Were You Raised In A Barn?

August 11, 2022

The last few weeks, as the temperature outside rose, I found the doors to my house wide open. Sweating from the rising heat, with the air conditioner working, I rushed to shut the doors. I was stunned to find someone standing or sitting near the door. In exasperation and persperation, I voiced several times the same question, “Were you raised in a barn?” to those sitting out on my balcony or my porch. Getting only stares and stunned expressions and receiving no answer from the guilty, I realized I was the only one who had ever been in a barn, much less raised in one.

I am certain my Dad is laughing right now. I have had the privilege of renting a 1891 home with 15-foot ceilings and a iron-rod fence. It is difficult to conserve, or reduce the energy used, especially when you work from home. The lighting, the power for computers, the big old window in the attic can challenge any conservation goals. I have dimmers, and timers, and more!

SDG&E has gone out of its way to annually alert me that this home consumes more energy than the neighbors. I have even been sent a special letter urging my reduction of energy. Not being the owner, it is difficult to make the changes to a Mills Act home and surprisingly, putting on solar panels would cost the owner. But, would the renter benefit from the solar panel roof?

The bigger question for my roommate or guests remains. “Where did you grow up that you have no sense to keep the door shut after you go through it?” The cost of electricity to heat or keep a home cool is practically “through the roof” in San Diego. “Are you daft?”

If these stunned guests and roommates dared answer my question, what would their answer be? Use the pop out to either vote for one of the answers or provide one of your own.

With the cost of electricity rising seemingly every quarter in San Diego, and the requests that we conserve or turn off our electricty during the latter part of the day, PLEASE, if you are the one who leaves the door open when you walk through it, next time, please shut the door and secure it.

The lives you save may be your own. The last two heat waves on each coast led to deaths from the excessive heat. Washington State after the heat wave of 2021 reported 95 people died from that heat wave. Oregon reported 72. The majority of people died from dehydration or because they did not have working air conditioning available.

Heat was a contributing factor in 1,577 U.S. deaths in 2021, according to provisional data. That’s a 56% jump from 1,012 in 2018. Whether you believe politically in climate change, check out the demise of the ice at both poles and you tell me the earth is not warming with a straight face.

Please consider that energy is increasingly expensive and inflation continues to impact what people earn. When you leave a door open while your appliances are working to maintain the cool, you are attacking the comfort and savings of your family. Stop carelessly taking from those you live with who pay that bill. Do you still wonder why they do not want to offer dessert?

The baseline number SDGE provides its customers is built in mystery. I have yet to determine how SDG&E calculates the number. My use sadly blows through that inital number and because I am in the house nearly 24/7, electrical use is more than triple of that number. Understand that I use the appliances usually after 11pm to reduce the costs. Since, I often open my home to people I know who have found themselves homeless or needing shelter, they will usually ask to use a shower and the laundry. That has definitely been impactful on my bill from SDG&E. While I restrict visitors from using the shower more than 8 minutes, it is much harder to convince people to keep doors shut to keep in the cool or to turn off lights.

Comment: If you live in the beautiful Northwest, realize that if dams are shut down, your energy bill will not necessarily change since renewable energy may be less expensive. Hydroelectric energy has been cheap and wonderful for the Pacific Northwest. Climate change is challenging the balance that was created between managing the fish population and our energy needs. Conservation, even more conservation is necessary.

So, please, make sure you shut the door when you leave and keep the cool inside in Summer, and the heat inside in winter. When the air conditioner is off or the heater is off, open up the doors and let fresh air in – if you leave where there is fresh air.

Its not just a good idea. It makes you a nice person. Your mother will be proud, or would be if she learned you shut the door.

An Important Side Note for San Diegans:
My last two water bills from the City of San Diego (billed every two months) were $600 and $545. (I have allow 4 people who are currently without an address of their own to visit, wash their clothes, and take a shower at my home several times a week.) I ask them to limit their showers to 8 minutes. They must fill the washer completely before it performs and leave it on cold. I have even asked them to consider hanging their laundry rather than use the dryer.

While solar users generate power that decreases their bills, they (homeowners with installed solar panels) still rely on the state’s electric grid for much of their power consumption — without paying for its fixed costs like others (energy users) do.

UC Berkeley assistant professor and study co-author Meredith Fowlie in a study by the energy institute at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School with the nonprofit think tank Next 10 discussing the strategies used by older, wealthier Californians.

The study analyzed the rates of the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities and found that Southern California Edison charged 45% more than the national average, while San Diego Gas & Electric charged double.

My electricity bills have lately been well over $400 each month. I do not have solar on my roof because it is not owned by me. I work at home using power for air conditioning and my computers. I do not know what more I can do to reduce my use except to force myself to sleep earlier in the evening which is in conflict with me using the dishwasher, and washer after midnight.

Energy companies, like SDG&E, as people put solar on their roofs, find fewer customers to spread the necessary fixed costs of developing energy sources, and developing the grid they maintain. Wealthier and older Californians are reducing their usage of other energy sources on the electrical grid, through their implementation of solar. They are decreasing their utility bills as they adopt cost-efficient alternatives like the state’s Net Energy Metering solar program. Yet, the grid must be upgraded in the next 20 years. Those costs are currently expected to be borne by only those who are not solar providers.

Usage of the grid for electricity is only slightly less for the poor than the wealthy in California. What is causing large increases in bills for renters and other lower income customers are the soaring costs of natural gas, other sources of energy, with legitimate and fixed costs making up 70% of the utilities’ expenses. Those providing solar power to the utilities currently avoid most of these variable and fixed costs. These costs will continue to rise on a shrinking customer base composed mostly of low- and middle-income renters who continue to use SDG&E electricity as their main energy source.

The increase in electrical costs in San Diego have not quite doubled in the last two years. Those who rent and those who have not selected solar should expect to cover increasing hard costs as a new electrical grid is in development. Those who earn less are paying exponentially more while those who have solar (meaning home owners) are able to opt out of the process by going solar. (We can leave the discussion of costs or replacing those solar panels in 20 years for another day). This is not a sustainable strategy. San Diegans who are customers of SDG&E now pay double the national average for electricity.

A review of my bill from two years ago and today showed that the “on peak” rate (the highest I am charged) was $0.26/kWh in September 2020. The cost today? $0.46 for July 2022. When I consulted the calculator, that is a 63% increase. That is only one section of my bill that increased. I appreciate that there is a new power grid that needs to be built. Yet, it seems unfair that the majority of that build out is anticipated to be paid by those who rent in the San Diego area, rather than shared by all of the people of San Diego, without consideration of their contribution of the grid.

I would willingly introduce mobile solar into my utility life, to reduce the cost of the energy I use. But, until there are temporary options for renters to engage, we will continue to be seriously impacted by the cost of energy. I will hope that changes can be made and solar options made available for renters like me. Until then, I will regularly check to make sure the windows and doors are sealed, make an effort to reduce my usage, as the cost/kWh continues to soar.

I will strive to keep the very precious cool air inside to the best of my abilities on hot days like this one. I know I will overreact when I see the door left open as the cool air escapes. I will stop asking whether the guilty were raised in a barn. They were not. They would have kept the door closed. I wouldn’t want to slander those of us who were raised in a barn.

Rather, I will simply repeat, “Please, for the love of God, shut the door!”