Is contributing to the fight against climate change actually as easy as changing a light bulb? Granted, stemming the tide of global warming and rising sea levels is obviously more complicated than swapping in energy-saving LED bulbs. But energy efficiency is indeed an important—yet often underappreciated—tool to reduce pollution and waste.
What Is Energy Efficiency?
Energy efficiency and energy conservation aren’t the same thing, but they have a similar goal: to reduce energy use. Here’s the difference. Energy conservation relies on people cutting back on activities that consume energy—by turning off lights or driving less or using appliances less often. Energy efficiency harnesses technology to help avoid or reduce energy waste so that you can still turn on the lights, drive, or wash your clothes but use less energy doing so. It really all comes down to smarter energy use. Energy efficiency is one of the easiest ways to eliminate energy waste and lower energy costs. It is also one of the most cost-effective ways to combat climate change, clean the air we breathe, help families meet their budgets, and help businesses improve their bottom lines.
Why Is It Important to Use Less Energy?
Using less energy through efficiency measures is good for the economy and your wallet. By reducing the amount of energy required for certain tasks, energy efficiency is also good for the planet. It can help to reduce air and water pollution caused by certain types of energy generation and avoid negative impacts on critical ecosystems—such as the obstacles a new hydroelectric dam could impose on migrating salmon. It can also relieve stress on the power grid.
Cutting Carbon Pollution
Boosting energy efficiency in buildings, vehicles, and appliances and equipment is an inexpensive, low-impact way to reduce climate pollution on a grand scale. One extremely effective way to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is through a more efficient home. Widespread use of efficient appliances, electronics, equipment and lighting, along with better insulation and other weatherization, could cut 550 million metric tons of carbon pollution a year by 2050—equal to the electric power emissions produced by Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Virginia, and California in 2016.
Creating Jobs
More than 2.2 million Americans have jobs in energy efficiency or clean energy production. That’s more than five times the jobs in the dirty energy industries, including coal, gas, and oil. In fact, about one in every six construction jobs in the country is connected to energy efficiency.
Improving Lives
Energy efficiency can also help people live healthier, longer lives. Cutting nationwide energy consumption by 15 percent for one year via efficiency measures could help save six person lives a day and avoid up to $20 billion in health-related problems. When power plants burn coal, oil, and natural gas, they release tiny particles into the air we breathe; these particles are linked to asthma, heart attacks, and lung cancer. Inside a home, inefficient ventilation and weatherization can also contribute to respiratory illnesses. Energy efficiency can even improve the comfort of everyday life, which may not be factored into benefit statistics.
Strengthening Independence
On a larger scale, energy efficiency can improve energy security, creating a more resilient power grid and making the country less dependent on foreign sources of fossil fuel.
Examples of Energy Efficiency
Ready to join the energy efficiency revolution? Here are some ways, large and small, to participate.
1. Get Smart About Energy Use
Start small by turning electronics off, tweaking your TV settings, adjusting temperature settings, and setting timers. Hunt down “energy vampires” hat consume electricity even when idle.
2. Buy Efficient Home Appliances
Replacing older appliances with energy-efficient models can save the average household more than $500 a year. Consumers are getting a double bonus, because appliances are also becoming more affordable; Meanwhile, some clothe washers uses one-fourth less energy and one-third less water than cutting another utility cost.
Experts estimate that the program has saved $430 billion on energy bills and reduced carbon pollution by 2.7 billion metric tons, equal to the emissions of about 670 coal-fired power plants in a year.
3. Heat and Cool Efficiently
If just 1 in 10 households bought Energy saving device heating and cooling equipment, we’d avoid pumping 13 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions into the environment each year, equivalent to the annual tailpipe emissions of 1.2 million.
Opting for a cleaner that are more affordable option for heating and cooling homes and businesses, particularly where oil and propane furnaces are the norm. Heat pumps move heat from a cool space (like the cold outdoors) to a warm space (inside a building), making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer—many times more efficiently than burning fossil fuels to generate heat. In the vast majority of climates, heat pumps can be used as the only heat source, with no other heating device needed in the house as backup. They are also a far more efficient appliance for cooling than either the standard window air-conditioning unit or central air, and they come in different forms, depending on your home’s setup: A central heat pump, for example, sits in the same spot, uses the same air ducts and thermostats, and takes the place of a central AC.
4. Switch to LED Bulbs
Brightening rooms with efficient LED bulbs can save about $100 a year, adding up to national savings of around $12.5 billion (if LEDs were universally adopted) while cutting carbon emissions generated by electricity production.
More than 150 varieties of LED bulbs—the most efficient lighting choice—are on the market. They use up to 90% less energy than older, incandescent bulbs, allowing you to save up to $100 on energy bills over a bulb’s lifetime.
Energy Efficiency: For Today and Tomorrow
To help consumers, engineers are now designing for green buildings and appliances, invent new innovations to cut energy waste in larger buildings, encourage utilities promote efficiency, and push for efficiency improvements in building codes. However, there’s a challenge to implementing change such as budgets for a range of related initiatives either from private or assistance from government. By speaking out against these rollbacks and changing our daily habits, we all can play a role in creating an energy-efficient future that improves the health of people and the planet.
source: energy star
