"What's in the bag, Daddy?" asked DD1. "A blog entry for Mummy," he replied.
Sure enough, DH had gone out and bought me something I'd been wanting for a while - timers for our bathroom fans. I know, it sounds kind of hokey. But truthfully, I'm getting tired of running around shutting off bathroom fans after everyone, sometimes hours after they have been turned on. The electricity we've been wasting makes me cringe.
My brother-in-law installed one in his main bathroom, and I love it. I like being able to choose how long the fan needs to run and having it shut off without me having to remember to do it. His house is a bungalow, so it's not to hard to hear the fans running. But our house is two stories, plus a basement, and has bathroom fans on all three floors. I often don't realize that the kids have turned on a fan until long after it's happened.
I'd been hinting for a while that I wanted some for our house, and DH finally caved in to the pressure. He installed them this weekend. I love that I can turn on a fan for a short or long period of time, and don't have to remember to turn it off. I love that the kids can do the same.
Now, if I could just teach them to turn off the lights.....
I installed a bathroom fan years ago simply because I hated the *noise* from the fan going on for longer than it needed to Of course, it also helped with the electric bill! Perhaps we need to think about co-realating excess noise -ie car engines, motor whines, buzzing, etc.- with non-green things. The noise *does* seem to harbinger some sort of a machine that might pollute, or a least be a potential energy waster!
ReplyDeleteThe noise is annoying, I agree. Interesting observation about noise and potential energy waster - I hadn't made that connection myself.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I heard a radio program on KGNU 88.5 in Boulder, Colorado called "Terra Infirma".
ReplyDeleteThe subject of the show was the human ear.
Using voice, narrative and sound effects, the program took us through a timeline of added noise on the planet, starting with simple nature sounds that one might have heard 5000 years ago, moving on to biblical times how one would hear the wooder wagon wheels, domesticated oxen adn horses hooves clopping, on intothe introduction of bronze, iron and hte addition of clanging noises, and so forth on into the 20th century with all our jets, cars, factories, TV's etc.
It pointed out that the decibles that modern western humans take for granted daily to every day would have been the sounds of a volcano, an earthquake or the "coming of the gods" to a person living in, let's say 300 AD. It pointed out that because we are so saturated in sound that we have forgotten the prime function of the human ear, which is be a 360 degree pair of "eyes", warning us of danger. And this show was *before* iPods!:-) Based on that show, which has haunted me since I first heard it and my own observations of the world around me, that is how I came up with the connection. I sure wish I could get my hands on that "Terra Infirma" show!
Thanks for letting me ramble on here... I am in- between posts on my own eco-blogging site..and just realized that this whole comment I'm posting here could be the subject of my own next post on debgoesgreen.com. Anyway: keep up the good work! I am loving dropping by every few days! Meanwhile, thanks for including me in your blogroll- you are also now on mine! :-)
you're welcome, and thanks for the comments. I'm very sensitive to noise, and a silent house is a happy house for me. I've got my kitchen fan running right now as I'm canning some tomatoes, and it sounds like a Harrier jet taking off over my stove! I wish it came in a silent version.
ReplyDelete