Fine. I adjusted the the shock of almost being disconnected and put my anger on the side. And in that same phone call asked them what our bablance was for this payment excluding our payment they received. The new amount was not exactly pleasing. Especially since I feel in this household we are for the most part consertative with our use of electricity. We make sure that only the lights are on if someone is in the room and we watch things around here. I was not impressed.
The sad part about it is that is there is no one else to run to if you do not like them. What ever happened to honest competition with other companies? There is no competion with them in fact since there is no one else for anyone up here to go to for electricity! So, they can raise their prices whenever they feel like it.
So, we are fighting back. I am not sure how long this is going to last. But I really want to see some difference in the bill. I went out and purchased camp lanterns, flashlights, etc for step one. I decided that I loved my computer and TV so that would not be affected and the rest we monitor allready such as using cold water for the laundry (Tide coldwater) since we have an electric heater. So, the best way to tackle the electric company in our strike would be to not rurn on the lights at night. I honestly want to see how much of a chunk that would take out of our bill.
So, Last night I had all of the lights off and we were armed with a lantern, two kerosine lamps, and flashlights and a few stray candles to test the first night. Let me tell you, it was VERY difficult to get used to. I have turned on the light switches upon entering a dark room for as long as I could reach the switch and it is over thirty years of conditioning that I had to tackle. But, alas I am stubborn and had the cooperation of my husband and two youngest daughters. I suppose they are all used to my crazy ideas by now but they followed along like troopers in this latest notion of mine.
They are old enough to understand my frustration and they willingly agreed to give Mom's latest scheme a try. I presented the concept to them like a game and an important mission for our household. It was very nice eating dinner by the large candelabra at the dinner table, we had ham, potatoes and veggies. We do have electricity-but what we use we monitor. For example, we make sure we do not run the water long since we have a well pump way out in the country and the well is run with electricity, we are not turning on the lights at all, we make sure all of the TV's and stereo systems are off when out of the room, we wash our clothes in coldwater, we run all of the appliances on efficiency settings, and we carefully monitor the hot water in showers (I actually bought a timer for them since they are guilty of long showers like I am).
So, we stumbled around in the dark for a bit trying to get used to this by the glow of the TV (again we are not completely dark here) and found our way. I also wanted to use last night as a test to see how many lanterns we really need and what else we need for this battle. I decided on buying rechargeable batteries and setting that station up in the kitchen on the bakers rack with the baskets of candles, batteries, flashlights etc. I am also getting another three lanterns. We have kerosine lamps (both modern and antique ones) for which Rob and I have to be present for as well as candles. We have a house that is over two hundred years old so the effect of the candles at night is quite beautiful actually. I might just like this.
So, hopefully we all can conserve enough electricty with this battle to see a real difference in the bill. If not, I have an idea on how to battle it further. We will be setting out that clothes wire contraption I used to have in the center room of the house where we would dry our clothes. My old dryer broke and before I bought the new one we hung our clothes out to dry outside in the warmer months and inside by the woodstove over the winter. It was wonderful but I missed the soft towels that only dryers can produce and got tired fast of the dry scratchy towels that dried in the wind or by the woodstove and yet, I did use fabric softener. We have grown used to the dryer and hopefully we will not have to resort to that again and just work with the lights issue. I am not sure what else to do but knowing me-I will find a way.
This battle is being waged in order to have some decent money saved for the winter. In the winter we use woodheat from wood cut on our property. Nothing beats the heat of a woodstove way up here in Maine. However the woodstove is in the living room and we have to run an electric heater in the basement so the pipes wont freeze. We also had to use electric heaters for the bedrooms and bathrooms since those rooms are on the outside of the heat radius. This year we are cutting grates where they were closed up years past. The house is well insulated and we even plastic the windows in the back room and put covers on the front porch windows. We all have goosedown quilts and are actually quite warm in the winter. I am just working on new ways of saving bills like everyone else. So, hopefully this battle with last enough to see some sort of difference in the electric bill. Again, it is only day one of the experiment but I will keep you posted as we add on more things and get used to not turning on the switches in each room we enter. We are armed and ready to battle against Central Maine Power or CMP with our flashlights, lanterns, candles and grates in the walls and floors to circulate the heat of the woodstove. Hopefull we will only need one electric heater in the basement this year for the pipes instead of the four others for those other rooms mentioned. Also to note; the pipes in the basement are well insulated and wrapped as well as the water heater and well pump and even walls. However the basement is limestone with a dirt floor in the oldest section of the house.
Then again, it has been so warm this year and later than normal, that we have not had to even light the woodstove...So, wish us luck in our battle and I will keep you posted on further developments....Especially with how effective by latest battle is when the cold really hits Maine... :)