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Small Changes, Big Results
Nashville family takes
conservation practices in stride
From left: Amanda, Tim, Erin and
Ethan Moore of Nashville.Erin Moore of Nashville grew up in southern California, where droughts and blackouts were real possibilities, and the experience forever colored the way she viewed energy consumption.
“If you leave the room, you turn off the light, and you don’t let the water run when you brush your teeth – that’s how my parents were,” she says. “I do the same things with my kids. If you’re not using something anymore, turn it off.”
Moore and her husband, Tim, have always incorporated smart energy practices into their lives,
and these days they’re doing even more to shrink their carbon footprint. The modifications may not seem huge, but small changes have a way of adding up.
The Moores use compact fluorescent light bulbs, and they keep their thermostat set lower than most in the wintertime.
“In the winter it’s 65 during the day – 60 at night and when we’re not home,” Erin Moore says. “We use space heaters to heat up the bathroom and other rooms in the winter, but we don’t heat the whole house to 80 degrees.”
In the summer they keep the temperature in their home at about 80 degrees during the day and 75 at night.
“If people aren’t sleeping well at night, we make adjustments,” Moore says. “You have to work with your family, but it works well for us – and our utilities don’t average more than $200 a month, including gas, electricity and water.”
They moved into a new house with a smaller yard a little over a year ago, so they switched from a gas-powered lawn motor to the manual kind. They still use quite a bit of gas to drive to work and to shuttle their two children to school, sports, music lessons and other activities, but they try to be conscious of grouping errands into those trips.
“We try to combine everything into one trip,” she says, “and we carpool with another family to school.”
This summer they’re buying a solar attic fan to help keep their two-story house cool in the summer, and they also plan to add solar screens [window treatments that help reduce glare and improve energy efficiency] for their home’s eight west-facing windows – a big source of summertime heat.
“Our house has one air unit for the entire house,” Moore says. “We just want to cut down the intense afternoon sunlight so the air conditioner is more effective.”
They expect a $1,000 total investment for the fan and shades to pay for itself through even smaller utility bills in a year or two.
The Moores’ eco-friendly attitude extends to the food they eat as well. The family buys locally grown produce and local, grass-fed meats almost exclusively, and they eat organic foods whenever possible. Erin Moore volunteers on Saturdays at a local farmers market, where she buys most of their fruits and vegetables.
“We started doing that because the food tastes better, it’s good for you, and it also has an energy-saving component,” she says. “You’re not buying food that’s been shipped from across the country.”
Ultimately, the Moores say their philosophy comes down to a desire to be good stewards of the earth – and their children, ages 8 and 11, are learning first-hand about conservation in the process.
“These are our natural resources,” Moore says. “If kids understand that these resources have to be cared for, it makes them better citizens of the world.”
Story by Rebecca Denton
Share Your Bright Ideas
TN Connections is highlighting readers’ energy-saving tips and tales of conservation in upcoming issues, and we’d love to hear your bright ideas. E-mail your energy-saving experiences to tnceditor@jnlcom.com.
