Simple living = green living

Pat Iwasaki lives with her husband and four children in a beautiful four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home in Grayslake.

Guess what their monthly ComEd bill is?

Roughly $40.

In the summer, it's in the $30 range.

A miscalculation, you say?

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No, it's not. Iwasaki and her family have embraced a simple and eco-friendly lifestyle that limits their energy use. Not only does it save them money, it actually earned them some -- namely, the $1,000 first prize in the Prairie Crossing subdivision's Energy Conservation Contest.

What's striking about the Iwasakis is that they're not your stereotypical tree-huggers. They don't drive hybrids, grow all their food, dress like hippies or preach about saving the whales.

Rather, it's the little things they do that add up to a lot of Earth friendliness every day.

"I don't know much about (the environment)," says Pat, who grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. "I just like to keep my life simple so I can have control over my life."

The Iwasakis lived in Japan for six years and then Italy for two years before moving to Grayslake in 2002. They adopted certain cultural behaviors from those countries -- such as hanging the laundry to dry or reusing wrapping paper -- that are unusual in America.

"They think it's normal to save energy in those countries," said Pat, whose husband, Kazu, is Japanese. The two met while Pat was working as a Japanese translator.

"When we moved here from Japan and my daughter went to a birthday party, she saw the kids tearing open the wrapping paper and she thought, 'Ah!'" Pat laughed.

Amy Iwasaki, 11, says she still falls back on that save-the-paper habit during her birthday parties.

"I'm opening the present and trying not to rip the paper, and everyone's like, 'Hurry up!' " she said.

Some of the Iwasaki family's eco-friendly ideas are:

bull; Turn off the computer's power every night.

bull; Don't buy a lot of unnecessary stuff. The Iwasakis don't have TVs in every room, shop at stores like Costco or amass things like big DVD collections.

bull; Sign up for the ComEd program that charges you based on the time of day you use your energy. Energy used at night costs less, so that's when Pat runs the dishwasher or does laundry.

bull; Let clothes air dry on drying racks or on an outdoor clothes lines. Pat admits to occasionally using the dryer, but only in a pinch.

bull; Replace all incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

bull; Eat out less and cook at home using home-grown vegetables. Certain crops, like onions and potatoes, can be stockpiled or frozen so they last through the winter.

bull; Mow the lawn with a push mower.

"It takes a lot longer," Pat admits, "but it's good exercise. You can hear the birds chirping while you do it. And if feels so good to do something by yourself rather than using some big, noisy thing that generates pollution."

bull; Set the thermostat at 60 degrees, and in the summer, avoid using the air conditioner.

In winter, the Iwasakis wear extra layers or turn on the gas fireplace. The children, ages 11 to 17, come and sit in front of it while they talk on the phone or do their homework. They have some drafty windows, but rather than turn up the heat, they put plastic over the windows.

"Once your body gets use to 60 degrees, you don't even think about it," Pat said. "But when we're having friends over, we turn up the heat."

On summer nights, they open all the windows to cool down the house. Only during an extended heat wave will they turn on the air conditioning.

Saving money is only a side benefit to all this, Pat says. The main reason she chooses this eco-friendly and non-materialistic lifestyle is that it reduces her stress. A humble and soft-spoken woman, Pat lives her life consciously and doesn't concern herself with "what everyone else is doing."

"I'd rather live my life slowly," she said. "Life is so frantic these days. People want more and more things that they don't have time to use. I just don't operate that way."

The teenagers in the Iwasaki house sometimes resent this approach. Pat says she often finds herself turning off lights that they've left on, or yelling at them not to take such long, hot showers.

"They say, 'Why do we always have to think about the environment?'" Pat said. "I don't really try to argue with them. I think, it'll come back to them when they grow up."

The Prairie Crossing subdivision, where the Iwasakis live, is renowned for its conservation efforts and elementary school, which heavily emphasizes environmental education and things like trash-free lunches. That's not why the Iwasakis moved there, though. They just liked the house.

"We really don't set out to be eco-conscious," Pat said. "But when everyone around you is living that way, it starts to feel normal."