One Year Without Plugging Anything In, Even Not At Home
Several responders my Ars Technica article from January 2023, I disconnected from the electric grid for 8 months—in Manhattan, commented things like “You mostly shifted a fair portion of your energy needs onto the surrounding city. Not all, but your electrical bill or lack thereof doesn’t reflect your true energy usage. The city could not function at all if half the people did what you did.”
That is, they said I was using as much power but from other places. Somehow they missed the things I wasn’t using any more, like a fridge and microwave, whose power and energy use eclipse what my phone and computer use, which is all I plugged in at NYU.
At first I thought, “They don’t get it. So what. I’m using a small fraction the energy and power from the grid, plus I’m more resilient. Even if they don’t get it, I can still communicate to others and lead them to reduce usage.”
Then my mindset shifted and I thought one of my main discoveries from my experiments living more sustainably so far: each step I take toward living more sustainably leads me to wish I had done it earlier and not want to go back, though possibly after a transition period.
That thought led me to consider no longer even charging my phone and computer at NYU, despite my original goal being just to change my home situation. The Ars Technica article was in January 2023. I forget how long this new consideration took to develop, but some time in April 2023 I decided to avoid plugging in at NYU either. Then one day in September 2023 I felt pressured by some deadline that required me online to plug in. I don’t remember the specific day, but I plugged in at NYU last September.
The upshot? Sometime this month I hit one year without plugging in anything to any outlet anywhere. I also hit eighteen months only plugging in once.
I’m not saying I haven’t caused power to be used from the grid. I take the subway, use the washing machine in my building’s basement (not the dryer), eat at restaurants a few times a year, and access the internet, which drives power usage at server farms, etc. I’ve done my best to avoid turning on lights, air conditioning, etc in other buildings, though I turn off lights, computers, and so on when it won’t bother people in other buildings, but I still cause power to be used.
Still, if 330 million other Americans reduced grid use and increased resilience and flexibility as much, they’d find they’d find they didn’t want to go back and wish they’d done it earlier. We could shrink the grid, rely less on nuclear and fossil fuels. We’d save money, clean our environments, become healthier, be safer from terrorism, and much more.
Anyway, this month marked another one-year accomplishment. No guarantee I’ll be able to avoid plugging in another year, but I tend to learn from experience, making it easier each time.
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