Rhetoric 3371 Spring 2007

Our society is highly dependent on electricity. We have numerous appliances that require electricity and without it, there would be a great strain our economy. Electricity is a major part of my every day life. I use it for lighting my house and powering my laptop and watching TV. I can't imagine ever having to go without it. Everything from the way in which houses are built and the appliances that we use require electricity. For instance, in my house, without electricity in my bathroom, I'm not sure how I would be able to take a shower because there aren't any windows in it. In order to conserve electricity, all of the light bulbs in my house are flourescent light bulbs. After watching The End of Suburbia, I'm glad that I'm able to do something that will conserve energy and help the environment.

I agree with Natalya and that so many appliances in our households use electricity. I can’t seem to think of any other form of powering a tool without either electricity or gas. After gas prices went up, I switched over many of my appliances to electric (i.e. my weed-wacker, pressure washer, spray-painter, leaf blower, etc.). It’s nice to think that by switching to electric, I’m saving on money and energy and maybe so, but there is a down-side to electric powered equipment. Most of them cannot put forth as much power as gasoline motors. This seems to be the case with almost every gasoline-replaced electric motor, even with cars. But I think in general, I do a pretty good job of turning appliances and lights off when I’m not using them. Most of the bulbs in my house are fluorescent as well (except for the light fixtures which aren’t compatible with them such as dimmers and halogens). But I would not be able to go very long without electricity. Batteries are nice but are temporary, and I find myself charging more often then going portable these days for lack of electric outlets in University buildings (I personally think the U doesn’t like us using there electricity, hence they don’t provide us with outlets).

After our discussion about electricity and watching Kilowatt Ours, I really started to think about electricity and how much I use in a totally different way. Before I would leave lights on and electronics plugged in and now I am constantly turning off lights and unplugging electronics and appliances that I am not using. Just waking up and getting ready in the morning, for me, requires a lot of energy use. I need an alarm to wake up or else I would be late. I need a shower to also wake me up and get clean. I need lights and electricity to dry my hair and put on my makeup or else I would look worse then I normally do. I need a refrigerator for my milk to keep cold for my cereal in the morning and I also need electricity for my T.V. so I can watch the news in the morning. We are such a dependent society on electricity and I guess we really don't see how dependent we are until the electricity goes out or we blow a fuse. It is very sad but I almost feel helpless and lost when the electricity does go out. But without all of the technologies and uses/needs for electricity, could we as a society ever go back to living without it? Could many people function daily without electricity? In my opinion, not many people would or could live life without electricity.

Without electricity, I think that we would have very limited lives because we use electricity for EVERYTHING. Today I paid attention to every time I used electricity and I found that I use it more then I thought. Without electricity, my food wouldn’t stay cold in a refrigerator, it couldn’t be warmed in an oven; my study room at night couldn’t be lit by a light bulb, I couldn’t watch TV or listen to the radio. I think that if electricity went out today, everyone would go crazy because we are so accustomed to using it all the time. Yet, if we didn’t have it/and never used it I think that we could survive, after all, that’s the way the world was long ago. I learned that I am very reliant on electricity, but that is the way I like it. I think that most people agree with me that iut makes life easier, more comfortable, and more efficient. But I think that it is also useful in living a happy and healthy life. For example, you wouldn’t have to cut down trees every winter to warm your house (a risk of getting hurt), you wouldn’t have to entertain your kids for 5 hours every night (now its done with the TV), and doctors wouldn’t have to perform operations guessing how the patient is doing (machines that tell heart rate, etc.) when they are unconscious. Life would certainly be different without electricity.

My electricity use on a daily business consists of: riding the bus to school, lighting in classrooms and while studying, listening to my ipod, having my refrigerator plugged in typing these assignments on the computer, cooking food in the microwave, heating my house at a comfortable temperature, watching television occasionally, listening to music on my stereo, and the list goes on and on. When I stopped and thought about it, my life is nearly completely dependent on electricity. However, I think if I was forced to I could get by without using much. For example, I could write by candle light, heat my house by fire, write on paper and not use a computer, etc. Although I could do these things, I am comfortable with my current state and a transition would be difficult. The things I could do without are things like my ipod and listening to music, but I don’t think I could get rid of my refrigerator, except occasionally in the winter. My life is more dependent on electricity than I originally thought.

I have also realized how much I use electricity on a daily basis. Personally, I do not think I could function without it! I use it in almost everything I do. I use it when I shower everyday, talk on my phone, even run the dishwasher. I am now more conscious of my excessive use, and I find the need to conserve this energy. Some minor things I can do to decrease my usage is turning down the heat in the winter, make sure my dishwasher is completely full before running it, and wash my clothes in cold or warm water. I am also more conscious of leaving lights on. Lately I have been catching myself leaving the light when I am not even in the room. This is totally wasting electricity.

I know for a fact that I would not be able to live the way I do without electricity. I try to not use electricity too much during the week. I turn minimal lights on during the day and open the blinds to my windows. I shut down my laptop and turn off my t.v. when I’m not using either. On the other hand, sometimes I have the lights on, the t.v. on and I’m using my laptop. It depends on what I’m doing; sometimes I use a lot of energy and sometimes I conserve a lot. On the weekends I am horrible at conserving energy. I have the stereo on a lot and have neon lights on when people come over. The t.v. is usually on also. Overall I try to conserve like turning stuff off when I leave a room, but sometimes its hard not to enjoy all the technology that requires electricity usage.

Kilowatt Ours really made me pay attention to my electricity use. As much as we feel that we depend on electricity, I think it is important to keep in mind that it really was not that long ago that people got by just fine without it. Since watching the documentary I have made at attempt to cut back. I still use it in the mornings when I turn on the bathroom light to take a shower, the kitchen light to have breakfast, take my milk out of the fridge which uses electricity to keep it cool, go to school where all my class rooms are lit, eat dinner which generally requires using the stove or oven, and in the evening using lights to read and study.

Having thought about electricity a lot the last few days I have come up with some ideas where in total, I could potentially save a lot of power. If I shower at night, I can cut back on my use of a blow drier, I unplugged my mini fridge in my room and set my drinks in the closet in the attic (its not insulated and very cold up there!), i watch tv maybe 2 hours a week, and a lot of the food I eat does not require much energy to cook- cereal in the morning, sandwhich for lunch so I only need to cook dinner. It's pretty simple what you can do when you actually stop and think about it. Maybe all we have to do is change our minds to make the difference, how much energy could we save if we treated electricity as a privledge or a luxury instead of a right?

Watching the documentary Kilowatt Ours has made me think and analyze my daily use of electricity a lot these past few days. In two of my other classes we have also been talking a lot of global warming and the increasing CO2 emmisions in the US and the rest of the world. And majority of those emissions are due to electricity cosumption and misuse by people. I tend to be a optimist just like barry, and think that if all of us made some small changes we can turn this global warming thing around. Here are the few things i have changed in my house to reduce my consumption of electricity: when i am doing my HW i tend to use the ceiling lights which has four bulbs, but after watching the documentary, i turn the ceiling lights off and turn on a small lamp on my desk instead. Although i don't have the compact flourescent light bulbs yet i plan to get them this weekend. I shared the documentary with dad and we have decided that instead of me going to my room and studying i will do my readings in the living room. so that way we will cut back on even more electricity. I have also lowered down the temperature in our apartment to 70. I turn off lights and remember to unplug my cell phone charger from the wall so it doesn't suck any more energy.
I am also planning to show this DVD to my apartment manager so that she can install the flourescent light bulbs in the apartments and save more money and reduce emmisions at the same time.
If a coutry as technologically advanced as ours is so far behind in my opinion on educating its people on reducing their electicity consumption and therefore lowering CO2 emmisions, then think of all the people elsewhere in the developing countries where the demand for energy is even higher. Moreover, countries like China and India have abundance of coal and they are some of the biggest energy consuming countries. what will happen if contries like China and India start using coal as one of the sources of energy?

For me, its mainly computer, fan, and lights. The computer I have on almost all the time (its always doing something or other). Fan usage depends on how warm I'm feeling; I like low temperature, but dislike air blowing across me too much, so I avoid using it a lot. And lights... Having the light on increases the temperature a lot, so I avoid using any. The light on my computer is typically enough for anything I do... for that matter, the light on my watch would be enough to find my way around a pitch-black room, so it's not like it is all that necessary. Oh yeah, I also use the microwave for popcorn and stuff.
I guess my main usage of energy is just my electronics.

In any case, I do try to avoid using excess energy, but there's always more that can be avoided somehow or other.

Well, let’s see. When I wake up in the morning, my alarm clock is on and plugged into the wall 24/7. Although, I don’t even know why I have it plugged in, I don’t even use it for an alarm; I use my cell phone. My cell phone is being charged over night and I leave the charger plugged into the wall. I have the refrigerator and microwave on and plugged in 24/7. My television is always plugged in. I have my heater on 24/7 only because I can’t turn it off but I can turn it down and I keep it on low, except for those occasions when I feel colder than some other nights. I’m never home during the day so when I come home, I always have to turn on the lights. When I do come home, the first thing I do is turn on the hallway light, then the living room light, then the television and then the computer. I would say that I do need electricity in my life. I love to listen to music so I would need some kind of electricity to power and run my radio, computer, or MP3 player. It’s strange though. I have been thinking and I know that when I am home here in the cities, I will turn on the lights or an appliance because it is so easy to do and maybe too easy and automatic that you would just turn the lights on. But when I am out camping, I don’t need electricity. I guess it’s because you are always outside and it’s lit with sunlight. But when it is dark, all we need is the campfire and a little flashlight. Although, I believe that if we didn’t have a flashlight, we would have a torch but things can get a little messy with a torch in your tent. I don’t need running water for drinking, showering or flushing bathrooms. I can live by pumping my water out of the well. I can jump into the river or lake for a swim. It seems funny how life is so different when you are living here in the cities and out in the woods. Which would you prefer?

I think everyone has listed the main electricity uses. Small appliances: alarm clocks, cell phone chargers, lamps, etc. Large appliance: refrigerators, space heaters (for us living in run down college houses), TVs, etc. Computers fall somewhere in the middle there. Then there is the consistent use of electricity from lights. As many have stated, I could live without it, but it's be very difficult since we've built our lives around electricity. It's obviously (more or less) a necessity of the way we live now.

There are many ways to conserve energy but living in a comfortable house with moderate income, most people don't think of the economic benefits. Economic benefits effect them - they save money, but few people realize any environmental or positive side effects that energy conservation can have.

After watching Killowat Ours I really had to evaluate my use of electricity. Some things are continually running in my room, including my computer, a fan, and at least one light. And frankly, I am hardly ever in my room except when I am sleeping! I live in my sorority house, and last semester our electricity bills skyrocketed. The house is never shut down for the night. All of the lights in the dining room and living rooms are continually on. We have jacked up our heat and then blast the air in the summer when it’s hot. I use a blow dryer, curling iron, coffee maker, and many other electrical items daily. And that is just at home! It would take another page to describe what electricity I benefit from when I leave my home.

Just like everybody else, electricity is a big part of my daily life. Even right now I'm using electricity to be on the computer, and I'm about to go eat some food that had been kept in the fridge, and a bagel that was toasted in the toaster, etc. I try to be concious of my electricity use by not having too many lights on at night, by using flourescent bulbs and by not having too many electric using products, but it is true that our daily lives have become dependant on electricity. I guess we need to start tapping into some renewable options pretty soon, otherwise the situation will just get worse and worse.

Just looking around at the electricity usage in the room i am in astounds me. I am sitting in a computer lab where there are approximately 30 computers, all on, some being used some not. I can only imagine how much energy this is consuming. Along with the computers, each and every light is turned on in this building. Each of these electronic devices are necessary to the department though. It would be very difficult to reduce the amount of energy consumed. Lights in classrooms have motion detectors so that they turn off when there is no activity. Screen savers are turned on and hibernation occurs on inactive computers as well. these are all things that have been used to conserve energy.

Yesterday I was very conscientious about my energy consumption. I started the day with my usual hot water shower that uses electricity to heat the water and electricity to pump the water through the nozzle onto my body. I then turned on my bedroom and closet light to start. This was just the start of my day and I already had consumed a lot of electricity. It got me thinking about all the uses of electricity that go to waste. The major wasted use that stood out to me all day long was how many lights are always on. Exit signs, street lights, vending machines, light up signs. I mean everything is eluminated and we take it for granted. I really think that we could conserve this energy and it would have a huge impact on the total energy we consume. It is absolutely amazing how much energy is used for no good reason. After my day of being conscientious I am starting to favor government imposed sanctions on energy use.

Impossible ! that is how the world could be without the power supply today. Since last lecture, I paid attention on my personal usage of electricity, and just to name a few things: the lights, elevators, heater, computer, TV, washer-dryer, microwave, electric outlets for charging, hair dryer etc. were just the basic essentials I couldn't have done without. Life was different in the early ages when there was not such great use of electricity, people were accoustomed with such lives because the lifestyle was also accordingly maintained. With the lifestyle of today, I cannnot imagine cutting of very basic essentials I mentioned above. It is not possible to use stairs to reach the 10th floor everyday, nor is it convinent to use stove everytime to warm up the leftovers. It is true that we are dependent on electricity. Most of us here have not experienced power cut-off being here in the US. Countries like India and China where the use of electricity is the maximum, experience frequent power cut-offs. I personally have experienced the situation and it is hard to describe its effects. It is true that it would be hard for all of us to get away from our reliability towards electricity. This is just how life has to move on, unless the government comes out with different law for the limited usage of electricity.

After watching “kilowatt Ours” I started thinking about my energy use and took notice of when and how I used electricity. I don’t think I use as many lights as a lot of people, because I just don’t like a lot of unnatural light. But I am still guilty of using more than I probably should/need to. In my daily life I use the computer a lot, which of course uses electricity. I have a plug-in alarm clock (and so does my fiancée on his side), and I watch a lot of TV and movies. When it is sunny I prefer to use natural light, but when it gets dark I turn on the lights when I go into a room.

It is almost an unconscious reaction to reach up and turn on the light switch when entering a dark room. The power went out a few months ago and even though I knew the lights wouldn’t work, every time I walked into another room I automatically turned on the light (and nothing happened!) It was a weird feeling not to be able to turn on a light whenever I wanted. And this is the problem, we just take it for granted and don’t realize where it comes from. It’s kind of like people who get into deep credit card debt; at first it doesn’t make a difference if you keep spending and using your credit card, but then after a while you get into trouble and then you have all kinds of problems.

WARNING! ARMCHAIR PHILOSOPHY AHEAD!

I think that beyond Heather's basic expectation that the lights will turn on when she flips the switch, meaning, switch whenever you want may spring from a more basic need of humans to have control over the environment. There is a primal fear of the dark, and of what may be lurking in the shadows, that springs from our time as prey for wild animals.

We're drawn to light as a source of comfort and energy. It's been shown that the vitamin D we get from sunlight is healthy, and lack of light can lead to symptoms of depression.

Look at it this way: we invented fire and the light bulb, two pretty important developments in human history, and both serve as sources of light. Cheesy as it sounds, one could argue that all technological innovation is the result of wanting to "shed light" on the mysteries of our universe. We're desperate not to be in the dark.

Oh, and I'm trying to get better about turning of electrical appliances when I'm not using them.

I do my best to conserve electricity, but of course I could not live without it.
I turn off every appliance and light when I am not using them.
But I do need the refrigerator and microwave for food and the television, computer, and DVD player for entertainment.
Plus, I don't mind being warm in the winter.
Other than these "bare eseentials" though, I try to avoid using much electriciy in other capacities.

Energy use
I live with my younger brother in a converted garage that is very spacious. Most, but not all of our light bulbs are of a fluorescent nature. My brother leaves on more lights than I do but I know we were both raised to be conscious of this. The gas is paid by the land lord, which includes, heat, hot water and cooking fuel. The appliances which use the gas in our house are not the most efficient but they are well maintained and up-to-date. The carriage house is not exactly well insulated. The windows are original (built late 19th century) though do have storm windows maybe 20-30 years old.