homepage - goals - energy - energy efficiency
Clean Energy Solutions: Energy Efficiency
To produce the energy that powers America, we depend on a dangerous and expensive mixture of fossil fuels and nuclear power. But for nearly all the thousands of ways we use energy, we have the technology to use less — reducing pollution and lowering our energy bills.
Energy efficiency is a source of energy like coal, gas, or nuclear — except instead of drilling for the energy using derricks and mines, we can tap into this clean energy source by using ingenuity to do more with the energy we generate. In every home, office, and factory we can use energy more efficiently by putting to work currently available products like advanced lighting and windows that better insulate from the heat and cold.
Energy Efficiency in the Home
Lamps: Replace those old light bulbs
If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), it would prevent enough pollution to equal the removal of one million cars from the road.
Heating Ducts: Warm Your House, Not the Earth
If just one in ten households used current technology to upgrade their inefficient heating systems, we could keep 17 billion pounds of pollution out of the air.
Windows: Tighten Windows and Loosen Your Budget
If all windows were as efficient as the best products now widely available in the marketplace, the average household would save $150 a year, and reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by about 4,300 pounds per year.
Energy Efficiency at the Office
Office Lighting
By using the latest in commercial lighting, office buildings can reduce the energy needed for lighting by 60%.
Office Appliances that Ease Energy Expenses
An office can reduce the energy their computers, copiers, and fax machines use by 50% by using the latest in energy efficient office equipment.
Energy Efficiency In Factories
Steam Power
Facilities would save 2-8% in fuel use if they changed to boilers using steam; and, if those facilities that already use steam systems to operate their boilers were to take on industry-wide improvements, they could save $4 billion in fuel expenditures and cut 32 million metric tons of emissions.
Combined Heat and Power Turbine Systems Conserve Cash
If industries adopted advanced CHP turbine systems they could achieve an efficiency of 80%, thus cutting costs and the emission of green house gases dramatically while paying for its implementation 6.9 years.
Energy Efficiency on Streets and Highways
Street Lights that Save
Encourage your local government to improve the street lights in your town or county. Cities and towns in Massachusetts are switching to more efficient LED bulbs that may yield up to 50% in energy savings.
Traffic Light: Better Light Bulbs
Inefficient traffic lights cause vehicles to spend more time idling in traffic, creating unnecessary air pollution. By replacing the regular light bulbs in a traffic light with Light Emitting Diodes-we can cut energy costs of traffic lights by 90%.
Check out or Green Tips Page for more Energy-Saving ideas!