OK, so I successfully completed my experiment. 'Successfully' meaning that I actually went the whole day without electricity.
I don't know how many of my neighbors throughout the planet have no electricity in their homes. I'm sure at least 1 billion, possibly up to around 2 billion.
Being without electricity was much more difficult than I expected. My day went like this:
8:32 AM - power goes out (two minutes late because when I shut down my laptop, XP had to install some updates). Basically sat around for the whole morning going through my bookshelf, trying to find something interesting to read. I was unsuccessful, all of my books suck.
12:00 PM - went out for some errands. If you must know, I went to Chase to get some quarters for laundry (the cute, skinny brunette there recognizes me, knows my name and why I'm there and I don't ever have to show ID). Headed over to Supercuts for a haircut, then to the library to return a book. Finally to the vehicle inspection center to certify the safety of my car for another year.
2:30 PM - got back home, and opened up the fridge, and started drinking some beer (which by this time was of course warm). Observed a cute girl outside wearing white socks (who couldn't have been a day over 19). Watched her a few minutes, read the Chronicle. Drank 6 or 7 beers.
5:30 PM - took a nap, had sweet dreams about the girl with white socks.
7:00 PM - woke up, went for a hike. Saw many hot girls.
8:10 PM - got back home, was starving, so I drove to Taco Bell. I would have gone to the Indian restaurant (which has probably the hottest waitress in in the city - tiny little petite ~22 y/o dark-skinned Indian princess), but was too inebriated to drive that far. Ordered 7-Layer Burrito, Tostada, Nachos Supreme, & Baja Beef Gordita, total was $7.10 (is it just me or is that too much money).
8:25 PM - Got back home, started getting dark outside. Ate my Taco Bell in the dark.
8:32 PM - Lights go back on! Woo-hoo!
Anyways, being without electricity was very difficult. I have a gas stove but for some reason without the electricity it wouldn't work. I was planing to cook some noodles, but it didn't work, so basically I starved to death.
It was fairly warm outside - 98ยบ Fahrenehit. I don't use A/C but it would have been nice to put ceiling fan. On the other hand not having any electrical devices to warm up my dwelling might have kept me cool.
After I turned back on the power, my wireless router did not come back on. Boo!!! That little bad boy has been on 24/7 for years and power cycling it basically killed it. Now I have to go out and buy a new one ($30 at least), placing a higher than expected price on this experiment. Now I am plugged into cable modem directly but in inconvenient location.
Not being able to log onto the internet was brutalizing. Not being able to watch TV was equally so. Having all of these CD's and DVD's around but not being able to view any of them was very difficult. Having a computer with tons of movies & music but not being able to view them was horrible.
I wanted to do house work (e.g. mop floors, etc.) but it was too dark to do anything productive. The bathroom (which I really need to clean) was very dark. No sense cleaning in the dark because after the lights go back on I will see everything I missed.
All my clocks are now blinking 12:00.
It was very quiet. No refrigerator running, no fan running, no computer running. It was complete silence. I heard a lot of sounds from outside (e.g. the birds, plus trains roaring by) as well as music and conversations from my neighbors.
If paying $30 / month for electricity (more than the average Ethiopian earns in a month) makes me a Supersized American, than give me a triple cheeseburger with bacon and sour cream. Sorry, but I cannot do it. I feel like a failure, I thought I would be able to sail through the day with no electricity but it was far more difficult than I imagined. I want to move to Ethiopia (for the girls) but now I'm not sure if I'd be able to do it. To some extent I want to repeat this experiment every week or at least once a month and become more accustomed to life without electricity. We shall see.
One key learning is that probably I will no longer pay for refrigerator. Why do I need to keep stuff cold? Basically now I believe refrigeration is an extravagant Supersized American luxury reserved for people with lifestyles of excess.
Not sure what I will do for rest of the night. Possibly will head to Joy's, their breakfast buffet is wonderful, cheap, and starts at 1:00 AM.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
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4 comments:
I don't think housing in Texas is designed to be habitable without electricity and A/C.
I recall years ago, power went out for several hours about the same time I returned home from work. Eventually many people filed out of their apartments into the parking lot. It occurred to me that you can go years in high density apartments and never talk to your neighbors. Unless the power goes out, and there is no more TV and internet, so they go outside.
Frugal B, I have a request. Your dreams of traveling and living in other countries is awesome. Can you please write about how you are going to get the finances for it and live.
I just can't imagine me going to another country and being able to find work and succeeding. Plus coming up with the thousands to travel the world.
You obviously think outside the box. So how do you travel so much without getting into debt?
I have thought about that fridge thing for a while. It gets on my nerves. The only thing I use it for is to store leftovers. Surely most of these could be stored in an unopened pressure cooker for a day or two. The rest is cooked with ingredients that does not need to be stored in the fridge (I have been working on my recipes/cooking for a while). Thus the giant fridge that came with the apartment is mostly empty which I also understand results in bad fuel economy. ARGH!
(another project is eating things that do not need to be cooked at all - that is somewhat more difficult, especially when combined with the fridge project, seems to be approximately either one or the other)
If you can't get the burners on your gas range lit with a match or lighter, pick up a 2-burner portable propane stove.
If you have a propane grill, you can get an adapter hose to use the grill tank with the portable stove (cheaper than buying the small canisters of propane)
Canned beans, soup, etc. are just fine in a real emergency when trees block the road and you can't drive over to Taco Bell. :)
I like the Coleman rechargeable fluorescent lanterns for power failures.
Coleman has a rechargeable model with an 11 watt spiral tube CFL, close in light output to a regular 13 watt CFL sold as a replacement for a 60 watt incandescent bulb.
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