Energy Conservation

 Energy Conservation
 A Major Part of the Solution to Energy Generation and
 Global Warming
 Dennis Silverman
 U. C. Irvine Physics and Astronomy
 Why Us (U.S.)?
 With 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. uses 26% of the world’s energy.
 A U.S. resident consumes 12,000 kWh of electricity a year, nine times the world’s avg.
 The average American household emits 23,000 pounds of CO2 annually.
 Two billion people in the world do not have electricity.
 Just using off the shelf technology we could cut the cost of heating, cooling, and lighting our homes and workplaces by up to 80%.
 Electric Energy Conservation in the Home
 Art Rosenfeld, Former Commissioner of the California Energy Commission, and pioneer of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
 Some slides from his aide, John Wilson
 California Electricity Consumption
 Annual Electricity Use Per California Household (5,914 kWh per household)
 Conservation Economic Savings
 If California electricity use had kept growing at the US rate, kWh/person would have been 50% higher
 California electric bill in 2004 ~$32 Billion…
 so we’ve avoided ~$16 B/yr of electricity bills.
 Net saving (accounting for cost of conservation measures and programs) is ~$12 B/year, or about $1,000/family/yr.
 Avoids 18 million tons per year of Carbon
 Appliance standards save ~$3B/year (1/4)
 Lighting
 Compact Fluorescents or Long Fluorescents using plasma discharges use only 1/4 of the energy and heat of incandescent lights, which derive their light from heating filaments hot enough to emit visible light.
 If every home changed their five most used lights, they would save $60 per year in costs.
 This would also be equal to 21 power plants.
 The fluorescents also last up to 10 times as long.
 Replacing one bulb means 1,000 pounds less CO2 emitted over the compact fluorescent’s lifetime.
 Traffic signal LEDs use 90% less energy and