Why Is it Important to Save Energy in the Home?

Energy conservation is one of the ways every person can help protect the environment while saving money. Along with recycling, driving fuel efficient cars, buying local products with minimal packaging and cutting down on water usage, steps to conserve energy in the home can be part of a community and national strategy that will lead to a healthier nation better prepared to handle the needs of future generations. Energy conservation is an important part in this process for several reasons.

Significance

• According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, over 70 percent of the entire nation's electricity is generated using non-renewable resources. On a worldwide basis, that percentage jumps to 90 percent, according to the U.S. Department of State. While a large amount of the nonrenewable energy source used for electricity is coal, oil and natural gas are also used. These fossil fuels are nonrenewable because they take millions of years to form and the deposits are being consumed at such a rate that, once they are gone, there will be no more fossil fuels.

Conservation

• Predictions are that oil and natural gas will be depleted within a century or less, and there are differing reports as to whether coal will be depleted within the same time frame or will last for another hundred years beyond that. Conserving energy in the home helps to slow the use of those resources, leaving more time to develop wide-scale alternative energy programs featuring renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal.

Pollution

• The burning of fossil fuels for the production of energy pollutes the air and water. According to an October 2009 New York Times article based on information from the EPA, power plants are the nation's biggest producers of toxic waste. Dangerous chemicals such as sulfur dioxide are released into the air when coal is burned and create acid rain. The burning of oil and gasoline releases carbon monoxide and smog. Modern power plants use scrubbers to remove the bulk of the pollution from their emissions, but most of the toxic chemicals caught by the scrubbers find their way into wastewater dumped into waterways. By conserving energy, users decrease the demand for power production and reduce the pollution that power plants create.

Greenhouse Emissions

• The burning of fossil fuels also produces excess carbon dioxide, one of the worst man-made contributors to global warming. The majority of scientists and world governments support the theory of global warming, a gradual warming of the Earth due to greenhouse gases. The effect, according to the theory, contributes to changes in global weather patterns and melting of glacial and polar ice. This raises sea levels, effects water salinity and the supply of fresh water and damages delicate ecosystems. Lower demand for energy decreases its production and the greenhouse gases that are created to make it.

Financial Benefits

• As nonrenewable fuels become rarer, the cost of energy rises. Conserving energy in the home is often an easy way to reduce utility bills and save money. Simple actions such as turning off lights and unplugging small appliances when not in use, switching to compact fluorescent bulbs and bumping up the thermostat to 78 degrees in the summer can have a significant impact on household energy use. Penn State University calls energy conservation the "least-cost" energy strategy that has helped them avoid more than $700,000 in energy costs annually.