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December 5, 2005
Find more energy or conserve what we have?
The biggest debates in the new lately are "Where are we going to get our energy from in the up coming century?" and "How long is oil going to last?" While we look for new and renewable energy source we should as a nation focus more on conservation. The United States alone uses 24 percent of all the worlds’ energy according to (www.energyguide.com as of 1998). That is almost a quarter of the world’s energy for about 8 percent of the world’s population. As prices of fossil fuels and energy consumption rise should be changing out our out of date incandescent light bulbs for longer lasting, energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. As home owner we should change our appliances to energy star ones. Most people don't do this because they think only about the purchase price and in doing so they are not being smart shoppers. Switching light bulbs alone can be a noticeable difference in you electric bill, speaking from personal experience, and the light will last you up to 5 year. Well worth the 3 dollar per light price tag when you consider that it takes ten incandescent light bulbs to last as long as a compact fluorescent bulb. As for energy star appliances the same goes for them in the sense that a smart shopper wanting to save the most money should pay for the extra cost of the purchase. If you were to replace your thermostat with and energy star one you could save a hundred dollars a year. Add that to having all energy star appliances and new light bulbs. It could save you thousands while you lived in you home. There are also other incentives to having an energy smart home. If it is energy saving enough you could be considered an energy star home and get tax deductions for it. These are ideas that should be used by the general public. I believe once the general pubic truly understand how much they can save in their pockets then they will change the way they use energy at home. The question is will the simple workings of economics work its way towards that point fast enough? It's amazing how little a lot of people know about Energy star and how it can help them. From personal experience again, my parents are building a house in the process of this I have been urging my parents to make their new home energy star quality. My mother didn't know what energy star was nor had she ever seen a compact incandescent light bulb, or at least never bothered to look at them thinking that the light would be to "unnatural." I had to plug in one of mine to show it to her and to show how natural the light was. People need to become more informed on their options for conservation or energy and money.
Posted by at December 5, 2005 12:07 PM | 6. Energy, Economics, and Policy