely off the grid?” That question, followed by a laugh, is something I have heard a lot this month. The assumption is it isn’t possible to accomplish that in the middle of suburban Indianapolis…at least not in a cost effective way. That is probably true for most, but there are some very easy things to at least reduce the amount of the grid I’m on.
Electricity
No, I have not put up a windmill or installed solar panels at my house, but I have done the next best thing. My electricity provider is IPL (Indianapolis Power & Light Company) and they provide great green options. My favorite has a catchy name, Green Power Option. This allows a homeowner to specify that 25%, 50%, or 100% of your power comes from clean, renewable energy sources. When I heard about this I thought…Cool, but probably too expensive. I was mistaken. My home is on the 100% option. My electricity bill for June was my second highest bill of the year (January was the highest…Christmas lights!). The bill was $107.27. The green option added $3.98 to my monthly bill, less than a 4% premium. Even better, IPL gets some of their renewable energy from the wind farms in Indiana, so my electricity is staying local!
IPL has a second program, which pretty much pays for my Green Power Option. It is called Cool Cents. Each summer I get a $20 credit for allowing IPL to cycle my air conditioning on and off during peak electricity usage. I have done this for years and never once noticed the air conditioning turning on and off. So as far as electricity goes, I’m on the grid, but just the edge of it.
GAS
I have no idea where the gas powering my water heater, oven, and furnace comes from other than Citizens Gas. After scouring their website, I still don’t know. I do know there are natural gas mines in Indiana, so at a minimum I can rationalize it is more cost effective for Citizens to use Indiana gas than to have it imported from New York or Africa. I also know I use a heck of a lot less natural gas in the summer, while I am doing my local adventure.
It’s the other gas utility that I have spent more time focused on, the gas I put in my car. Since upgrading from a Jeep to a Prius I am using less gasoline, but I am still using it. As I approached the month I decided the best approach would be locally owned gas stations. I know many gas stations are franchises (which really creates some dilemmas for people trying to boycott BP), but I wanted to do better than that. I came up with 3 options:
- Countrymark / Hamilton County Co-Op, 16222 Allisonville Road, Noblesville – This station is owned by a famer’s cooperative as are a majority of the Countrymark stations. As a co-op all of the profits go back to the local farming community.
- Gas America – The company is based in Greenfield, IN and has locations scattered across Indiana and Ohio.
- Family Express – The company is based in Valparaiso and is my go to stop when heading to Chicago. There is one conveniently located right off I-65 in Rensselear. I can fill up there and make it to Chicago and back.
There is one other really good alternative that I hope to implement with my next car. If you have a diesel engine you can have it reworked to operate on the used vegetable oil from fast food restaurants. I learned about this in a book called Farewell my Subaru by Doug Fine. It is a true story about a journalist who moves to New Mexico and literally moves off the grid. One of the chapters is dedicated to him turning in his Subaru to get a Diesel Engine Truck that is converted to run off of Kung Pao Chicken grease. It is a fun quick read filled with lots of great information. Check the book out from the library (a green option) or go to Doug's website at www.dougfine.com.
Similar to natural gas, I can only assume the water flowing into my house is from somewhere in Indiana. I think that is the whole point of reservoirs, though again not an area of expertise for me. Here are two simple things I have done to reduce our water usage and its impact:
- Rain Barrels! – Every time it rains I get excited because I know I am getting a new supply of water. In my back yard I have two gardens (look for pictures later this week @ feiney.blogspot.com) that each have a 55 gallon barrel next to them. It only takes about a half inch of rain on my roof to fill up the barrels, that then provides me enough water for all of my gardens for 2 weeks. At the end of the blog, I have put a few options for getting rain barrels.
- Running the dishwasher – I don’t have a secret for using less water in the dishwasher, but the dishwasher does have a timer. The timer is used so that the dishwasher always runs around 2 or 3 AM, at a time when water usage is at its lowest levels. Though this doesn’t use less water, it puts less strain on the city’s water system.
So m I off the grid, not exactly. That will be the challenge when I move to my next house. Below is the update from my article last week. I received a few good suggestions on items I had not yet found.
- Pretzels – While at the Binford Farmer’s Market I asked someone from The Taste of Philly (great soft hot pretzels) when they were going to start doing hard pretzels. They said it wasn’t in their plans, but if I should check out Tel City Pretzels. About an hour later I was at Goose the Market, and eureka!
- Potato Chips – Each day The Amazing Potato Chip Company, located in City Market, makes fresh potato chips, you can’t beat that.
- Peanut Butter – Generally speaking, peanuts are not grown in Indiana, though Grown in Town Farmstead (part of an urban farm in Bloomington) does grow peanuts. I am going to go the route of coffee with the peanut butter. Das Dutchman Essenhaus (an amish restaurant / store in Middlebury) makes peanut butter. I have some on order. I am also going to order peanuts from The Peanut King, a company that has roasted peanuts and other nuts in Downtown Indianapolis since the 1950s.
- Cream of Wheat – I have been told I can find this at the Broad Ripple market from Bridgeton Mill, I’ll be headed there soon!
This week I am going to try to make toothpaste and soda and I’m also still refining my hair gel recipe, hopefully some news on this later this week. I am working on planning an Indiana green road trip this weekend. I’m thinking of going to the Bloomington Farmer’s Market (I have heard great things), Oliver Winery, and a meal at FARM Bloomington.
How to get a rain barrel:
- My barrels came from Tyler and Laura Henderson (founders of Indy Winters Farmers Market) who make them at their house. They will periodically also hold work shops on how to make your own barrel. Look for information at http://indywinterfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/
- Greenway Supply
- Do it Centers – as an FYI the Do It Centers are a co-op, so each store is locally owned. The co-op is also based in Ft. Wayne Indiana. I find they always give great service and advice on helping me to fix things I have broken in my home.
