Memphis Neighborhoods Battle in Conservation Contest

A little bit of effort can make a big difference. That’s the lesson from a contest that pitted two Midtown neighborhoods against each other in a friendly competition to see which would become “The Smallest User.”

Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division challenged the Cooper-Young Historic District and Evergreen Historic District—two neighborhoods with about 1,500 homes each—to see which could reduce its energy consumption more over a one-year period.

Cooper-Young took the honors having reduced its 2010 energy consumption by $21 per house for the year (compared with consumption in 2009). Evergreen lowered its bills by $4 per house.

Joan Foley, who has lived in Cooper-Young for the past five years, said she participated not because she was worried about reducing her energy bills, but because she wanted to help win one for the home team.

“I moved here from another state, and although people here complain about their electric bills, I think it’s wonderful,” said Foley, who is retired.

She picked up two easy tips that seemed to make a difference in her household. First, at a meeting of the Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA ), she learned that appliances still draw electricity when not in use.

Like most homes, her house was filled with small appliances—a coffee pot, toaster oven, blender, lamps, spare televisions, radios, heaters—none of which was used more than occasionally. She unplugged them all.
Foley learned that using her appliances at odd hours of the morning and night reduces stress on the local power infrastructure.

“I set my dishwasher to wash in the middle of the night rather than during the high-use hours,” said Foley. “Also, less electricity is used before 9 in the morning, so I try to do my laundry at that time. Being retired, I can do all this.”

Foley also started drip-drying some of her clothes, rather than using the dryer.

Kristan Huntley, community director for CYCA, also examined her household energy habits and found that a lot could be changed easily.

She learned a few tricks when MLGW filmed TV promos in her home highlighting “The Smallest User.”
And she was ready to save some money.

“We were definitely trying to save some money because our MLGW bill is probably one of our largest bills each month on average,” said Huntley.

Huntley took advantage of a kilowatt reader loaned to the CYCA at the beginning of the contest. Appliances are plugged into the reader, which is then plugged into an outlet. The gadget then gives a reading on energy used.

She was shocked by what she found.

For years, Huntley had been heating a downstairs bathroom with a space heater because the walls had little insulation.

“That was really eye-opening, because we found out that the heater was pulling between seven and 10 times as much electricity as our television,” said Huntley.

Off went the space heater. To make things more comfortable, Huntley bought more rugs to cover the tile floor, and she set a new house rule: The heater stays off unless someone is taking a shower.

“You become a little more tolerant of saying, OK, it’s a cold bathroom, but it doesn’t need to be 72 degrees in there—the pipes just don’t need to freeze,” said Huntley.

Now the bathroom’s insulation is a top priority for future home renovations. Second on the list is replacing the original single-pane windows.

But the heater issue begs the real question for those concerned about energy consumption: Does it make life inconvenient to adjust to energy-saving habits?

Foley and Huntley both said no.

“To us it was worth it, and it’s not really inconvenient,” said Huntley. “Some of the things were just changing habits. Once you get used to the new habit, it’s not at all inconvenient.”

“I had to think about it for a while to form the new habits,” said Foley. “But if you do it a few times, you start doing it automatically.”

Huntley said she has reduced her bill by a small amount, but that will add up in the long term. Twenty-one dollars for one household over a year isn’t all that much, after all, but in terms of the entire neighborhood, it represents more than $30,000 in savings.