Conserve energy and reduce costs

By MENG YEW CHOONG star2green@thestar.com.my

Energy-efficient appliances not only pare down electricity bills, they reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power generation too. Energy guzzler Malaysia is a high energy user. According to the World Bank, each Malaysian used 2,693kg of oil in 2008. In comparison, each Indonesian used only 870kg, Filipino 455kg and Chinese, 1,598kg. In terms of electricity use, each Malaysian used an average of 3,667kWh (kilowatt hours) in 2008. In the face of depleting oil and gas reserves, and rising carbon dioxide emissions, curtailing the amount of fossil fuel burnt for power generation is the clear way to go. While waiting for that to happen, KeTTHA has announced the banning of incandescent light bulbs by 2014, and to mandate that air-conditioners be set no lower than 24C, starting with Government-owned buildings. KeTTHA hopes that widespread adoption of greener appliances can help consumers save costs and at the same time, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Targetting household appliances makes perfect sense, especially those that consume the lions share of a homes electricity usage. Typically, these are refrigerators, air-conditioners and clothes driers. Modern energy-efficient appliances use significantly less energy than older appliances. Current energyefficient refrigerators, for example, use 40% less energy than conventional models did in 2001. As such, replacement of old appliances is one of the most efficient measures to reduce electricity usage. According to Bosch Germany: Modern household appliances consume up to 73% less electricity than comparable appliances of 15 years ago and thus offer enormous potential for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The highly efficient appliances that were sold in Europe in 2010 by Bosch (including Siemens) will lead to electricity savings of 1.9 billion kWh. Following this, if all households in Europe changed their more than 10 years old appliances into new ones, 20 billion kWh of electricity would be saved annually, hence reducing carbon dioxide emissions by almost 18 million tonnes. Efficiency labels KeTTHAs way of informing consumers on what constitutes an energy-efficient appliance is through its little known EE label, which uses a star rating, with the most efficient appliance having a five-star rating. EE labelling is entirely voluntary at the moment but at least a dozen manufacturers have come on board to support SAVE, which is actually a rebate system to induce consumers to choose five-star rated appliances over those that are less efficient. Even though SAVE was launched in Putrajaya two months ago, those who are familiar with the pulse of green purchasing do not think that Malaysians are aware of the concept of energy efficiency in the first place. I dont think Malaysians have been properly educated on energy efficiency concepts. This view is, of

course, not backed by statistics, but merely an observation. This is because our electricity, being subsidised indirectly through lower priced gas to TNB, is relatively cheap, said David Lee Boon Siew, managing editor of Green Purchasing Asia, a publication specialising in green procurement. Anthony Tan, executive director of the Centre for Environment, Technology & Development Malaysia (Cetdem) feels the same way, remarking that what attracts Malaysians are low-priced products. Understanding about saving electricity is perhaps confined only to the use of low-wattage compact fluorescent lamps or LED bulbs instead of high wattage incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes. It also does not help the cause of EE or conservation when households using less than RM20 (or up to 92kWh) of electricity a month get away with paying nothing since October 2008. Lee is of the opinion that Malaysians are generally unaware of the Energy Commissions energy efficiency labelling. The industry has been using other more well-known labels (from Europe, the United States, Japan or Singapore). Unless it is made compulsory, they will not want to paste so many labels on a product. The Energy Commission will have to do more to promote the label if it wants buy-in. According to Tan, the average Malaysian does not recognise the EE label, let alone understand what it means, even though it is already six years old. The voluntary part actually serves as a disincentive to retailers to display the label on products. While the intentions of SAVE are good, the Malaysian consumer has to first understand what EE is all about, and why it is important to achieve EE as a nation. People have to understand the concept of climate change and the relationship between wasteful energy use and high carbon dioxide emissions. Good intent and good results dont necessarily come hand in hand. Carrots and sticksAt any case, those who have bought five-star rated appliances are happy with the results they are seeing. Lee had bought a five-star rated Panasonic inverter 395-litre fridge last November to replace his creaky 15-year-old fridge. I noticed an immediate drop in my electricity bill by about RM40. While I didnt do an in-depth check on whether it was due to the fridge alone, I would say it definitely helped. My normal electricity bill is about RM200. While giving of rebates is practised by some countries, other developed countries like Singapore has chosen a non-rebate model to push for EE. It made energy-labelling compulsory for air-conditioners and refrigerators in 2008, and added clothes dryer to the list in 2009. Early this month, it enforced a minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) on all registrable appliances (air-conditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers) sold there, with regular audits and checks on the stock sold in the market to ensure compliance. Whenever you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants. You do not have to do without to achieve these savings. There is now an energy efficient alternative for almost every kind of appliance or light fixture. That means that consumers have a real choice and the power to change their energy use on a revolutionary scale. The average American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. Together, we use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every day of the year. By exercising even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a significant amount!

Home appliances Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly. Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater. Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity use. Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya. Select the most energy-efficient models when you replace your old appliances. Look for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs - not the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually cut hot water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Replacing a typical 1973 refrigerator with a new energy-efficient model, saves 1.4 tons of CO2 per year. Investing in a solar water heater can save 4.9 tons of CO2 annually. Home Heating and Cooling Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year. Small investments that pay off Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of CO2 per year. Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater. Use less hot water by installing low-flow shower heads. They cost just $10 to $20 each, deliver an invigorating shower, and save 300 pounds of CO2 per year for electrically heated water, or 80 pounds for gas-heated water. Weatherize your home or apartment, using caulk and weather stripping to plug air leaks around doors and windows. Caulking costs less than $1 per window, and weather stripping is under $10 per door.

These steps can save up to 1100 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. This service may be provided free or at low cost. Make sure it includes a check of your furnace and air conditioning. Getting around Whenever possible, walk, bike, car pool, or use mass transit. Every gallon of gasoline you save avoids 22 pounds of CO2 emissions. If your car gets 25 miles per gallon, for example, and you reduce your annual driving from 12,000 to 10,000 miles, you'll save 1800 pounds of CO2. When you next buy a car, choose one that gets good mileage. If your new car gets 40 miles per gallon instead of 25, and you drive 10,000 miles per year, you'll reduce your annual CO2 emissions by 3,300 pounds. Reduce, reuse, recycle Reduce the amount of waste you produce by buying minimally packaged goods, choosing reusable products over disposable ones, and recycling. For every pound of waste you eliminate or recycle, you save energy and reduce emissions of CO2 by at least 1 pound. Cutting down your garbage by half of one large trash bag per week saves at least 1100 pounds of CO2 per year. Making products with recycled materials, instead of from scratch with raw materials, uses 30 to 55% less for paper products, 33% less for glass, and a whopping 90% less for aluminum. If your car has an air conditioner, make sure its coolant is recovered and recycled whenever you have it serviced. In the United States, leakage from auto air conditioners is the largest single source of emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which damage the ozone layer as well as add to global warming. The CFCs from one auto air conditioner can add the equivalent of 4800 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. Home Improvements. When you plan major home improvements, consider some of these energy saving investments. They save money in the long run, and their CO2 savings can often be measured in tons per year. Insulate your walls and ceilings. This can save 20 to 30 percent of home heating bills and reduce CO2 emissions by 140 to 2100 pounds per year. If you live in a colder climate, consider superinsulating. That can save 5.5 tons of CO2 per year for gas-heated homes, 8.8 tons per year for oil heat, or 23 tons per year for electric heat. (If you have electric heat, you might also consider switching to more efficient gas or oil.) Modernize your windows. Replacing all your ordinary windows with argon filled, double-glazed windows saves 2.4 tons of CO2 per year for homes with gas heat, 3.9 tons of oil heat, and 9.8 tons for electric heat. Plant shade trees and paint your house a light color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color if you live in a cold climate. Reductions in energy use resulting from shade trees and appropriate painting can save up to 2.4 tons of CO2 emissions per year. (Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of CO2 from the air annually.) Business and community Work with your employer to implement these and other energy-efficiency and waste-reduction measures in your office or workplace. Form or join local citizens' groups and work with local government officials to see that these measures are taken in schools and public buildings.

Keep track of the environmental voting records of candidates for office. Stay abreast of environmental issues on both local and national levels, and write or call your elected officials to express your concerns about energy efficiency and global warming. .

Why Conserve Energy?

Energy should be conserved since we are consuming disproportionate amount of energy and that day is not far when all our Non-Renewable resources will expire forcing us to rely just on Renewable Sources. The electricity that we use comes from nuclear power, coal power plants, Oil that we use to run our vehicles are fossil fuels that were created million of years ago from decaying plants. When burned they emit carbon-dioxide which is harmful to humans and the environment. Apart from these it also helps us to save money, mitigates the numerous adverse environmental and social impacts associated with energy production and consumption. These include air pollution, acid rain and global warming, oil spills and water pollution, loss of wilderness areas, construction of new power plants, foreign energy dependence and the risk of international conflict over energy supplies. Energy conservation extends the lifetime of equipment and reduces the maintenance cost by operating less hours and at less than maximum capacity.

Reduce Consumption on Non-Renewable Sources

Consumption on Non-Renewable Sources must be reduced as much as possible. Resource Depletion : By using these resources in excess, they are going to deplete one day and will take another millions of years to form again. Save Money : Usage of fluorescent bulbs , solar electricity may cost expensive initially but prove to be cost-effective in the long run. Many energy efficiency and conservation measures are better investments than the stock market or bank interest. Reduce Carbon-dioxide : If Non-Renewable resources are used up to the limit they may also help in reducing the carbon-dioxide. Pollution from nuclear and coal power plants cause diseases like asthma, emphysema etc. Climate Change : Due to increase int the rate of these resources it also affect the climate greatly, Drought, Severe storms, floods, land loss, erosion of soil and heat deaths are few examples of climate change. Ozone Layer Depletion : Ozone layer in the atmosphere protect us from ultraviolet rays from reaching the earth thus, making life on the earth possible. Adverse affect on humans and the environment : Extraction of Uranium and Coal from beneath the earth cause huge affect to the lives of cola miners. These people have high cancer death rates. They also harm the environment and agricultural lands. Acid Rain : Coal power plants and vehicles emit sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxides (NOx). These travel beyond the local area and are harmful to the health throughout whole regions. When SO2/NOx and water vapor mix under certain conditions, sulfuric acid and nitric acid, know as acid rain, are formed. This is very harmful to the lungs. It kills fish in lakes, corrodes property (buildings, monuments, cars), harms the soil (releasing toxins), and harms trees and crops. Global Warming : With so much dependence on Non renewable sources global warming is taking place all over the world and the result which is glaciers are melting which is causing the rise in the sea level. ..

Energy efficiency and conservation have numerous benefits for both the environment and human health. These include reductions in air pollution, acid rain and global warming; oil spills and water pollution; loss of wilderness areas and biodiversity; construction of new power plants; foreign energy dependence and the risk of international conflict over energy supplies. Our actions today will affect future generations. When incandescent lightbulbs burn out, replace them with compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) which use about 75% less energy and last about 10 times longer! LEDs use even less energy and dont contain trace amounts of mercury. Caulk and seal around windows, doors, and other drafty areas in your home. energy conservation is a very important subject however in our country it has been adopted due to shortage of electricily and not because of the environment and other considerations. People still use substandard equipment, wiring which is burden on our system. In our country people mostly take into consideration short term results such as using substandard wiring with impure copper which is cheap to purchase but in the long run will increase the monthly bill