In today’s modern world we use energy in so many ways that we now take almost all of it for granted. How Do We Use Energy does not concern most people. Just about everything we do from morning-to-night when we go to bed involves using energy and in fact, we use energy even when we are asleep. Most of this energy use is electrical usage.
Our ancestors used energy too but not at the same rate that today’s modern civilization does today. For example, our ancestors probably had a fire going to keep them warm. The fire burned wood to generate the heat. They used a very small amount of energy compared to us today.
We consume natural gas, oil or coal to heat our homes, we consume electricity to also heat our homes and run just about everything in it. All of the things we have in our home consumed energy when it was manufactured including electricity, oil, gas and raw materials. Our cars run on gasoline and it takes huge quantities of energy to make these cars. Even if we take mass transport to get to and from work we are consuming energy as well, although it is much more efficient.
How Do We Use Energy More Efficiently
We are never going to back to the caveman approach with regards to energy. The real question is how do we become more efficient and use less energy per person each day to conserve our raw materials and decrease the hit on our pocketbook?
Using energy efficiently must become part of our everyday life. Something we think about each time we consume energy and each time we waste it. If all of us could reduce our consumption by at least 10%, there would be a huge impact on the environment, our cost to ourselves and a general improvement to our overall lifestyle.
Ten percent is not a huge objective and most people could be easy to achieve. We are going to list a number of things that all of us can do to conserve energy. If you are already doing some of these great, there is always more you can save. If you are just getting started, you will see that it is easy to achieve 10% savings. And it will hit you right in the pocketbook, with reduced cost to you and your family. If we missed some, leave us a comment and we will be happy to include your item on the list.
Here is our list:
- Turn off the lights as we leave the room
- Turn off all electronics when not in use e.g. TV’s, radios, computers
- Turn off the power bars to fully shut down all electronics
- Set your temperature lower if your heating your home
- Set your temperature higher if your cooling your home
- Use the microwave to heat or cook your food
- Turn the oven off as soon you remove the food from it
- Turn up the temperature on the fridge by 1 degree
- Use a manual mower to cut your lawn instead of gas or electric
- Run pool pumps for a few hours each day instead of all-day
- Run SPA pumps for a few hours each day instead of all-day
- Use a solar blanket to heat your pool instead of a gas or electric heater
- Walk to work
- Use mass transit
- Use a more efficient vehicle
- Avoid jackrabbit driving – fast starts and stops
- Keep your car properly tuned
- Keep your tires properly inflated
- Bike or walk to the corner store
- Avoid sitting in coffee lines with your car idling
- Plan your car trips to do all errands at the same time
- Convert all lights from incandescent to fluorescent or LED
- Upgrade your furnace to a more efficient model
- Install solar power systems
- Recycle your bottles, paper, cans
- Use the sun to dry your clothes
- Run appliances such as dryers on nonpeak rate hours
- Have a shower instead of a bath
- Convert all faucets and showers to water-efficient types
- Convert all toilets to water-efficient models
- Increase the insulation in your home
- Change your windows to a better-insulated window
- Install barrels at the downpipes from your eaves trough to reuse the water
- Water your lawn in the evening to minimize evaporation
The list can go on and on. Send us your items and we will be happy to add to the list to help everyone conserve energy. Remember how we use energy contributes to our overall cost to ourselves as well as the environment.
For more posts about energy use and how to reduce the energy you use, click here.
July 30th, 2012 on 5:32 pm
knowing how we use energy is a good way to know which things use the most energy and therefore you will know which ones to focus on the most to reduce your over all energy bill. no sense focusing on a small usage vs something that uses twice as much.