The Truth About Western Energy Consumption

During the last few decades we have added more and more appliances, electronics and entertainment systems to our homes. While these make our lives increasingly comfortable and our spare time increasingly enjoyable, they likewise pose a serious problem - they consume lot's of power.

People today do not even remember the last oil crisis, when it in many countries was forbidden to use up more than a certain amount of energy. Today we use high quantities of energy, mostly electricity, without a second thought of the appropriateness of our actions.

For the corporations it is a simple matter of economy - energy conservation can push up the yearly revenue by a great deal. The average consumer on the other hand use up a lot of power, mostly electricity, for no good reason whatsoever.

No? Shaking your head in disbelief at the above statement?

Well, can you recall when last you didn't turn off your computer "since it takes so long to start back up", how much is your television turned on without you really watching, do you keep indoor temperatures at a level where you could walk around in your undies all day even in the winter, etc. ?

Or maybe you are one of those "sporty drivers" who can't even make it across a parking lot without flooring it?

Many consumers would probably answer yes to more than one of the questions above, and that means they are using way more energy than they genuinely require to. In fact, a majority of consumers are spending hundreds on electricity they don't even realize they are employing. For instance, leaving you television set in stand-by mode (when the little red light is on and you can turn it on with the remote) will continuously draw energy and can cost you more than 100 dollars over the course of an entire year.

And by assuming a more relaxed driving style with your vehicle - not the same as driving as a snail, mind you - you can save not just on fuel, but on tires and the rest of the automobile as well.

Western society could do much to lessen the need for energy simply by learning to turn of our electrical devices and appliances properly when we aren't going to use them. Such a simple act, on a worldwide scale, would reduce the power consumption so that we could practically turn off many of today's power plants - instead of building new ones.

Charles Hawkins is an editor at Knowmoreabout.net. You can get many practical tips on home energy consumption from the Knowmoreabout.net portal: http://www.knowmoreabout.net/homegarden/energy/