The More, The Less
I love convenience, a little bit too much. In Indonesia, I have only lived alone for 1 year — and instead of being able to cook for myself, I relied heavily on online food delivery service. An easy option to utilize the time to do my work instead of cooking. I also like collecting gadgets, as I think it will be more convenient for my daily tasks.
But with this assignment, I have to rewire my brain to not think ONLY of self-convenience, but also how to NOT manage it all by myself. For this whole month of September, I live with 6 friends in a 2-bedroom apartment. One of my flatmates is in the PSSD class, Annis Alfansi. After discussing this together, we decided that we cannot just do this individually because being only 1/3 we won’t make much impact. So we came up with a strategy to drag our flatmates with this assignment.
- Making it a ‘challenge’ (and rewarding everybody with pizza at the end!) so that we can all do this together. The more effort we put in, the less electricity we consume as a household:
We put up this 14-days challenge notes in the fridge to lay out rules to reduce electricity together. We negotiated that we do need to cut back our energy consumption in the apartment because the electricity cost is independent from the rent, so this challenge should also make our electricity bills cheaper. Eventually they agreed (yay!). Here are the rules:
1.1 Use the kitchen together (as much as possible). Cook 1 menu for 6 people simultaneously, cook minimum for 2 people (if urgent), use microwave max. 3 times/day. This is because our main energy consumption is on the use of the electrical stove, microwave, and rice cooker that are all used back-to-back because of individual cooking habits (can total approximately 7.3 kWh/day in itself). By cooking together, the goal is to reduce the amount of time we use for those appliances.
The results as of today: The hours spent on those cooking appliances reduce much significantly (almost half, so we’re saving about 3.6 Kwh/day) after cooking together. As an intangible impact, we get to improve our cooking skills and we also get to bond together over cooking and eating in the dining table together. Of course, the timing doesn’t fit sometimes, but we tried to work around it. Since we use the rice cooker a lot, we can plan the meals ahead of time.
1.2 Watch TV max 2 hours in total/day, but 3 people need to agree to watch it together (saves about 0.035 kWh)
The results as of today : Funnily enough, nobody uses the TV anymore (even though we didn’t ban it completely!). The rules make us re-think the urgency of watching TV, especially when there are options to simply watch them in smaller screens (phone/ipad/laptop).
1.3 Only use the 6 available sockets, so 1 person 1 socket for each time
The results as of today: This made us prioritize which gadget is most urgent to charge as 1 person cannot charge multiple device at the same time. So we opted either charging other gadgets afterwards, or charge them outside of the home.
1.4 Only wash laundry in the machine without the dryer (saves about 3 kWh)
The results as of today: This one is very challenging. Not using the dryer means we have to manually twist each wet clothes and hang them to dry longer! We also have to prepare a mat so that the excess water doesn’t pool underneath and damage the vinyl flooring.
1.5 Only use 1 source of lighting from 8pm-12am
The results as of this day: This is quite challenging too. We decided to modify the rules though, that we can use the other lights but ONLY when needed (e.g. turn off the bathroom lights when finished using them) because one of our friends are scared of darkness, so the idea of using candles during the night kind of scare her. A lot.
2. The less I use my personal gadgets, the more I appreciate what I already have (and realized that some gadgets are indeed redundant in function)
Individual Effort: Giving up some of my favourite personal gadgets
I decided to give up some gadgets that I think is still manageable if I live without them temporarily:
2.1 Bluetooth watch (saves 0.1 kWh)
The results as of today: Still ok so far. I can replace this watch function with the other gadgets. Although it felt weird at first, I became more mindful of using their batteries to check the time instantly, especially my phone.
2.2 Bluetooth earphone (saves 0.1 kWh)
The results as of today: Still ok too. Luckily I still have another cable earphone. But this also make me more mindful of my battery usage on other gadgets. Listening to music became less of a priority, and it helps with my focus and mindfulness of things around me.
2.3 Bluetooth keyboard (saves 0.1 kWh)
The results as of today: Still ok too, as this function can be replaced with my laptop. I would just use my ipad for drawing digitally, and my laptop for typing.
2.4 Portable iron (saves 0.175 kWh)
The results as of today: A bit tricky. I ditch my clothes that need instant ironing. Instead, I choose to wear clothes that do not easily crease and just hang the ones that crease easily (in the hopes that the crease will disappear by itself, let’s see if it works)
2.5 Portable juicer (saves 0.03 kWh):
The results as of this day: I honestly couldn’t stand it at first…..My teeth is very sensitive to cold and eating it cold right from the fridge is sending shocking teeth ache! So I tried to put the fruits outside (not in the fridge), and it was much better, but still I wouldn’t prefer it. I guess it makes me appreciate eating fruits traditionally raw and fresh without them being kept in fridge for a long time.
2.6 Hair straightener
The results as of this day: I usually use the hair straightener every 2 days after I wash my hair. Without it, my hair is back to its natural state which is coarse, dry, and frizzy. A bit insecure at first, but hey on the bright side it kept my hair from extra heat that can make it even dryer in the long run.
We’ll see how this group and individual ‘challenges’ unfold within the next few days. I will update again soon!~
