The Simple Answer to the Energy Crisis
Energy is in short supply. Oil prices are hitting new highs. Cities are battling air pollution. Sometimes it seems the right thing to do is to retreat to a quiet corner of the house and do nothing that uses energy.
Wrong! The answer is simple. Go RVing!
By curling up in that corner you are still using your air-conditioner to cool a couple thousand or more square feet of house (or your furnace for heat in winter). Your water heater is still keeping hot 50 or 100 gallons of water 24 hours a day, and your giant refrigerator is working fulltime also, not to mention the freezer and icemaker. And what about that state of the art stove and oven. You have to heat up the whole oven whether you warm up a burrito for lunch or cook a 25 pound turkey for Easter dinner.
But when you rouse the ‘ol horses under your RV hood and head on down the road, you quickly offset the dismal fuel mileage with many other environmentally friendly actions. And don’t feel you have to drive too far. There are probably two or three nifty RV resorts, or county and state park campgrounds near your home if you look for them. If it’s summer, you might head for a cooler place, the mountains or shore for instance, where you may not need to run the air-conditioner. But even if you do, consider how much less energy you use to cool the inside of an RV compared to a house. Same goes for heating—and an RV 6-gallon water heater compared to a home size. I don’t run the water heater all the time either, since it takes such a short time to heat up that 6 gallons, and the water stays comfortably warm in between times when it is turned on, I turn it on for showering and dish washing.
Look at the size of your RV refrigerator, stove, oven, and microwave. How much less energy does it take to run those smaller appliances than the home versions? How about water usage? I would bet that we all use less water showering, doing dishes, and washing Fido than we do at home. Especially so if when dry camping and trying not to fill up the holding tanks.
And I’m sure that when you are out camping, you would rather take a daytime walk or sit around a nice tidy nighttime campfire, enjoying the outdoors and the star-filled sky, than plopped in front of the big-screen TV in the family entertainment room at home.
If you’re a fulltimer you’ve already figured out these energy and conservation steps, and probably some creative ones of your own (let me know some of your special tricks and tips in the comments section below). But whether you’re a fulltimer or not, Go Rving! And feel good about yourself that you are reducing your carbon footprint, using less natural resources, polluting less, and you might even have a good time while you are working so hard to save the earth. Happy travels.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
[...] What’s not to like? Read more here. [...]
I agree that RVing/camping uses less energy than staying in your stick house. However, your premise that energy/oil is in short supply is not true. The price is high because of ‘oil speculators’, not because of supply.
“However, your premise that energy/oil is in short supply is not true. The price is high because of ‘oil speculators’, not because of supply.”
I guess it depends on how you look at it. Energy is in short supply worldwide because of growing populations, the rush by emerging markets like China, India, and others toward a market economy, and that the large oil producers, notably OPEC, control their production to keep prices high–in addition to the speculators (isn’t anybody in the oil business a “speculator?”) and oil companies that still receive billions of dollars of subsidies from the US government.
Thanks for the comment.
Bob, oil usage worldwide certainly has increased as a result of China and India becoming indusrtialized. And what you say about the oil producers, namely OPEC, having a vested interest in keeping prices high by manipulating supply is certainly true. However, the main reason for high oil prices is the COMMODITIES MARKET. (should have said that instead of ’speculators’).
I had to smile when I read that you have a SIX gallon water heater! I, too, had a 6 gallon on put in when I bought my new RV! Less is More! Works fine! My wife, however, would like to have a 20 gallon water heater in the trailer, but think how much water that would waste while “boondocking” with only 50 gallons in the fresh water tank!
The world is using more energy because of too many people.
“The world is using more energy because of too many people.”
Actually its not the number of people in the world, but rather the number of people who want to live like we wealthy Americans, with electric lights, automobiles, TV sets, and running water. If we could keep the masses living in caves and huts and eating seeds and roots we could save a whole lot of energy.
“If we could keep the masses living in caves and huts and eating seeds and roots we could save a whole lot of energy.” Nice.
Most of the world does live like that………
How many RVers turn off their home refrigerators and water heaters when they go away for a weekend or even 2 weeks. They are still running, wasting energy. True there is savings in a/c or heating, and the use of energy for lights and electrical appliances. But you can’t shut down the whole works just for the weekend. Fulltime boondocking is the best way for RVers to reduce their carbon footprint. And staying in RV parks with full hookups doesn’t count.
We use the sun, wind, and biodiesel to power the lance camper. Check it out @ http://www.brianbrawdy.com
John Burgess is a guy who definitely lives the Green RV lifestyle. His truck-mounted Lance camper is equipped wit six solar panels, a wind turbine, and rainwater collector enabling him to live off the grid most of the time. He tours the country and attends RV and outdoor shows as a Lance Camper and RVIA ambassador. Thanks, John, for doing what you do to bring green RVing in front of more eyes.
Just wondering where that beautiful campground in the picture is located!
The campground in the photo is Refugio State Beach, part of the California State Park system. It is located, along with El Capitan State Beach and Gaviota State Beach on the coastline in Santa Barbara County between Santa Barbara and where Route 1 turns inland toward Santa Maria just below Point Conception. Refugio is, in my opinion, the best of the three, being a stone’s throw off the beach, though El Capitan (three miles to the south) is more developed.