Introduction
All of us use energy on day to day basis. It is certain that almost everything we do uses energy for example cooking, transport, cooling, and entertainment among many more others. Though many of us take this issue for granted, energy makes our lives productive, enjoyable and comfortable. Energy conservation can be termed as any effort that leads in use of less energy for example use of energy saving bulbs. Conservation of energy will lead to less consumption per capita and therefore offset some of the growth in supply of energy necessary to keep up with population increase.
Renewable versus non renewable energy
Renewable energy is also called self sustaining. It includes things like wind, water, sun and geothermal which have been around the earth since it was formed. This type of energy is sometimes difficult and expensive to harness. Large amounts are required to produce very small amounts of fuel or electrical energy. On the other side, non –renewable energy refers to those sources that can not be replaced once they are used. Some of the examples include coal, oil and natural gas to mention but a few.
Methods to conserve energy and help the environment
Energy saving doesn’t take many days of planning as many people think. There are several things one can do right from now to start saving the energy and cutting down on costs which in turn will save our environment. Some of the immediate methods can be applied start from now to conserve energy. One of these methods is reduction of reuse and recycles. This can be achieved through reduction of the amount of waste we produce and can be condensed by trading in minimally packaged food and selecting products that can be reused over the disposable ones. Through the recycling and elimination of waste, you will save energy and significantly reduce the emission of carbon dioxide by at least one pound. This can translate into significant energy saving if every one can start immediately this practice saving our world a great deal. Another method that can be employed by all of us right from our homes especially those who use heating devices to keep the rooms warm. It involves shutting the doors of the rooms that are not being used. Shutting doors to the unused rooms will result in an overall reduction of surface area that air conditioning and heating system have to heat and cool. Also use of showers rather than bath dramatically reduces the amount of heat used since showers use less heat than baths.
Some small investment can really pay off. Buying of energy saving bulbs (compact fluorescent bulbs) for your most used lights. Although these bulbs cost more, one saves money in long run for they use little energy as compared to an ordinary bulb and lasts longer. The energy saving bulb provides attractive and an equivalent light like the ordinary bulbs. It has been known that it is only 10% of energy consumed that produces light whereas the rest 90% is used to just make the ordinary bulb hot. If therefore each and every one of us can replace the ordinary bulb with the energy saving ones, we can save energy that is equivalent to what nuclear power plant produces in one year.
Government efforts
It is accepted that energy’s supply in the country are considered as the most important level of energy planning. Some of the measures that government can use towards energy saving are: the substituting use of oil to other energy types, reduction of imported energy by use of domestically available energy like bio-gas, developing new and renewable forms of energy, encourage citizens to use waste and industrial heat as alternative form of energy among others.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the world is currently faced with the challenge of energy conservation due to depleted resources that used to provide energy. The renewable energy like water is under threat due to global warming and there fore calls for world inhabitants to look for other ways of producing and conserving these resources. We need to critically internalize why we should conserve the energy and use it appropriately if at all we want to see the coming generation enjoy these resources. It there fore calls for each and every one to start conserving energy right away no matter how little it appears. This will go long way in sustaining our environment. The government should be in the fore front to educate its citizens on importance and complications associated with energy issues. To sum it all, I will leave you with one slogan “saving energy is saving life”