Cooking and Eating Together: Getting Our 4 Roommates to Halve Our Energy Use

When I first got the challenge to live on 4 kWh a day, I had been living in Milan for exactly 12 days.

I never really cared about the environment; frankly, I’ve been very selfish and careless. Before moving to Milan, I lived alone in Jakarta, where food delivery was cheap and accessible. I did not cook. I rarely washed dishes. Every time I was hungry, I ordered via a food delivery app, and half an hour later, voila — I finished my meal and threw out the plastic container in an unsorted waste bin. Convenience over sustainability.

For context, these are the screenshots of my food delivery history in Jakarta. On average, I had food delivery twice a day. A single food delivery can cost as low as Rp 24.795 or 1.67 Euro.

My Food Delivery History on GrabFood (Aug 2022)

Adjusting to Milan

New city, new life, new habits. That was what I promised myself, and so far it seems like Milan is the perfect city to kick off my bad habits for good. Food delivery is expensive, so I have to cook. Uber is expensive, and the public transport is great, so I have to walk everywhere. Ten days in, I already feel like a better version of myself.

I live with five other girls (one of which is Meutia Rahmadina) in a two-bedroom apartment. We are all new in the city. We’re all figuring things out. We’re still getting to know each other and adjusting to each other’s lifestyles. The kitchen is often messy, and there’s always a long queue for the washing machine.

So when I was given the assignment to map our energy use and live on 4 Kwh a day, I was apprehensive. But nothing is too big if we break it down! Let’s take a closer look at how we actually use energy.

Understanding How We Use Energy

We are a household of six with average electricity consumption of 15,11 kWh daily. The highest usage is for the stove (7,2 kWh), refrigerator (0,032 kWh), microwave (1,15 kWh), and washing machine (4,76 kWh) — most of which are used in the kitchen.

Coming from different backgrounds and lifestyles, we tend to cook our meals separately. I like pasta, but another girl prefers rice. I like to eat pork, but three other girls don’t. Two girls love spicy food, and I don’t.

Here’s a quick breakdown of us and our eating habits:

• Annis Alfansi, 26 years old. Likes pre-made food. Often wakes up late and uses the microwave to heat up her lunch for the day.
• Meutia Rahmadina, 26 years old. Likes to cook her lunch in the morning. Has fruits or cereal for breakfast.
• Female, 25 years old. Likes to cook her lunch in the morning. Happy to share her food with other people.
• Female, 29 years old. Knows her way around the kitchen well. Happy to share, but occasionally eats pork.
• Female, 25 years old. Likes to cook her own food. Prefers rice to any other food.
• Female, 24 years old. Likes to cook her own food. Prefers to create her seasonings from scratch.

When we cook only for ourselves, we consume more energy than we should.

The Battle Plan

So the path seems clear: let’s cook together! Only it’s not that simple — we all have different schedules and food preferences. After discussing it over with Meutia Rahmadina, we came up with a set of rules to reduce our electricity usage by half:

1. Use the kitchen together. Cook 1 menu for six people for the three meals each day. If you want to cook a particular thing, share it with at least another person.
2. Use the microwave a maximum of three times a day.
3. Watch the TV for a maximum of 2 hours a day. Three people need to agree on a movie to play it.
4. Only four electric sockets are made available for the entire household. If everyone wants to charge their gadget, you have to queue!
5. Only use the washing machine to wash the laundry. Don’t use the dryer.
6. Only use 1 source of lighting from 07:00–08:00.

We posted our rules on the fridge for everyone to see

As shown in the photo, we’re not only decreasing our usage in the kitchen, but it is our main focus. Managing our schedule and preferences to cook and eat together every day requires compromise. Compromise requires negotiation.

Fortunately, Dina and I talked with the other girls, and they are willing to try! So our plan is to try this rule for the next few days. We’ll monitor how we’re doing each day and, if needed, modify the plan accordingly.

This is our first meal together — a traditional Indonesian Nasi Goreng:

Our first meal: Indonesian Nasi Goreng!

We’ll strive to halve our electricity usage. But at the very least, it’s nice to have meals together.

Wish us luck. See you next time!