Conservation is not sexy, like fusion, or solar panels (gee, I guess that's fusion driven too...). However, conservation is the biggest tool available to most of us to reduce our impact on our energy resources. It works for homeowners and apartment dwellers too. And for folks who plan to live without utility produced electricity, conservation is paramount.

Here's a real world example. When I purchased my modest 3 bedroom home five years ago, I used an average of 660 kwh (kilowatt hours) per month. That's pretty average. By replacing my electric water heater, electric dryer, and electric range with natural gas appliances, I cut my electricity use in half. Then I replaced all my incandescent light bulbs with 4x more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs on every fixture that is on more than 20 minutes at a time. We got better at turning lights and appliances off when we weren't using them.

With all these changes, we reduced our electricity usage to an average of 200 kwh per month. That's more than 2/3 reduction in use with no reduction in creature comforts. It's also much better for the environment. I have seen examples where use was cut by 85% with very aggressive conservation.

If you have any form of electric heat for your house, with the possible exception of a ground source heat pump, your electric bill and your environmental impact will be much higher. If you could only change one thing, it should be to eliminate electricity as a heat source for your house.

If we all did that, we could shut down half of the power plants in the US next year with no special technology at all.

It all starts with you...

Good luck and have fun doing it!

troy