Energy Conservation and Energy Audit

Energy Conservation and Energy Audit

We can create a more sustainable, cleaner and safer world by making wiser energy choices.

Energy Conservation:

Nowadays, we are all aware that man's urban or modern lifestyle requires huge amounts of ever increasing energy. This is the energy required to run manufacturing units, factories, machines, automobiles, homes in terms of electricity for heating and lighting and many others to name a few. This energy is provided by fuel such as coal and oil. To produce energy is expensive and based on several researches and studies, different sources of energy produce also some bad effects on the environment and even our health.
The common sources of energy come from beneath the surface of the earth, and these are the oil, coal and natural gas. These are what we call fossil fuels which are formed by the anaerobic decomposition of buried organisms millions of years ago. Several studies also show that the formation of such fuels could even take 650 million years.
¨ Oil is made from the bodies of tiny sea creatures gathered on the seabed which where gradually squeezed down under the rocks that formed above them
¨ Coal is made from trees that died millions of years ago. Which were squeezed down until they turned into carbon.
¨ Natural gas is produced through the decomposition of animal and plant bodies
Careful considerations are needed to be able to adopt an approach that would encourage the production and consumption of the minimum amount of energy to meet such urban lifestyle. This should be an approach that would lead to efficient energy usage called energy conservation.
Energy conservation can be done through simple ways in our own homes, offices and schools by doing the following:
1. Use fuel efficient vehicles for transport.
2. As much as possible use public transport and car pooling.
3. Increase the efficiency of air conditioning units not only through building energy. efficient air conditioners but also by following best practices in controlling energy loss such as proper building insulation.
4. Switching off your electronics gadgets whenever possible. Appliances kept in stand-by mode waste a huge amount of energy when not in use.
5. Use Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL bulbs) or any other energy efficient products for lighting in heating, kitchen and electronics use.
6. Adopt recycling.
7. Use energy efficient machines.
8. Use efficient and renewable sources of energy and the dependence on fossil fuels should be reduced. So as to promote a healthier environment.
9. Encourage research in creating energy efficient building designs and appliance designs.
What about Energy Audit?
Energy audit is a critical assessment of an energy consuming facilities: at home, school, office, store, establishment and building. The said audit could be utilized to identify possible sources of energy and to save money. More importantly, audit is designed to reduce energy consumption, fuel consumption, emissions and electric bills. For an audit to be successful, it needs project planning, data collection, data analysis and recommendations or conducting a research on energy utilization and conservation. Initial researches and studies show that audit provided the following benefits: at the local level, audit provided the ability to withstand energy cost and increases environmental benefits. On the other hand, at the national level it showed deferred construction of new power plant, reduction in imported fuel conservation of dollar outflow & reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

TRIVIA:

Did You Know…?

• Placing your air conditioner in the shade can reduce its energy used by as much as 10%.
• Heating and cooling cost make up 45% of the typical home’s utility bill.
• If your water heater is more than 10 years old, it is probably wasting 50% of the energy it consumes.
• Water heating is the third largest energy consumer in your home, typically accounting for about 13% of your energy bills.

FACTS

• Energy production and use account for nearly 88% of air pollution, more than 83% greenhouse gas emissions, and more environmental damage than any other human activity.
• If you replace four 75-watt incandescent bulbs that burn four or more hours a day in your home with four 23-watt fluorescent bulbs, you’d get as much light and save more than 2,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and PhP 15,000 over the 10,000-hour life of the bulbs. If all our nation’s households did the same, we’d save as much energy as is consumed by several million cars in one year.