From the Editor’s Desk Finding Better Balance

Practical steps to help you take greater control of your energy and your life.

I’m honored to be the editor of the first-ever edition of The Efficient Home. While knocking out our first feature article on finding a Zen place, I realized I needed to take my own advice. Truth be told, my home could have more balance. My life could have more balance—but I guess that’s why we’re all here.

We began creating the pages you are about to experience with one very pointed mindset: Let’s get people from a good place to a better place. Eventually it evolved into the shorter, “Let’s get people from good to better.” It fit the mindset of Delmarva Power as a whole too. You don’t have to be perfect. You can and should be grateful for where you are, and that thankful heart can be the launchpad for discovering new ways, both small and not-so-small, that get you the balance that always leads to better.

The road to a peaceful life is less expressway and more country road. And there is more than one way to get there. What works for me might not work for you. And that’s OK.

Because, after all, balance is more journey than destination. It’s a lifestyle, just like energy efficiency is a lifestyle. One that uses less energy, yes. But it’s so much more than that, too. It saves you money doing everything you love at home. It makes rising costs a bit more manageable. It provides much-needed relief to a warming planet. And it brings people together. (What else unites penny pinchers, technophiles, and tree huggers so harmoniously?)

Our goal is to give you a sly smile as you breeze through this little magazine. We want you to enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. The writers, editors and designers wanted to put a little bit of better on every page. I think they’ve done a fantastic job, and I am thankful for all of their hard work.

I hope you’ll find inspiration in these pages to seek out opportunities here and there in your own home to make the changes that make sense to you and how you live. And, I hope these changes get you closer to better in your life and bring you moments of peace in our wonderful, beautiful, continually changing world.

Bryan Crawford

Manager, Energy Efficiency Programs

Delmarva Power