Rates are going to continue going up. And, we are responding just like the late comedian Jack Benny in one of his most popular skits. When confronted by a mugger’s demand, "your money or your life". The crowd bursts into laughter when, after a long pause the mugger shoves the gun in Jack’s face, and the notoriously stingy comedian responds, " I’m thinking, I’m thinking".
While each of us as electricity consumers have direct control over our electric bills, as rates continue to rise other choices for how we spend our money become more and more obvious. But, when faced with the choice of spending money on more insulation to cut our air conditioning bills by as much as 10% ; or managing our use of heating and air conditioning energy, we continue to send our money to the utilities instead of taking action. " I’m thinking , I’m thinking". Yet , no one thinks that this is funny. In fact tempers flare as rates climb and consumers almost uniformly blame the utility that supplies their electricity.
Electric Utilities, unlike oil and gas companies, are not making record profits. In fact, some utilities have been brought to the brink of disaster with artificially suppressed rates that came in with state laws adopting deregulation. As these caps come off, its no wonder that rates are climbing. You have to ask yourself, have my fuel costs gone up in the last few years? Of course they have. And, utility fuel costs have also gone up. Electricity as we know it today requires fuel, coal, oil, natural gas, uranium. Increase fuel prices and presto, increased electric rates.
One other factor causing rates to rise is our consumer demand. This demand is outstripping the capacity of existing electricity generation facilities. When this happens, utilities have two choices, turn off the power when demand exceeds supply or make more supply. Making more supply requires new construction and new construction of any kind is expensive. Just ask anyone that has done any major home remodeling lately.
We as consumers have a third choice that puts us in control of our own homes and businesses. We can conserve energy, turn it off, turn it down, get more efficient appliances, get smarter about how and when we use electricity. Of course this is hard work and it is lots easier to repeat, "I’m thinking, I’m thinking".
Many electricity users mistakenly think that if utilities just switched to free power from the sun or wind that their bills would go down. While the US is leading the way in wind power development the magnitude of the demand exceeds what wind and solar power can do to keep up. This has the potential to change, but not without our help. Energy Conservation is the key to reducing demand and the key to making today’s home more able to use the limited amount of power output coming from renewable resources.
So unless you love your electric bill, here’s is what you need to do.
Step One- Find out how much you pay for electricity. What do you pay per kilo-Watt hour
( kWh)? If you don’t know the answer to this question off the top of your head then you are not prepared to deal with the other numbers you need to know to save the world and your money.
2) Get a Kill-a-watt meter or some other device to learn about how much energy your appliances are using. You need to know what contributes to your electric bill. Is it really air-conditioning or is it that old refrigerator? Is it the electric dryer or your stereo system? Some appliance are not easy to sample with a plug I meter and you may have to settle for estimates based on the time it runs and the appliance energy rating. Do your home work and get an answer that you think make sense for every electricity using device in your house that’s lighting, heating, cooling, refrigerating, pumping, entertaining or just sitting there humming.
3) Start shopping around for choices. There are lots of different choices to make so keep going until you are sure you have some reasonably energy efficient choices. You don’t have to rush out and buy them all today, but as they break down, or your needs change, consider energy star and other energy efficiency rated equipment.
Stop thinking, start doing.
"We have meet the enemy, and he is us". Pogo
Friday, July 20, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Top Ten things you can do to save electricity and lower your bill this summer
1.Set your air conditioning system no lower than 80 degrees. If you aren’t comfortable at this temperature you probably need to loose weight.
2. Loose weight. By keeping your refrigerator door closed you are saving money and losing weight which could reduce your air conditioning costs (see #1).
3. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs. These bulbs last ten times longer and use a quarter of the power for the same amount of light and they give off less heat so you don’t need so much air conditioning.
4. Use or install a ceiling fan and use it in the mornings or cooler times of day instead of turning on the air conditioning. Ceiling fans use a fraction of the electricity that air conditioning uses.
5. Cook outside on the grill or make more microwave meals. Electric and gas ovens and ranges not only take energy, they heat up the house, requiring more AC. Microwave cooking gives off less heat and uses about two-thirds less energy than electric stove top or oven cooking.
6. Install a programable thermostat for your air conditioning system. Program your new thermostat or find the directions to your old one and set the temperature to 80 degrees when you are in the house and 85 when you are gone. This will save you 5% off the air conditioning part of your electric bill.
7. Dry your laundry outside instead of using the dryer. You can knock off $5 to $15 dollars of ourbill just by getting you and your laundry out of the house for a little.
8. Keep the window blinds or shades down on east, west and south facing windows. These windows pick up a lot of heat from the direct sun pouring in unless your eaves or awnings are designed to keep direct sun off your windows. You will save a lot off your air conditioning bill by doing this one.
9. Put entertainment appliances, Televisions, CD players etc. on a light stick or plug bar and switch everything off when you aren’t right there watching or listening. Some electronic equipment, especially electronic equipment that uses a remote control, is always ON even when you think its off.
10. Get a little Kill-A-Watt meter that you can plug into learn the energy appetite of all your appliances and equipment. The key to reducing summer utility bills is knowledge. Find out what uses what at your house, everyone is different.
The best, cheapest and most renewable electricty around is the electricity that you don't use at all.
© Mark Daily
2. Loose weight. By keeping your refrigerator door closed you are saving money and losing weight which could reduce your air conditioning costs (see #1).
3. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs. These bulbs last ten times longer and use a quarter of the power for the same amount of light and they give off less heat so you don’t need so much air conditioning.
4. Use or install a ceiling fan and use it in the mornings or cooler times of day instead of turning on the air conditioning. Ceiling fans use a fraction of the electricity that air conditioning uses.
5. Cook outside on the grill or make more microwave meals. Electric and gas ovens and ranges not only take energy, they heat up the house, requiring more AC. Microwave cooking gives off less heat and uses about two-thirds less energy than electric stove top or oven cooking.
6. Install a programable thermostat for your air conditioning system. Program your new thermostat or find the directions to your old one and set the temperature to 80 degrees when you are in the house and 85 when you are gone. This will save you 5% off the air conditioning part of your electric bill.
7. Dry your laundry outside instead of using the dryer. You can knock off $5 to $15 dollars of ourbill just by getting you and your laundry out of the house for a little.
8. Keep the window blinds or shades down on east, west and south facing windows. These windows pick up a lot of heat from the direct sun pouring in unless your eaves or awnings are designed to keep direct sun off your windows. You will save a lot off your air conditioning bill by doing this one.
9. Put entertainment appliances, Televisions, CD players etc. on a light stick or plug bar and switch everything off when you aren’t right there watching or listening. Some electronic equipment, especially electronic equipment that uses a remote control, is always ON even when you think its off.
10. Get a little Kill-A-Watt meter that you can plug into learn the energy appetite of all your appliances and equipment. The key to reducing summer utility bills is knowledge. Find out what uses what at your house, everyone is different.
The best, cheapest and most renewable electricty around is the electricity that you don't use at all.
© Mark Daily
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Time to take Action for Renewable Electric Energy Generation
I’ve seen it before. Last week I saw it again. It was a bumper sticker that said, "If you’re not really pissed off, you are just not paying attention".
June 21st must have been the longest day for the US Senate. On solstice day they passed a version of the new national energy policy that will no doubt anger anyone that is paying attention, except those that believe that the American Auto industry is on the right track.
The highlights of this legislation regarding electric energy and electricity generation are, that two key provisions failed to get into the final version. The $32.1 billion alternative energy tax package got the boot and so did nation wide renewable energy portfolio standards.
Mired down in the gasoline controversy of CAFÉ standards and oil industry subsidies, the Senate had no strength to include these progressive and important issues in the final piece of legislation. The only glimmer of hope for reducing the nation’s non-renewable electric energy appetite were the changes proposed in lighting and appliance standards.
The oil and coal industries killed the Alternative Energy tax subsidies because an increase in Alternative Energy subsides was to be funded by reductions in fossil fuel industry subsidies. The electric industry killed the renewable energy portfolio standards for various reasons. Some argued that they did it to avoid a change in their cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry - coal mining and natural gas development. Others argued that belectric utilities killed it simply because they didn’t want to change they way that they have done things since the 1930's.
Of course they say the electric utility industry killed it because the system is working the way it is and there is no need to change. Utility executives go on to argue that there is no need to change a system that continues to bring relatively cheap and reliable energy to a growing demand for electricity. They claim, I think rightfully so, that consumers do not want to see drastic increases in their electric bills. Yet the rates can’t help but continue to climb as scarcity principles dictate.
Which argument is correct? Frankly, I am so sick of the way business is conducted in this country that I can’t really think objectively about it and there is the real problem. Analysis paralysis has gripped all of us. We can no longer, if we ever could really , trust the accuracy of the information that we get to make our informed opinions...well ...informed. Absent this assurance that we are getting the facts that matter, it is no wonder that most of the population continues to keep living the way they always have; driving more road miles every year regardless of price and environmental damage; using increasing amounts of electricity regardless of price and environmental damage.
So what will this new legislation do to help us be smarter and make better use of the energy that we all agree is disappearing and getting more expensive? Wading through 464 pages of legislation to find out is hard work.
Those of us that can’t stand to read through all of that, should simply contact their elected representatives and tell them you want them to vote to take away the oil and coal industry subsidies that have been in place for decades and give those subsidies to the new guys and the little guys- the solar, wind, and energy conservation industries. It’s the fair thing to do. Don’t give it to the bio-fuels industry. Creating Bio fuels takes more regular fuel to make than the bio-fuel it produces. There is no objective study that says otherwise. Why would we want to support legislation that makes us run out of gasoline faster? I know, Ed Abbey claimed he drove a Cadillac just to hasten the end of the fossil fuel era. So now Governors and the rest think we could be saving the world by driving more metal. Are you paying attention?
If you want more renewable energy used to generate your electricity, if you want the future to harness, clean and renewable technologies instead of replacing one destructive fuel with a different destructive fuel, we must all take action.
Come on, make that call.
June 21st must have been the longest day for the US Senate. On solstice day they passed a version of the new national energy policy that will no doubt anger anyone that is paying attention, except those that believe that the American Auto industry is on the right track.
The highlights of this legislation regarding electric energy and electricity generation are, that two key provisions failed to get into the final version. The $32.1 billion alternative energy tax package got the boot and so did nation wide renewable energy portfolio standards.
Mired down in the gasoline controversy of CAFÉ standards and oil industry subsidies, the Senate had no strength to include these progressive and important issues in the final piece of legislation. The only glimmer of hope for reducing the nation’s non-renewable electric energy appetite were the changes proposed in lighting and appliance standards.
The oil and coal industries killed the Alternative Energy tax subsidies because an increase in Alternative Energy subsides was to be funded by reductions in fossil fuel industry subsidies. The electric industry killed the renewable energy portfolio standards for various reasons. Some argued that they did it to avoid a change in their cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry - coal mining and natural gas development. Others argued that belectric utilities killed it simply because they didn’t want to change they way that they have done things since the 1930's.
Of course they say the electric utility industry killed it because the system is working the way it is and there is no need to change. Utility executives go on to argue that there is no need to change a system that continues to bring relatively cheap and reliable energy to a growing demand for electricity. They claim, I think rightfully so, that consumers do not want to see drastic increases in their electric bills. Yet the rates can’t help but continue to climb as scarcity principles dictate.
Which argument is correct? Frankly, I am so sick of the way business is conducted in this country that I can’t really think objectively about it and there is the real problem. Analysis paralysis has gripped all of us. We can no longer, if we ever could really , trust the accuracy of the information that we get to make our informed opinions...well ...informed. Absent this assurance that we are getting the facts that matter, it is no wonder that most of the population continues to keep living the way they always have; driving more road miles every year regardless of price and environmental damage; using increasing amounts of electricity regardless of price and environmental damage.
So what will this new legislation do to help us be smarter and make better use of the energy that we all agree is disappearing and getting more expensive? Wading through 464 pages of legislation to find out is hard work.
Those of us that can’t stand to read through all of that, should simply contact their elected representatives and tell them you want them to vote to take away the oil and coal industry subsidies that have been in place for decades and give those subsidies to the new guys and the little guys- the solar, wind, and energy conservation industries. It’s the fair thing to do. Don’t give it to the bio-fuels industry. Creating Bio fuels takes more regular fuel to make than the bio-fuel it produces. There is no objective study that says otherwise. Why would we want to support legislation that makes us run out of gasoline faster? I know, Ed Abbey claimed he drove a Cadillac just to hasten the end of the fossil fuel era. So now Governors and the rest think we could be saving the world by driving more metal. Are you paying attention?
If you want more renewable energy used to generate your electricity, if you want the future to harness, clean and renewable technologies instead of replacing one destructive fuel with a different destructive fuel, we must all take action.
Come on, make that call.
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