The act of using less electricity does benefit both you and the environment:
- It does benefit you because using less energy does lower your electricity or gas bills
- It does benefit the environment because less natural resources will be used to produce energy. Energy that in many cases it is just wasted.
It may not look worth the time and effort to find out how to save a few watts here and there, but let’s take a look to the bigger picture.
For example, if a household does manage to decrease the electricity usage by 500 Watts a day and assuming a prize of 0.1 euro/dollar per kWh, that would mean:
- A daily electricity saving of 0.5 kWh (Find out what a kWh is?) or 0.05 euro/dollar
- A monthly electricity saving of 15 kWh or 1.5 euro/dollar
- A yearly electricity saving of 182.5 kWh or 18.25 euro/dollar
It doesn’t look that much, only 18.25 euro/dollar per year, so why should I bother?
Well, let’s take a look to the bigger picture.
If instead of 1 household saving 500 Watts a day we do consider 5,000 households saving 500 Watts a day, and assuming a prize of 0.1 euro/dollar per kWh, the numbers are:
- A daily electricity saving of 2,500 kWh or 250 euro/dollar
- A monthly electricity saving of 75,000 kWh or 7,500 euro/dollar
- A yearly electricity saving of 912,500 kWh or 91,250 euro/dollar
Now, 91,250 euro/dollar savings are worth to look at, aren’t they?
But let’s give a step further and have a look to the environmental impact of having to produce 912,500 kWh.
According to this article from statista:
- To produce 1,927 kWh, it is necessary to burn 1 metric ton of coal
- To produce 578 kWh it is necessary to use 1 barrel of residual oil
- To produce 99 kWh it is necessary to burn 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas
Now, let’s say that 5,000 of us becomes aware of the importance of the energy efficiency at home and manages to conserve 912,500 kWh of electricity.
That would mean that we would be supporting our environment by preventing the unnecessary usage of:
- 473.5 metric tons of coal
- Or, 1,578 barrels or residual oil
- Or, 9,217,717 cubic feet of natural gas
We can really make an impact into conserving our natural resources.
Maybe not all households can manage to save 500 Watts of electricity, maybe some households are more efficient and manage to save maybe 50 Watts a day…
But, regarding of the amount, we all need to realize that energy conservation is both beneficial for us an the environment and act towards finding the ways to lower our energy usage at home.
Thanks for your time and we hope that you found this article informative and of value.
