Energy conservation is one of the most critical issues that society faces today. Energy has a big impact on our world today, we can’t live without energy. Energy sources are limited that’s why we have to find ways to conserve energy. First what is energy conservation? It can mean a variety of things but according to the electronic green journal, energy conservation is “using less energy in a particular application, finding ways to purchase particular forms of energy at lower cost”. Conserving energy is as old as using energy. In the old days, humans were doing much of their heavy work, but as their intelligence evolved, they started to use animals to do the work. Energy conservation isn’t just consisted of doing less, it is also consisted of “finding easier ways to get the work done”. Energy is being wasted now more than ever. “From 1971 to 2014, worldwide energy consumption has grown 92% according to the International Energy Agency”(Worldwide research on energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Public Buildings). There are a lot of different sources of energy, most commons are wind and solar energy.
One of the forms of energy that americans use a lot is electricity, and projections show that they will continue to use more. “The most common source of electricity continues to be coal-fired, which emit pollutants like particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and mercury as well as greenhouse gases”. (Hofstra Law review) And all these things may lead to global warming. In 2001, electricity consumption in the United States totaled 1,140 billion kilowatt-hours. Since the late 1970s, retail sales of electricity to U.S. households have exceeded sales to the commercial and industry sectors. In 2003, retail sales of electricity to the residential sector totaled 1.3 trillion kilowatt-hours”.( Hofstra Law review) This is all due to “population growth” as well as “increasing ownership and electrification” of single family households. For example, red-hot light bulbs, which are found in most homes, are “inefficient sources of light” because more than a quarter of energy used by them is lost as heat. “One third of the world’s energy is consumed in the buildings where we live, work, and congregate.
Another third is used in the factories and plants that produce our needs. The remaining third is used in transportation”.(Electronic Green Journal) So now the question is how can we conserve all these energies so that they are not being wasted. Just to take in to consideration how much energy people waste everyday, “ According to the Energy Information Administration (‘EIA’), over the next twenty years, the demand for electricity to power household appliances and home electronics, particularly color TVs and computer equipment, is projected to increase rapidly”. (Hofstra Law Review) This is not a good news if we want to keep conserving energy. There are various strategies for reducing national energy demand. For example, the red-hot light bulbs that people are using in their homes should be replaced by CFLs.
CFLs is way more efficient than these light bulbs. It uses “one third less power” than the incandescent lamps, generate significant “less heat” and last ten times longer. This is one way of reducing home’s electricity for those who use the incandescent lamps. This can be a very good way to conserve energy, because if every household in the United States replaced a “conventional sixty-watt incandescent bulb with one CFL”, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of “1.5 million people.” CFLs can help in the environment side of things, because there are a lot of environment benefits in using them, and it can also help reducing electrical bills. Other strategies for reducing national energy demand are, “modifying energy-wasteful government policies, internalizing environmental costs to users and assisting the market place on a selective basis or increase supply by relaxing environmental constraints and by government funding of research and development”. Energy conservation has a lot of benefits not just individually, in terms of saving money but also environmentally, so it’s very important that people take it serious.
