Household Energy Usage and Conservation :: Environmental Essays

Household Energy Usage and ConservationHousehold vim preservation is a very practical and realistic approach to conserving energy in spite of appearance our society. US houses consume a tremendous amount of natural heavy weapon as well as electric automobile energy. It has been calculated that the amount of energy consumed deep down the US increased exponentially from slightly 1850 to 1975. If energy act to increase at this rate, we would be experiencing severe energy shortages in our accepted society. Luckily, locomote towards conservation, including various energy regulations, have curbed that growth somewhat, brining the predicted 160 Qbtu/yr for the year 2000 down to round 93.8 Qbtu/yr by the year 1996. However, household energy usage is still a major issue as households consume close to 38% of the total consumed energy and contribute greatly to natural gas consumption and issues such as global warming. therefore, it is classical that people understand how we us e energy in the household and what steps can be taken to conserve that energy.One process within households that contributes greatly to energy consumption is space set offing. Space heating precisely refers to the heating of the air throughout the house. It has been calculated that space heating consumes about 5.3 Qbtu per year. About 3.7 Qbtu come from natural gas and about .9 Qbtu come from evoke oil. Only about .4 Qbtus of electrical energy are consumed by space heating. There are various looks which one can space heat their house. The most common way is to use a furnace, however, stoves, fireplaces, electric electrical electrical resistance heaters and electrically powered heat pumps can also be utilise to heat the house. Furnaces run mostly off natural gas and consort to be around 60-90% efficient. Older units can be as first-class honours degree as 50% efficient. Electric resistance heaters are usually around 100% efficient at producing heat. However, this s tatistic is slightly misleading when thinking about total efficiency because you must account for the electric energy macrocosm consumed by the heater. Power plants are only able to produce electric energy from natural gas at about 35% efficiency. Consequently, electricity is more expensive than natural gas to produce, making electric resistance heaters more expensive to operate. This energy cost must also be accounted for when adding up the total cost of electric resistance heating.Another way to heat ones house is to use a fireplace.