I’m just curious if there are certain things that individuals can do in their everyday life to lower the amount of non-renewable energy they us.
I know this is a vague question, but it seems so often that the debate over energy sources is largely out of the hands of ordinary people. I can’t personally invent a car that runs on switchgrass, nor can I stop the flow of oil from corrupt governments, so what can I do to help?
These are all kind of cliched suggestions, but I believe they do help if you want to reduce your energy use.
Drive your car as little as possible. Walk, cycle, or use public transport whenever it’s feasible.
Do as little as possible to warm your home during winter and cool it during summer. Keep the thermostat (if you have one) on the side of comfortable that the outside temperature is.
Keep a vague eye on your electrical use and try not to be burning current when you don’t have to – leaving lights on when you’ll be out of the house all day, etcetera.
These are little things, but they help. Pretty much all of them save you money as well, either directly or indirectly.
That’s all well and good, but for practical purposes there’s absolutely nothing that you can do that’s will have any effect whatsoever, so by trying you’re just being miserable and the only thing you can possibly show for it is some self-rightiousness.
Now that I’ve provided the above fodder in order to be quoted out of context, I’ll go on to say that there is something that you can do after all – win converts that are willing to live the same way as you are. And have them win converts. And have them win converts. And so on. Write a book thinly disguised as fiction like Ishmael and make it required reading in some freshman social sciences class. Campaign for the Green Party.
Going back to paragraph 1, the reason you won’t reduce anything is because there’s already pent-up demand. “Your” portion is already wanted by someone else anyway. Your reduced demand will be in the order of a millionth of a percent. I’ll give you a millionth of a percent of my lifetime income if you want it.
Get your car tuned up, make sure your tires are properly inflated, don’t bother driving extra to the cheep gas station, just fill up en-route.
Use natural solar heating (for heating season), opening the shades when the sun is shining in, close them when the sun is passed to conserve that heat.
Heat only the rooms that you are using, consider using less rooms.
Lower your water heater temp to a point where you just use the hot when showering, as long as your dishwasher can compensate. Capture the heat from your shower, if you don’t have a waste water heat exchanger, you can do this by putting the stopper in the drain while you shower (after you piss in it), and leave that hot water in the tub till it cools off. Also getting a high quality low flow showerhead can save lots of energy (forget saving water - people don’t realize hot much energy is in hot water).
Consider getting a wood/woodpellet/coal stove or getting heating appliances (propane, NG, Kero) installed in the rooms you stay in and just heat those rooms.
Check your commuting routes on a map or by computer.
I found that by avoiding the Interstate, I could shave off 5 miles a day, each way.
Slower speed + shorter route = big gas savings.
I would also, if possible, try and grow some of your own food. Think of the trucks driving across country or at least hundreds or thousands of miles to deliver food to supermarkets. If growing your own food is not possible, buy from local sources as much as you can. Support farmers markets, CSA’s and road side stands. Buy local produce when in season and preserve it.
If you must have a car, purchase a hybrid and have that guy in California convert it to a plug in. Most electrical power in the US at least is from other sources than oil.
from http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/electricity.html
"Petroleum was used to generate about three percent (3%) of all electricity generated in U.S. electricity plants in 2003. "
I am suprised by this 3%, I thought it was around 10%.
take care
Bob Z
Well, I could shave 5 miles a day each way, too, by avoiding the interstate, but it would be a major, major waste of gasoline. To wit:
70 miles @ 23 mpg is 3.04 gallons of gasoline (1.0 hour total commute time), and
60 miles @ 18 mpg is 3.33 gallons of gasoline (2.0 hour total commute time), and
0.29 gallons of gasoline @ $2.40/gallon is $0.70, but
1.0 hours of my time @ $40/hour (hey, nothing’s more precious than one’s time) is $40, so the total cost of avoiding the interstate is $40.70 per day. Add to that the unquantified expenses such as additional wear and tear on your vehicle due to vastly increased amounts of accelleration and braking.
But (pun intended) YMMV.
Much of my route passes through countryside, so the start/stop thing isn’t the problem it might be.
And any time I’m not at work is unpaid time, so that part of your argument is irrelavant. You cannot validly assign monetary value to any time that you wouldn’t be paid in anyway.
Yeah, that’s what the YMMV was meant for. The money value of my time was mostly meant tounge in cheek, but in the very, very real sense you absolutely place a value on your time every single time you make a monetary decision, as you should. Why don’t you paint your house yourself? It’s not hard work; it’s only time consuming. Why pay $8 extra for pizza delivery? You’re not drunk, but it’s worth your time to have it come to you? I really put a monetary value on my time – and it’s at $xx and hour. If I have something I want to do, and something I have to do, and the “have to do” costs less than $xx an hour, then I’m paying the cheap guy and taking the time for myself. None of these are examples of salary. Duh. But it’s no less than deciding you’re going to give your employer a certain amount of time for a certain rate.
What DougC said. Remember that every single thing you buy has been shipped by engines burning petroleum. Furthermore, if you buy anything assembled from components, the components have been shipped by engines burning petroleum. If it contains anything technological, the components were probably constructed all over the world, which means that they were shipped across the world. And finally, what you bought is probably substantially made out of petroleum. Just don’t buy anything you don’t need, and live as close as possible to work (or work from home). And for the love of oil, don’t buy an SUV. The only purpose of its construction and marketing is to consume as much oil as possible. It is an oil-burning machine made from oil, out of components shipped by burning oil from all over the world.
unless you revert to an Amish lifestyle, there’s a limit to what you can do to minimise oil consumption. And most of us won’t be willing to do that.
Speaking of commuting, if you could live closer to where you work, or get a job closer to where you live, or find a job and a residence that are somehow connected by public transportation, or even just work from home at least some of the time, that would do it.