Today was the first day  of the experiment and it was a perfect day to be a solar panel. There was not a single cloud anywhere in D.C. and the climate was just right. My alarm from my cell phone woke me up but since it had enough battery I did not need to charge it and start spending energy right away. I opened the window shades and begin charging for the day.  I grabbed my keys and went to the door and once it was open it hit me. A million watts of florescent hallway lights that have been on all night because of my dorms outdated electrical system. I move quickly to the bathroom to avoid using two much of this light but then I slow down because I realized it would be impossible to accurately measure how much electricity I am using relative the entire building and where I was standing. The best I can do is try to estimate my daily totals. I brush my teeth using cold water and toothpaste because hot water is now a luxury I will need to plan accordingly to use.

                I headed back to my room and got dressed, and walk down four flights in Letts hall to go to class which is in a windowless room where my powers were limited. After class I decided to get some breakfast so I went to the usual line where hot food is served in the dining room. I think nothing of it until I saw the actual food right in front of me and I hesitated and said to myself, wait I don't know how much energy went into any of this. I saw mostly eggs and omelets but there was sausage, bacon, home fries, pancakes and French toast as well. I sensed the silent rage of the impatient and voracious college students behind me so I quickly picked what I thought was the most energy efficient food, the home fries,  and moved on. I chose some cereal and soy milk as well as some locally grown strawberries and sat by a window and ate.

                 The dining room selects mostly local fruits and vegetables which is defined as being within forty five minutes away by car or truck. the typical car runs on a 12 volt battery and depending on how many amperes or units of electrical resistance are at play use a certain number of watts. So to the best of my estimates A locally grown raw vegan meal will cost me about an hour's worth of sunshine. A hot vegan meal will probably be about an hour and a half. A vegetarian meal that includes cheese and eggs will most likely use two hours and non local and carnivorous will be three hours and up. Everything was going fine until I finished my breakfast and realized I was starving. I toasted an English muffin and used the only available spread, butter( because eating a dry English muffin only gets you a short stay in the nearest hospitals dehydration ward). I take note of this and understand that that little stunt I just pulled cost me an extra hour of sun power.

                Two of my three classes were inside in windowless rooms, but my sustainable earth teacher, after a long look at the quad, agreed to our request to have class outside. I was overjoyed, I had not had class outside for the longest time and it benefited my experiment greatly. An hour using no light bulbs or air-conditioning and a bonus hour in the sun to charge as well as enjoy the aesthetic beauty of the quad. it felt really good healthy even. After that class I grabbed a vegan lunch to conserve power and went to go for a bike ride. I pledged to go on a thirty minute bike ride each day to enjoy the outdoors and reflect on the experiment. During this ride I felt as if even if I did not have control of all the energy around me I had enough of a say to feel the impact I was making not so much in the environment but to my own personal existence.    In total today I was gaining energy for five hours and my bike ride gave me a bonus of an hour but I ate three and charged my computer which I count as an hour. In addition I estimate that I used three to four hours of lighting and air conditioning so I almost broke even in my eyes and that is what I consider a successful day.