How to explain the hidden costs of using electricity and save energy

Your lighting and appliances can use more energy than heating your home! According to the latest information from the US Department of Energy, and other sources, space heating and electricity for appliances and lighting are equal consumers of energy in a home in terms of cost and combine to represent 68% of household energy use as of 2003.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• LED light bulbs

1. Energy Use in a house Review a typical home energy use illustration that indicates the following:
   
   Space heating: 34% Natural Gas or Oil
   Lighting: 20% Electricity
   Other Appliances: 14% Electricity
   Water heating: 13% Natural Gas or Electricity
   Air Conditioning: 11% Electricity
   Refrigeration: 8% Electricity
2. Review an example of energy use:
   
   A typical home in the Midwest requires 60 to 80 million btu per winter for heating.
   This would represent the equivalent energy in 17,579 to 23,439 kWh of electricity.
   If lighting accounts for 20% of your energy costs, it actually represents much more energy than your heating systems!
3. Energy lost in transmission of the electricity Understand that huge amount of energy is lost in transmission of the electricity:
   
   An efficient modern coal fired electric power plant typically operates at 30% efficiency, and a further up to 20% of the electricity generated at the plant is lost in transmission of the electricity.
   Therefore, the energy used to create the electricity to power your lights is at least 2.45 TIMES MORE than the energy used to heat your home.
   It actually takes about 4.16 kWh equivalent of heat energy from burning oil, gas or coal to produce just 1 kWh of electricity.
4. Conserve electricity whenever possible. Turn off lights when they are not needed.
5. Reduce electricity use
   
   by replacing incandescent and compact fluorescent lights with more efficient LED light bulbs which are available in a variety of sizes and provide the right amount of light for your applications.