Energy Awareness Month 2022
We’re back with another Waste Not Wednesday for October, i.e. Energy Awareness Month! You may be familiar with the big issue of non-renewable vs. renewable energy sources, but how much energy do we really use in our homes, and how can we as individuals use energy more sustainably?
According to ShrinkThatFootPrint.com, “The recent figures, as of 2020, show that the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer is 10,715 kilowatthours (kWh)…the average daily electricity consumption is 29 kWh.” To which one might say, what the heck is a kilowatthour? Simply defined, one kilowatthour is the energy used to keep a 1,000 watt appliance running for one hour. To put this in perspective, the average refrigerator uses up to two kilowatthours a day, so we’re using about enough energy to power 14 refrigerators every day. Imagine how much energy we use at the corporate or government level! New and exciting ways to harvest energy with less environmental impact are being developed, but true sustainability means being mindful of what we actually consume and trying to reduce that.
As mentioned last year, we as individuals can do a lot to save electricity over time as well as immediately in our own homes, and both will help our wallets and reduce our energy footprints. Some things you can do over time include: updating the insulation and materials used throughout your home, replacing inefficient appliances, or using solar panels. Some of the more immediate ways you could reduce energy include: unplugging or setting timers to turn off electronics or appliances when not needed, switching to LED light bulbs, adjusting your refrigerator and water heater temps, running the fan to more efficiently disperse heat or air throughout the home, shopping less and local whenever possible, and setting limits to your time online or on your phone.
Once we are actually aware of how much energy we use, we can make conscious decisions to lower that usage. Reducing our waste, both in the physical sense and in our energy usage, can help stop depleting our planet of its natural resources from which we all benefit.