Physics/Content/Energy conservation at home
Energy conservation at home makes the amount of energy used in the household less, while achieving a similar outcome of end use. Householders may want to save energy in order to lower energy costs and promote environmental sustainability. By lowering emissions, energy conservation is an important part of lessening climate change.
Energy Conservation also helps with the replacement of non-renewable resources with renewable energy.
Choice of appliances
There are many ways to save energy at home, and the choice of appliances is important. There are many energy-efficient home appliances, which have been designed with energy conservation in mind. In many countries there are energy labelling programs to promote energy-efficient consumer products.
Natural gas is a preferred energy source for heating. Natural gas furnaces, water heaters, stoves, and clothes dryers are more efficient than electricity created from fossil fuel sources, for heating purposes. Solar energy may also be another option.
Energy saving practices
There are many energy saving practices for householders. One simple strategy is to turn off all electric appliances (lights, computers, televisions) when they are not in use. For example, computer printers and photocopiers usually use a lot of energy, and should be set to automatically turn off and switch to standby mode after a certain number of minutes of not being used.
Other energy-conserving measures include:
- Taking advantage of sunlight and leaving lights off during the day. Daily routines may be adjusted to align waking hours with sunlit hours.
- Using compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in place of regular incandescent light bulbs. A CFL uses about a fourth the wattage of an incandescent bulb, giving out about the same amount of light, and they last 8,000 to 10,000 hours. Replace most-used bulbs first for the highest possible savings.
- Using fans instead of air conditioning. Fans make the air feel about 4 degrees cooler.