Safety or Save Energy?

Every morning I walk my dogs, in the dark. I wear a headlamp all the time. Its early, the only people I see are the paper delivery folks, and the once a week garbage collection. It’s a small town, we all wave, and say Hello as we pass by each other. Even though I wear a headlamp, I’m hyper aware of the streetlights that are out. And I have this moral war that goes on in my mind. I want to report the light outages so they get them back on, because they make me feel more comfortable. But I also think we use way too much energy lighting up the cities. So, do I report the outages, or not? I prefer to be able to see skunks that might pop out of a dark set of bushes, broken glass on the road (so I can keep the dogs from stepping on it), and other assorted odd things I see at o’dark thirty in the mornings, and the headlamp doesn't cast that wide of an arch. But I also hate all the wasted energy that is used. I think streetlights are not a waste of energy. Right? That’s what I’m thinking. There is a stretch of homes at the far end of my neighborhood where I would call the homes, compounds, not just houses. One of them I counted the outside lights one morning while the dogs were eating deer poop in their yard. And I stopped when I got to 50! Yes, 50 outdoor lights in the yard, and along the eaves of the house. I sure hope they have their own solar panel or something generating their own electricity. What a waste of energy! I also hate the shopping areas with those tall bright lights in the parking lots. I wish Bloomington would set some guidelines to attempt save energy:
1) All parking areas can leave on all lights during business hours (when its dark), but overnight, they should have to shut off every other light (even half of them on will still provide safety, but save half the energy cost)
2) All businesses should only have one security light on all night, including the outdoor sign (if its an illuminated one), between midnight and 6am (unless they are open during those hours) - because I think many of them also have security systems, do they really need all those lights? If so, cut them in half of the current number, just something to make a small gesture.
3) Homeowners and businesses, and the city of Bloomington should only have outdoor Christmas lights on between dusk and midnight, otherwise turn them off and save energy!
4) Homeowners can cut back on outdoor lights that are left on overnight also.

This morning after my dog walk, and my run workout, I got online to the energy company and reported 4 streetlight outages in the neighborhoods near me. So much for saving energy, but this is one way I will not skimp.

Here are 10 things I’ve tried to incorporate into my personal habits to save energy:
1) Ride my bike to work, unless the weather is absolutely horrid (its only 2.5 miles one way for me, so I feel like I have no excuse to do otherwise)
2) Ride bike for small errands (if I can fit things in small backpack, ride bike). If I have to drive, wait until I have 3 errands to do, and do them all at once. Always plan route to be most energy efficient
3) Only drive to trails outside of town an average of one day per week each year (this means I get a few doubles some weeks since there are weeks in winter/spring when I don’t go at all).
4) Save water - No showers after evening swim practice if I’ll be working out the next morning, and take a shower then before work
5) Turn off lights at home that aren’t being used
6) Microwave instead of oven/stove cook when possible – it uses less energy
7) This summer I will try to line dry clothes instead of the dryer (this will be a tough one for me, as I have tried it before, and just get lazy as its much easier to just toss form washer into dryer, instead of carrying outside and hanging on a line)
8) Use biodegradable poop bags to pick up the dogs poop, since biodegradable uses less energy to decompose than a century required to decompose a plastic bag
9) When grocery shopping, take my own bag, and if there is not enough room, all other items go back into cart loose, and get loaded into car loose, and carried into house an armload at a time
10) Reuse all bags at least once, or until they fall apart (this includes the wax paper bags in cereal boxes – they are great for storing food in the refrigerator)


If you have other ideas, please let me know!