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Breeze helps save: Resident's wind turbine, lifestyle cut energy costs(Cumberland Times-News (Cumberland, Md.) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 20--The static marquee sign of a LaVale church encourages the faithful to worry not about what one will live on but will live for. Try telling that to Karen Burton. In tough economic times, the Cash Valley Road resident is doing all she can to lessen her carbon footprint and decrease the cost of living at the same time. Her daughter and next-door neighbor, Leslie Aldridge, is following her lead. Burton has $13,500 invested in a residential wind turbine, which is installed a few dozen feet from her back porch. Her 1996 Nissan sedan gets 35 miles to the gallon -- and she's thinking of buying a low-cc scooter. The retired Sears worker dries her laundry on an outdoor clothesline, has energy-efficient CFL bulbs installed in her home and buys groceries in bulk from Costco. Burton also collects her bath water, saving it for her flower garden instead of letting it go down the drain. And she thinks everyone's going to similar lengths to save money and protect the environment. "I thought they were," Burton said in an interview Wednesday. "Why wouldn't ya? People, when they're tired of being kicked down, I guess they'll do something. I guess we're not hurtin' enough yet." Burton's Skystream 3.7 wind turbine, purchased from Southwest Windpower in Flagstaff, Ariz., has lowered her monthly electricity costs by about $45 -- or, at least, she thinks it has. She's concerned her Allegheny Power meter isn't working correctly, but the utility company has told her it's working fine and, if it has slowed, the benefit would be hers. Burton said she didn't have to receive any permits from Allegany County government. Neighbors have been relatively congenial, she said. She brushed aside any concerns of noise. "It sounds like a jet," Aldridge said. "You get used to it." Quips Burton, "If I've got to listen to (neighbors') dogs and kids, they can listen to my windmill." Southwest literature indicates the Skystream is "as quiet as the trees blowing in the wind." Aldridge and her husband are following her mother's footsteps. He works at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in Rocket Center, W.Va., and takes turns carpooling with colleagues. On Wednesday, it was his turn to drive. Aldridge hears concerns from area residents on almost a daily basis at her job at Ponderosa in LaVale. Times are tight, she said, and while the restaurant business is doing well enough -- people have to eat, after all -- customers' stories are getting more difficult to bear. "We all feel like we're nailed to the wall," she said. Aldridge recounted a story of a female customer, about 60 years old, who visited the restaurant on a recent Sunday, just two days after payday. A frequent patron, the woman admitted to Aldridge she didn't have enough money to travel to work. "We got into our pockets and got $10 each. We gave her $50," Aldridge said. "That's what it's coming down to. Things have slowed down." Yet, efforts of those of Burton and Aldridge are helping to stem the setbacks a recession might cause. "You gotta do something," Burton said. "That's all there is to it." Kevin Spradlin can be reached at [email protected]. To see more of the Cumberland Times News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.times-news.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, Cumberland Times News, Md. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |