Household Energy Usage and Conservation

3236 Words7 Pages

Household Energy Usage and Conservation

Household energy conservation is a very practical and realistic approach to conserving energy within our society. US households consume a tremendous amount of natural gas as well as electric energy. It has been calculated that the amount of energy consumed within the US increased exponentially from about 1850 to 1975. If energy continued to increase at this rate, we would be experiencing severe energy shortages in our current society. Luckily, steps towards conservation, including various energy regulations, have curbed that growth somewhat, brining the predicted 160 Qbtu/yr for the year 2000 down to around 93.8 Qbtu/yr by the year 1996. However, household energy usage is still a major issue as households consume about 38% of the total consumed energy and contribute greatly to natural gas consumption and issues such as global warming. Therefore, it is important that people understand how we use energy in the household and what steps can be taken to conserve that energy.

One process within households that contributes greatly to energy consumption is space heating. Space heating simply refers to the heating of the air throughout the house. It has been calculated that space heating consumes about 5.3 Qbtu per year. About 3.7 Qbtu come from natural gas and about .9 Qbtu come from Fuel oil. Only about .4 Qbtus of electricity are consumed by space heating.

There are various ways which one can space heat their house. The most common way is to use a furnace, however, stoves, fireplaces, electric resistance heaters and electrically powered heat pumps can also be used to heat the house. Furnaces run mostly off natural gas and tend to be around 60-90% efficient. Older units can be as low as 50% efficient. Electric resistance heaters are usually around 100% efficient at producing heat. However, this statistic is slightly misleading when thinking about total efficiency because you must account for the electric energy being consumed by the heater. Power plants are only able to produce electric energy from natural gas at about 35% efficiency. Consequently, electricity is more expensive than natural gas to produce, making electric resistance heaters more expensive to operate. This energy cost must also be accounted for when adding up the total cost of electric resistance heating.

Another way to heat ones house is to use a fireplace.

Show More
Related

  • The Mixed Legacy Of The American Revolution For Black Women Essay

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.

    Read More

  • Why My Mother Can T Speak Language By Garry Engkent

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin with, immigrants who have settled in a country with new cultures and customs are often scared to lose their cultural values, not only for themselves but also for their family. They tend to hold on their artistic souls and customs when adapting to a new country. Mrs. Engkent hates everything about Canada, she feared losing her Chinese culture if she conformed to the “fan gwei” way (different countries culture). “If you are here long enough, they will turn your head until you don’t know who you are— Chinese” (Engkent, pg.144) Mrs. Engkent did everything in the Chinese way, she

    Read More

  • Portion Distortion Persuasive Speech

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today this value has inflated to a massive 4 288 kilojoules – more than double. You would have to houseclean for 2 hours and 35 minutes to burn off the extra 2 228 kilojoules.

    Read More

  • Paying the Price: The Adventures of Eddie Fung

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    Eddie’s father arrived to Canada first in the early 1900s and then immigrated to the US illegally. He built his residency in Chinatown and eventually sent for his family after the San Francisco earthquake. Chinatown served as an ethnic enclave “where ancestral culture and values are honored and practiced as a way of life, and ethnic pride is invigorated” (Zhou-Gatewood 126). These enclaves allowed Chinese to smoothly transition into a façade of American life. Living in a p...

    Read More

  • Roles of the US Government in the US Economy

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    Allowing market participants to begin putting their resources back to work in areas they’d be most beneficial. President Obama’s fiscal responsibility summit last February indicated that he understood the urgent need for fiscal discipline. Congress’s enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and President’s proposed budget makes the goals of a sustainable budget and addressing nations longer term fiscal priorities, such as entitlement liabilities, even more elusive. The administrations recently released midsession reviews from the office of management and budget that over the next 10 years the accumulated deficits will total $9 trillion which means that the debt held by public will be a staggering 77% of GDP in 2019. If the debt level continues to grow faster than our economy, the US will owe more than it makes.

    Read More

  • The Best Titles and Descriptions for the Middle Ages

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Age of Feudalism describes the Middle Ages because people needed some organization in their society. The fall of the Roman Empire had left the government in an unstable position, and people needed protection from their lords. The start of feudalism would make it easier for the king because he would not have to rule over a large territory because the area would be under the control of several nobles. This was a political system in which each class on a manor would have to provide something for the society in order to receive assistance in return. A manor consisted of several villages where the lord had overlooked each area. For example the vassal had to provide loyalty and military service, and received protection and land from their lord (Doc. 3). Feudalism not only worked between lords and vassals, but between each class (except merchants). Take for instance, John of Toul is sending his knights to the count and countess of Champagne in order to protect them, and he had received land from them (Doc 2). Another example was the Salisbury oath, wh...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Standard Air Conditioner

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    Standard Air Conditioner There are a number of standard air conditioner systems that are available on the market. One is a unitary system. The one room air conditioners sit in a window or wall opening, with interior controls. A large house or building may have several units, permitting each room to be cooled separately. Another type is the basic central air conditioning unit, which offers whole house-house cooling. It is usually a large, loud, mechanism that sits outside of the home. Although these standard air conditioners may be effective, they come with drawbacks. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Americans spend $22 billion a year and use more than 183 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to cool their homes with standard air conditioning. Also those air conditioners release about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air annually -- two tons for each home that has one.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Renewable Energy

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    Instilling this new way of energy usage into off-grid communities will inevitably increase the state of living for those in cities and other well-populated areas. The change to renewable energy sources could drastically lower the pollutants currently being dispersed into the atmosphere by coal mines and other harmful power options, increasing the supply of renewable energy would allow us to replace carbon-intensive energy sources and significantly reduce U.S. global warming emissions. a 25 percent by 2025 national renewable electricity standard would lower power plant CO2 emissions 277 million metric tons annually by 2025—the equivalent of the annual output from 70 typical (600 MW) new coal plants (“Benefits of Renewable Energy Use”). Electricity production accounts for more than one-third of U.S. global warming emissions, with the majority generated by coal-fired power plants.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Climate Change

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Jason, “costs would fall if people adopt new energy-efficient technologies without a price hike in energy” (Shogren, 2004). A study done by Jaffe and his colleagues concluded that 20-25% of existing carbon emissions can be eliminated if people switched to fluorescent light bulbs, improved thermal insulation, more efficient heating and cooling systems (Jaffe, Newell, & Stavins, 2003). It all comes down to the consumers. Some of the energy efficient technologies are readily available but are still expensive. The driving force to efficient-energy technology depends on the changes of relative price. People will not want spend money on newer appliances especially if the prices are high, and if their current one still functions.

    Read More

  • Jade of Peony

    2075 Words  | 5 Pages

    In conclusion, Chinese cultures prohibition is seen, by observing the relationship expectations, education, and gender roles and jobs. The Chinese culture needs to be more cultivated as it constricts the newer generation’s capability in Canada. In Wayson Choy’s book The Jade of Peony, he describes the struggles of a immigrated Chinese family, as they try to follow two cultures to adjust in a new country like Canada, but still hang on to the old traditions of China, the kids of the family struggled as they tried to follow these two cultures. We have all been in a similar situation where we have immigrated to a new country to seek a better future where we have a better lifestyle and education, to help our family grow.

    Read More

  • Mistakes Should be Forgiven in No Name Woman by Susan G. Kingston

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Understanding the Chinese culture was confusing for Kingston. “Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese , how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?” (Kingston 223). Kingston questions her tradition and she doesn’t seem very sure what it is. She questions whether what her mother did by...

    Read More

  • The Influence of Eastman Kodak Company on Photography

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The camera may be thought of as a comparable to the eye. The difference is

    Read More

  • Personal Action Plan to Help Create a Sustainable Global Environment

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... reduce natural gas consumption. Long-term I am committed to installing new energy efficient windows to truly reduce energy consumption. To help reduce the family’s water consumption we recently installed an energy efficient washing machine that uses over 60% less water than the previous model that was installed. As an additional means in which to help conserve water I will be installing a rain barrel in the summer to water our outdoor plants. While these actions might not seem significant, they can make a significant difference. According to Energy Star, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an Energy Star qualified CFL, in just one year it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes. That would prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of about 800,000 cars.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Carbon Footprint

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    Based on Laurel Nesbit, a program assistant in the Office of Sustainability here at UF, our campus manages to utilize 470,000 Megawatts of energy annually. This figure is generated from all the energy-consuming gadgets that operate on our campus on a daily bases. These gadgets include computers that are left turned on over the night even they are not in use, copiers, and the fume hoods in our laboratories. Admittedly, the success and the health of wellbeing of the students is contingent upon some of these equipment. For instance, the laboratories need the fume hoods in order to keep the experimenters safe. Instead of casting these necessities away, we can develop alternatives which will be capable of generating energy in order to compensate for the electricity that we endlessly

    Read More

  • Over-consumption = More Waste

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    The single most important environmental issue today is over-consumerism, which leads to excess waste. We buy too much. We think we always need new and better stuff. Will we ever be satisfied? There will always be something better or cooler on the market. Because we live in a capitalistic consumer culture, we have absorbed things like: “Get it while the getting’s good,” “Offer ends soon, buy while it lasts,” “For great deals, come on down…Sunday Sunday Sunday!” We, kids from 1 to 92, have become saturated with commercials like: Obey your thirst. How much of our consumption is compulsive buying, merely obeying our momentary thirst? Do we actually need all that we buy? Could we survive efficiently, even happily, without making so many shopping center runs? Once after I made a Target run with mom, I noticed that most of the bulkiness within my plastic bags with red targets symbols on them was made up of the products’ packaging. I then thought about all the bags that were piled on the floor near us…all of the bags piled on the floors of many homes throughout America daily.

    Read More

More about Household Energy Usage and Conservation

Open Document