Energy Conservation

Energy conservation is a hot topic in the world today for a multiple number of reasons. The nonrenewable resources of the world such as oil, coal, and gas will eventually one day run out. There will come a day when these resources are so scarce or completely unavailable to the population. The government, companies, and consumers around the world rely on these resources heavily. There is a great need to make conserving our energy a top priority. In this paper the focus will be on the consumers themselves and how they relate to the waste of energy as well as what they can do to help conserve it.

The issues that has brought energy conservation to a very public eye stems from a few different factors. First and foremost is that majority of our energy today comes from fossil fuels such as gas, oil, and coal. All of which are nonrenewable. The second issue stems from being human beings who use these sources. Educating people and showing them how they to can help conserve energy just within their own lives is crucial. It would also be very beneficial to get corporations to also set the example and help with conserving energy on their end.

Some people are not exactly sure what they use daily that consumes energy. Starting with our homes and our vehicles is crucial. Every item that is plugged into electricity in our home is using energy. When heating and cooling is being used more energy is also being used. Every time a person gets in their car and drives energy is being used. All this energy is available to use through our resources of oil, coal, and gas. Which, as was said before, will eventually run out.

There are a number of different programs and tax credits that have been made available to the public to help encourage energy conservation as well as reward those who do practice this. The amazing thing that people need to keep in mind is that conserving energy usually also means money savings for them. Sometimes that money savings is immediate and at other times the savings can be seen over a period of time. Programs have been established to offer consumers rebates for purchasing energy efficient appliances. Tax credits have also been offered for consumers who purchase items to make their homes more efficient. Things such as energy efficient windows, doors, washers, and dryers are some of the items that qualify for these opportunities. So not only can a consumer get some money back on these purchases they will also save over time with usage on their electric bills as well as heating and cooling bills.

There was research conducted that showed that if every household in the US could increase their energy conservation by about 20% the U.S. as a whole would save millions of dollars a year on energy. This also means that our current usage of resources would drop by 20% as well. Knowing this I feel that our goal should be to get each household to reduce their overall energy consumption by 20%. The goal is to accomplish this through education and government support. In order to get us to that point the following plan has been created.

First action for our 20% energy usage reduction plan in all households is research that will last for approximately 1-3 months dividing the current households up into the following four categories. The four categories will be new housing construction, established housing with people in low income neighborhoods, medium income, and high income. The reason we are dividing each is so we can later determine how best to address people in these areas in creating a more energy efficient household that will conserve energy.

Considering new construction the goal is to provide incentives to the builders as well as enforce regulations that have been put in place by the government to ensure they are building houses that will be energy efficient. This can be done through the materials that the builders specifically in the insulation that is used as well as the types of windows and doors that are used. We plan to be able to provide builders with tax credits and rebates to the builders that will help them keep their costs low while accomplishing the needs to make this plan work. The goal is to have programs set up specifically for new construction with in six months.

For low to middle income households education is key. There are so many different ways that we can educate these households and teach them that they too can make a difference and conserve energy. Education is the key and it starts at a young age. Ensuring that schools have programs available to their students on the different ways they can conserve energy has proven to be helpful over the past few years. Taking into consideration, that the age group18-30 is the second biggest age group to use less energy then others leads us to want to make sure that education continues. The reason being is because they have been educated in regards to the need to conserve energy as well as provided with the information they need to do so. Providing coupons and rebates to these households will also help those who want to help the environment and their pocketbooks.

Higher income households who have the money to make drastic changes to their households that will help in conserving energy is being planned to be handled a little bit differently. The plan is still to provide them with tax credits. However, our need is to convince them of the importance of making their