It's all in the Timing

The way you plan your day can have an immense impact on your personal footprint. How so? Well, when you do things at different times of day, different resources are needed.  Here are my suggestions for switching the order of events of your routine:

1) Shower in the evening, not morning. In the evening, you don't have to dry your hair, because you've got no where to go. This will mean that you use less electricity on the hair dryer. You'll also be more likely to have  cooler showers because you won't have to go out in the cold afterward! Once your hair is wet, tie long hair back into braids, and brush short hair every half-hour to keep it tidy and in place.

2) If your province/country has Time-of-Use rates and uses smart meters, electricity will cost more at certain periods (on-peaks), less during other times (off-peaks), and somewhere in the middle at other times of day (mid-peaks). Using the most amount of energy during off-peaks not only helps you save money, but it also helps the environment! This is due to the fact that during the on-peak, most people use a lot of electricity. This calls for more power-plants to supply for the demand. However, at off-peaks, these power plants will sit idle. To avoid this, we should try our best to save our most comsumerist practices for the off-peaks, so more power-plants don't have to be built. Regardless of whether there is or isn't a change in price depending on the time of day, it would still be beneficial to use less during on-peaks. Try to find out whether your area has Time-of-Use rates.

In my region, Ontario, the winter and summer Time-of-Use rates can be seen here: http://www.ontario-hydro.com/index.php?page=current_rates

3) Drive your car when it isn't rush hour! It takes more time to get where you need to go when the streets are packed, which uses up more gasoline (see my blog post "Don't idle!" for more info). And bicycle, walk, or take the bus whenever you can.

4) Sleep early; wake early. Be like a farmer. When the sun goes down, you should go to bed, too. This way, you won't have to use as much electricity to light your house, and you won't fall asleep watching TV! Of course, this only works if you remember to turn off the lights and TV before you go to bed.

I hope you see how easy it really is to live a much more sustainable lifestyle!

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See you next week!