Many Nashville condo owners, affected by the recent economy and facing possible Home Owner Association dues increase in the new year, may feel helpless to turn the tide of rising expenses. In fact, that's not so.
The dues ‘tide' is composed of many ‘droplets'. Together they swell to form cumulative HOA expenses - fees like building insurance, common area electricity, landscaping, pet services, window cleaning, water and more.
Jeff Barry, filmmaker and host of the Mayor's Green Ribbon Council helps us to see in his movie, Kilowatt Ours, just how much control we individuals have over the costs of our community - energy costs in particular. In an event held at Werthan Lofts last October, Mayor Karl Dean invited Werthan Lofts homeowners to participate in a unique experiment to lower consumption and help Nashville become the Greenest City in the Southeast. He urged a community-wide experiment in conservation.
They are starting with WATER. Many condo residents have you said to themselves, "Who cares if I waste water? I don't pay for it." Oh, but they do pay for it! In many communities water is the 3rd highest expense of the HOA.
If each individual was to cut consumption by only a small amount, the cumulative impact of over an entire community of households would have a huge effect on the bottom line.
There are also hidden water expenses. The Nashville sewer system actually USES electricity to generate water - 10 watts of power for every ‘watt' of water delivered. What's a watt of water? Got me. But it's clear that saving one might be a good thing. And not just for the environment - for our bank accounts, too.
Learn more about energy savings at kilowattours.org.
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