Energy Conservation - How Small Changes can dramatically reduce
your Energy Bill
There are many good reasons to conserve energy. If we use less
gas, oil and electricity we will save money, and the pollution
associated with extracting and using fossil fuels will decrease.
Reducing greenhouse gas production may help to reverse global
warming. In a nutshell - conservation of energy has both
personal and societal benefits.
Most people are concerned with making their money last longer
and energy conservation can help by reducing our energy costs.
Homeowners can do many things to cut down on their energy needs.
Perhaps the best thing they can do to is to install better
insulation to retain warm and cool air.
Heating and air conditioning are the biggest energy consumers of
the average household. Much of the heat and cool air escapes
because of poorly insulated roofs, walls, doors, and windows. In
fact in a lot of cases heating and cooling is responsible for
around 50% of your energy costs. Improving insulation will
result in greater conservation of energy and lesser energy
costs. Small changes in this area can result in dramatic
reduction in your monthly payment to your utility company.
Old cooling and heating appliances should be replaced with newer
models which are more energy efficient. Other large appliances
like refrigerators can also be replaced with newer models that
are designed to conserve energy. Always make sure you read the
energy label, if you do, you will often find that a cheap
product in fact can be expensive in its every day use because of
its energy consumption.
Traditional light bulbs are inefficient because much of the
energy they consume is converted to heat. Replacing all your
incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs will provide
the same level at light with less energy consumption. Even
though the cost of these bulbs is greater than traditional
bulbs, they last up to 20 times longer, resulting in significant
overall savings.
Using alternative energy sources such as solar panels or wind
turbines can greatly reduce the amount of energy needed from
traditional sources. The electricity produced by these devices
can be fed back into the local power grid if it is not
immediately used by the household. This reduces the power bill
even further (the power meter runs backwards) while supplying
clean power to your community.
Conservation of energy is not just for homes, cars and trucks
are available with more energy efficient engines and some can
run on alternate power sources such as hydrogen or electricity.
Conservation of energy is something that everyone can contribute
to. By being careful in how we use our resources we are building
a society for our children and grandchildren.