Graduated from the 4kW challenge!
Yesterday marked the end of this challenge, so let’s do a little recap of the past two weeks.
Starting from my pain points, devices charging and usage: like I said in my previous post, I managed to cut down on tablet usage, especially in the last week.
The same goes both for laptop and phone. The screen time averaged 1:30 in the first week and 2 hours in the second. Not bad. (actually, this is not my record, as I have managed to get the weekly average down to 35 minutes during exam month)
Some lifestyle adjustments, agreed with my housemates:
- Using only LED lights and candles: luckily, our home was already equipped with lots of LED strings and lights, so we were able to completely dismiss the main lamps. This created a cozier atmosphere in our home, which was really appreciated.
- Unplugging all devices if not used (such as the microwave) and using them as little as possible
- This resulted in tons of cold meals: salads, cous cous, insalata di riso and many more. Pretty enjoyable during the first hot week and a healthier option compared to my usual pasta-ragù diet.
- As little usage of whashing machine and dishwasher as possible, creating more cooperation and more conscious organization of the house in general.
As I said before, this challenge helped us with getting to know each other more, plus it made me a little “cop of electricity”, basically turning off any light or device (such as the microwave) left plugged in. My poor flatmates must be scared of me at this point.
In addition, some other changes in my personal lifestyle included quick cold showers. Actually, I am already accustomed to quick showers, but adding the freezing element has really changed the experience. At first, it was a nice relief from the sweat produced by my body during the hottest October days (+ walking and only using stairs). Yesterday, however, was extremely challenging as the cold and gloomy weather didn’t help with the freezing feeling going down my spine.
This highlights a question that I’ll try to answer in the following days: what else should change when facing a challenge like this during freezing times? I’ll probably keep this challenge on for a little more, as I want to see how this could adapt to different temperatures from when we started.
In conclusion, I’d say that my life was impacted positively by this challenge, which made me more aware of my energy consumption. So, I’m happy to say that this week I graduated from this 4kW challenge (and from my bachelor’s degree as well!!)
