1 Day Experiment – Life without Electricity

(By Frugal Bachelor) – When I was in Ethiopia, the power went off every few days, all day long, from 8:30 AM – 8:30 PM. Not only in the little towns, but even in the national capital. This caused a lot of inconvenience. For example, when I had to confirm a flight (only in Ethiopia – yes you actually have to), I went to the airline office, but the power was off and the one single airline in the entire country (which has a population much higher than California and Texas combined) could tell me nothing about what flight I might be on and whether or not it would still be taking off as scheduled, so I had to come back the next day, and had to spend a day or so completely unaware of when I would be leaving a particular city (the horror! the horror!). Internet communication was of course impossible (an interesting thing I noticed was that most internet cafes were actually open on the days without electricity, leading me to believe that in Ethiopia there was not really very much to do). General businesses were open and generally candlelit if they didn’t have big windows; places like restaurants were always open, but drinks were warm because the refrigeration was down.

The hardest part was the last few hours from 6:00 PM until 8:30 PM after the sun had set. I spent that time inside my room, but with zero light, it was very difficult. The only thing I could do was lie in my bed.

I’ve made the decision that I want to see what it would be like to live in America without power. So, today, at 8:30 AM, I’m going to the circuit box and switching the power off to my apartment. It will stay off until 8:30 PM. I want to live like an Ethiopian. Since it is summer and the sun doesn’t set until 9:00 PM, it won’t be as tough as it was in Ethiopia – I will have to repeat the experiment in the winter. I have a few errands to run today, but I will be home most of the day.

Not sure completely what I expect to learn from this experiment. Maybe I can disconnect electricity from my apartment totally and save a few dollars per month? One thing I want to see is if my lifestyle has become so supersized that I cannot function without power. If nothing else my power bill for this month should be about 1/30’th lower. I will post my key learnings after the power comes back on at 8:30 PM!