Power Down Report: Shutting off the Gas

Natural gas is piped into our home for heat and cooking. Compared to the long list of electric appliances, our gas ones are minimal: clothes dryer, oven, furnace, and hot water heater.


How much do we normally use natural gas?

Our use of gas shoots up in the winter when the temperatures start falling. Monthly usage for December, January, and February runs about 20-30 therms. Even though this is a desert, it does get nippy - enough to need the furnace to help out with keeping warm. Unfortunately, the rental house we are living in also has no insulation and the windows are almost all single pane. The temperatures don’t get warm enough this time of year to heat the brick construction so the walls just radiate the cold inside. When we moved in, we put weather stripping around the doors and gaskets behind all of the outlets on exterior walls. Insulating or installing double-pane windows would be a larger investment than would be worthwhile in a house we do not own.

We typically keep the thermostat at 68 during the day and about 55 at night for the winter. We’ve tried lower but just haven’t been able to adjust. I keep the window coverings closed until the sun hits them, and then open them for thermal gain. This only makes a difference of a few degrees, but every little bit helps.


I rarely use the clothes dryer to dry clothes. Unfortunately, I do have to use it for heavy blankets, as my only clothesline is a small and lightweight affair that can’t handle the size or weight of wet blankets. When we find our own place, we will be able to install a real clothesline that can handle blankets and multiple loads. It’s amazing to see the jump in the gas bill during the months when I wash the blankets.


The hot water heater is set at a medium-low setting. Because I am frequently chilled due to the cool house temperatures, it’s always a struggle in the winter not to extend the hot shower just a little bit longer or maybe succumb to the luxury of a hot bath. Ironically, in the summer, we could take long hot showers if we wanted without impacting the gas bill. The tap water comes out so warm, even from the cold faucet, that we don’t even use hot water in the shower. Since we are now each showering approximately every 3-4 days – when it's necessary to wash our hair – we are using less hot water overall. A minimal amount is needed for sponge baths on the other days.

The only hot water used for laundry is to soak the wipes and to dissolve the laundry soap at the beginning of each wash. For washing dishes, we use no more than two gallons of hot water for a full load, usually washing all the dishes at the end of the day.


The stove and oven get used a fair amount, particularly in the winter when I enjoy baking. In the summer, I am able to move a lot of cooking outside into the solar ovens. This time of year, however, I only get four hours of good sun for cooking and the ovens do not get as hot due to the colder temperatures and lower angle of the sun.

Stovetop cooking often involves quick sautéing of food, which does not use as much gas as long-simmering dishes require. Although I love to make soup (recipes here), there are ways to cook it efficiently, including using the crockpot or solar oven. Dicing vegetables in smaller cubes helps them cook more quickly and, of course, keeping the lid on during cooking uses less energy to keep the soup at a simmer. I frequently use the pressure cooker for foods that take longer to cook, such as potatoes, green beans, and pinto beans.

When I bake breads (or Christmas cookies) or roast vegetables, I try do as much as possible at one time to fully utilize the gas used to heat the oven. I pack the oven full and rotate something else in as soon as the first things are done. (Here's an example of that kind of cooking, albeit in the summer, here.) I have to admit that it’s wonderful to be in the kitchen on a cold winter day when the oven’s hot!


How did we do without gas?

The three things we had to deal with when we turned the gas off were how to keep warm, heat water, and cook.

Keeping Warm

We live in the desert Southwest, so our winters are not nearly as brutally cold as those in many other parts of the U.S. (Don’t be jealous; we pay for it in the summer!) And, the weather has been a little bit on the warm side lately, so we were pretty sure we’d be okay. Just in case, I had our long johns ready, and we already had the knit caps, coats, gloves, and warm booties out for regular use.

When I went to bed on New Year’s Eve, I turned off the thermostat and the heat. On New Year’s morning, my sweetie shut off the gas furnace and gas water heater. The house was 60 degrees F. As soon as it warmed up a little outside and the sun was hitting the windows, we opened window coverings to try to warm the inside of the house. By midday, we could sometimes open doors and windows but only if there wasn't a cooling cross breeze.

During the day, all of us, dogs included, gravitated towards the sunny spots in the house where we could soak up a little warmth. We also spent time outside in the middle of the day to warm up. Layers of clothing and snuggling under blankets while reading in the mornings and evenings were needed to keep from shivering.

Since the computer was not available and I had no office work to do, closing the office door was another step we took. It is generally the coldest room in the house, even with the furnace on. We noted during the few times that we did need to go into the room that it was at least five degrees colder than the rest of the house.

One thing we both noticed was that we began to adapt to being cold. When we went outside in the morning to walk the dogs, it didn’t feel quite as cold as previous mornings at the same temperature and we were often wearing fewer layers. The other thing we noticed, though, was not so positive. The cold made us need to urinate far more often. In fact, this was really exacerbated one morning when I drank coffee before we headed out. Thank goodness there was a public restroom in the nearby park. I had to use it several times! I didn’t drink any more coffee before walking the dogs after that morning.



It may look silly, but at the end of the day, I was able to get a little bit of radiant heat out of the Sun Oven. It wasn’t much, as it cooled in about 10 minutes, but every little bit helped.

As soon as the sun set - so early this time of year - the temperature would start dropping fast. It was a struggle to decide when to close the window coverings because we needed the light as long as possible but didn't want to lose any heat after the sun was no longer hitting the windows.

For our three days without gas, the average high outside was 70 degrees. Inside, the house warmed up only to 63 degrees on Friday and Sunday, but made it all the way up to 65 on Saturday. The lows during our two nights of power down experiment were in the 40s, low enough to be chilly outside but not cold enough to be miserable. The house stayed warmer than we expected without the furnace running, only dropping to the mid 50’s overnight.

Had it gotten colder, we might have gone with the original plan of setting up our camping tent in the living room. Sleeping inside a tent traps body heat in a contained space and keeps it warmer. We opted not to do this because, one, it wasn’t quite that cold, and, two, sleeping on the cold floor would have negated some of the benefits from the tent.

We chose instead to sleep in our regular bed, raised up off the floor by our bucket-supported platform. With flannel sheets, an acrylic blanket, three cotton blankets, and a down comforter, we were pretty comfortable. I also slept with a knit cap on my head to hold in body heat and usually tossed my wrap-around blanket on top of the comforter on my side. When it didn’t get as cold as feared, I shed the cap and blankets midway through the night.

Heating Water

Without hot water, there was no way to shower and not be miserable. We still wanted to keep clean, of course, and our usual sponge baths fit the bill. Normally I fill the sink with hot water, add a little baking soda, and then use a washcloth, rinsed frequently, to clean up. (Don't forget to capture all the cold water coming out of the tap as it heats up. That saved water can go in the toilet tank when flushed.) The first morning, the thought of firing up the propane camp stove to heat a little washing-up water sounded like too much work so I managed with cold water. Yikes! Hardly any need for coffee after that! But, since it worked the first time, I continued with cold water clean-up the next two mornings, too. So did my sweetie.

It’s more comfortable to wash hands with warm water but since it takes a while to get warm water out of the tap, we generally don’t. From various things I’ve read, water temperature doesn’t seem to be critical to germ removal. We just used cold water while the heat was off. We even skipped the soap, but you’ll have to wait until I write up the water report to hear more about that.

On the other hand, hot water was necessary for washing dishes. Every day, between using the solar ovens to cook or reheat food, I heated up a big pot of water in the Sun Oven. It takes about an hour and a half, this time of year, to get the water heated to just below boiling. If there were a lot of dirty dishes, pots and pans, I washed the dishes midday with the hot water. The dishes had to be washed rapidly as the water quickly lost its heat in the cold kitchen, especially since the stoneware dishes and pots were chilled, too. If there'd been time to solar-heat more water for evening clean-up, I’d put the pot of hot water in the retained heat basket. It didn’t keep it hot enough to wash the dishes, but the warm water reheated fairly quickly on the camp stove.

Cooking

I talked some about food in the power down electricity report but that was more about reheating leftovers than cooking. When possible, I cooked with the solar ovens. This was limited by the fewer hours of sunlight we get in the winter. In our back yard, we only get about 4 hours of decent sun (from 10 am to 2 pm). I am loathe to put the ovens in the front yard because some folks that roam our neighborhood are known to pilfer whatever is not nailed down. I would hate to see my ovens up and walk away, even though they probably are not a high theft risk. Still, I’m not comfortable with cooking in the front yard.

However, this was an “emergency”, even though voluntarily orchestrated. On Friday afternoon, we decided to pull our vehicle to the back of the driveway (near the street) to create a little more privacy. I set the ovens up in the front of the driveway where they received an additional two hours of sun in the afternoon. (The neighbor's tall trees block the sun in the backyard after 2 pm.)


On that first morning, I extended the morning's available cooking time by tipping the Sun Oven almost all the way on its front side to collect the sun's rays earlier. I used the plant stand on wheels to keep it from resting on the ground so the lower panel wouldn’t get bent. This allowed me to preheat water for soup before adding the vegetables.

I cooked or reheated about half our meals in the solar ovens. All three days were sunny and bright. If it had been summer with the much longer day lengths, I could have easily used the solar ovens for most of the cooking and reheating, plus heating dishwashing water. Here’s what I was able to cook or heat in the ovens. (also included in the ongoing log for my solar-cooking)

Friday, New Year’s Day

Sun Oven
Cooked lentil & vegetable soup
Heated water for washing dishes

Tulsi
Warmed bread (not toasted)
Cooked rice
Boiled vegetable stock
Heated water for washing dishes


Saturday, January 2

Sun Oven
Preheated pasta cooking water
Heated water for washing dishes

Tulsi
Steamed beet greens
Roasted beets


Sunday, January 3

Sun Oven
Reheated mac ‘n cheese
Heated water for washing dishes


Another alternative to the gas stove was … a gas stove. We’ve had a propane camp stove forever and now keep it with our emergency supplies. Although we originally set the stove up outside, we decided that it would be safe to operate it in the house which would have the added benefit of warming the house while cooking..


We placed it on top of the regular stovetop, as you can see here in a bright nighttime photo using the camera flash. The fire extinguisher is kept near the kitchen so we were prepared for any emergencies. The fumes from cooking with propane were no worse than those from the natural gas.

The propane camp stove mostly came in handy in the morning and the evening when the solar ovens could not do the job. We used it to heat water for drinks and make breakfast the second two mornings after the solar toast failure. In the evening, we used it to do a quick stir-fry, reheat leftovers, and reheat dishwashing water.

One thing we noticed while using the stove, oil lamps and candles was that we were going through a lot of wood matches. I always toss them in the compost but I still was disturbed with how many we were using. One way I reduced that was to save any match where only the tip was burnt. Those could be re-lit from a burning candle and used again to light the stove or another lamp. I added paper matches to the shopping list but have not been able to find any yet. The hardware store only sells wooden matches and the grocery store only sells plastic disposable lighters. I’ve still got to check the convenience market where I know they used to give books of matches out to the smokers.

Incidentally, we usually don’t use matches to light our regular gas stove. It has pilot lights but you can turn those off and adjust each burner to be match-lit instead. We did this the first year we moved into this house to save on natural gas and to keep the house slightly cooler in the summertime. Instead of matches, we light the burners with the cigarette lighters found along the road (we currently have about half a dozen we’ve scavenged) or with a flint striker.


This is a flint striker my sweetie’s had for ages. Strikers (typically for welding) and new refill flints are available at hardware stores.

Shutting off the gas also provided a good opportunity to put our new little rocket stove to the test. We first learned about it from the Aprovecho Research Center. Their mission is:

researching, developing and disseminating appropriate technological solutions for meeting the basic human needs of refugees and impoverished people and communities in the developing world. ARC's goal is to help relieve suffering, improve health, enhance safety, and reduce adverse impacts on the environment. ARC provides technical assistance and related appropriate technology to projects around the world. The main focus is on cooking and heating systems that use biomass for fuel.

StoveTec, a not-for-profit company, was created to promote the use of technology developed at ARC, and all the profits from their sales help fund ARC's mission to "provide cleaner burning and cost-effective stoves to the billions of people in the world who need them most." Rather than build our own rocket stove, we opted to support this organization.

My sweetie tested it the stove when we first got it but could not get it to boil water. The problem is the only small wood we had on hand was not dry enough then, and it still isn’t. Rather than go buy firewood – for sale, at an exorbitant price, in small bundles at stores – we decided to try using wood from a pallet. Discarded pallets are free and we picked one up last week.


My sweetie cut the pallet up with a saw rather than deal with removing a zillion nails. The final pieces measured approximately ½” x 1” and are an average of 20” long. There were enough from a standard size pallet to fill a 5-gallon bucket.

For kindling, I fished some corrugated cardboard and heavy packing paper out of the recycling bin. I tore the cardboard into small pieces and the paper into moderate sized ones that could be crumpled up.

Although we have a camping lantern, we decided to do the rocket stove test during daylight. During an emergency, people would crave comfort food so I suggested we make vegan macaroni and “cheese”. We’d cook the pasta on the rocket stove and I’d make the sauce on the propane camp stove. To use less wood heating the water, I preheated a big pot of water in the solar oven. There wasn’t enough time for the sun to bring the water up to a boil but it was warm when we set up the rocket stove.


To set up the rocket stove, we fit the adjustable metal pot skirt around the big pot of water and set it on top, pushing the pot skirt down onto the top of the stove. This skirt keeps the heat around the base of the pot instead of letting it disperse into the air. It saves about 25% of the fuel. After filling the combustion chamber at the bottom with kindling, the rack to support the sticks was placed in front of it. This supports the fuel and allows air to come up through the burning sticks.


We lit the kindling and placed a few pallet sticks on the rack. They quickly caught fire and started burning. As they burned, we kept pushing them in further. It was tempting to add more and more sticks, but the instructions caution against overloading the stove with fuel.


As you can see, the fire really got cranking. There was a bit of smoke, too. We may have had too much fuel or it may have been that the wood from the pallet was aromatic. In any case, you can see in the next photo that the outside of the pot became rather soot-covered. This was a mess to clean up.


The water finally came to a boil, seeming to take forever but we assumed that was simply because it was a “watched pot”. The pasta cooked for 10 minutes, during which time we were careful to avoid adding any more fuel to the fire. There was no need to keep the fire going after the pasta finished cooking and there was already a fair build-up of embers. In developing countries where rocket stoves are more common, I imagine people strive to get use out of every last bit of heat on the stove.

After draining the pasta, we put the pot back on the stove to warm up a little clean-up water over the embers. Since we weren’t planning to stay outside and keep an eye on the stove, my sweetie placed a broken piece of block in front of the combustion chamber so no sparks could escape.

All in all, it was a successful test of the rocket stove. The pallet sticks burned hot and easily. All of the fuel was free. The stove was relatively inexpensive. The soot was a pain to clean up, especially with limited water. I suppose one could just designate one pot for rocket stove cooking and only worry about cleaning the inside, leaving the soot to build-up on the outside. The only real cost to using the stove was in time. You cannot leave it unattended.



Now what?

As with the electricity portion of the experiment, some things are changing as a result of this experience.

We learned that we can deal with colder temperatures in the house than we previously thought. Once the furnace was turned back on, I re-programmed the thermostat. It has four time periods available. I now have it set at 50 degrees overnight. Half an hour before we have to get up in the morning, it is set to increase to 63 degrees. That way we will be able to get out of the nice warm bed a little more easily and deal with showers or sponge baths without turning blue.

Once my sweetie leaves for work, I’ve got it set to drop down to 60 degrees. I put on a fleece pullover and knit cap, and put on the fingerless gloves I made a couple of years ago. (Simply cut the fingertips off plain cotton work gloves. Wear them to keep warm when working on a computer.) When the sun is up, I open the window coverings and the house warms up a little. By early afternoon this week, it’s gotten as high as to 65 degrees. I have the thermostat programmed for 63 degrees in the early evening up until bedtime. Then it’s back down to 50 for the night.

So far this has been working. It’s chilly, but we’re doing okay with it. We keep layers on in the evening and snuggle under blankets to stay warm while reading or relaxing. I can’t guarantee I won’t ever go hit the override button to warm the house up by a degree or two, but it’s still a big drop from the 68-degree setting we used to think was the lowest we could go.

Washing up with cold water? Nope, not sticking with that one. I’m back to my hot sponge baths. We did replace the shower head, however, so that we are using less water – and that means less gas to heat it in the winter – when we shower.

When the sun and my schedule allows, I will continue to heat dishwashing water up in the solar oven occasionally. This is not a huge savings in gas because I don’t use all that much water to wash the dishes anyway.

I am much better about using the solar ovens consistently in the summer when it makes a huge difference in keeping the house cool. Cooking inside during the winter helps warm the house so that provides less incentive to use the solar ovens. We’ll save the propane camp stove and rocket stove for use during emergencies, although I may use them on the patio this summer just to keep the house cooler!

In the long run, I'd love to have a wood stove to use during the colder months. I'm just not sure whether the expense would be worth it in southern Arizona.