Hi. It’s Mr. Andersen and this is AP environmental sciences video 27. It is on energy reduction.
Humans on the planet use 17.7 terawatts or trillion watts of energy every year. It is
a huge number . It is equivalent to the amount of energy produced through radioactive decay
in the core of the planet. So it is a lot of energy. And most of it is coming from fossil
fuels, from oil, coal and natural gas. Just a little bit from renewable energy. And most
of that is going to be hydroelectric power and general biomass. And so there is a debate
on should we use solar, wind, geothermal? Well that is not a good conversation to have
yet. What we should really start with is let’s reduce the size of that pie. If we can reduce
the amount of energy that we are dealing with, that is better then all of those other choices
combined. And so the two ways that we can reduce is through conservation and efficiency.
So if we look at a car what would energy conservation be? Do not use the car. You should walk or
you should take a bike or mass transit. We also have energy efficiency. What does that
mean? Let’s increase the miles per gallon of that car and maybe make it a hybrid vehicle
so it could use less fossil fuels that way. And so we can look at energy reduction on
the large scale all the way down to the small scale. If we are looking at electricity that
is generated, a lot of it is going to be during peak times of the day. So during the middle
of the day. So how do we reduce that? Well the power company knows this. And so what
they do is they have a tiered system where they charge you more the more electricity
that you use to disincentivize you from using so much electricity. And they can also use
variable pricing. So they can charge you more during the middle of the day. And they can
hope to push you kind of off-peak hours. What can we do? Well we have energy conservation
and efficiency. Energy conservation is when we are using less of the energy services.
And the energy efficiency is when we are using less energy for those services. So there is
a subtle difference between the two. And so let me give you some examples of that. So
if we are dealing with your house, energy conservation could be turning down the thermostat.
So removing the amount the heat that we are having and putting on a jacket. What would
be an example of energy efficiency? Maybe using more efficient light bulbs in your house.
So we are still getting the same amount of light, but we are just using less energy for
it. If we are looking at transportation you would walk or bike. If we are looking at efficiency,
maybe get a hybrid vehicle. If we are looking at technology, use a laptop, not a desktop.
It is going to use less energy. What about efficiency? Use energy star technologies.
Those are going to be ones that use less energy for a given amount of energy services. And
the best way to do it is design better. Make homes sustainable. So we can do that by orienting
them the correct way. Using passive heating. And then using the heat inside the house and
holding it inside the house. And so if we look at energy demands, it is going to be
variable throughout the day. So during the middle of the day we are going to be using
more energy than we do at night time. And so how can we deal with this? We can use a
tiered system, so we can charge people the more energy they use. So that incentivizes
them to do conservation and efficiency. And then we can also use variable pricing. So
make it cheaper to use energy in the middle of the night then during the middle of the
day so we can kind of push people to those off peak hours. But the two pronged attack
is this whole idea of conservation and efficiency. And we really do live in an energy society,
with energy services. Conservation, use less. Efficiency use less energy for the same services.
And so examples in your house, energy conservation, turn down the thermostat, take a shorter shower.
Efficiency, use better light bulbs. If we are looking at transportation, walk or bike.
Use mass transit. If we are looking at efficiency, get a more efficient car. If we are looking
at technology, unplug your laptop right now. If it is plugged in and it does not have to
be charging, you are using more energy. And do not even use a desktop. Use a laptop. Or
use a device that uses less energy. When we are looking at efficiency use an energy star
appliance. Those are going to be ones that have decrease, 20 to 30 percent in the amount
of energy that they are actually using. Now the government can have an effect on this
as well. And so during the huge energy crisis of the 1970s they wanted to increase gas mileage
on cars because we did not have enough gasoline. And so they instituted the CAFE standards
or the corporate average fuel economy standards. And so you can see what they did is they said,
the fleet of cars, so if you are Ford for example, the average car has to move its gas
mileage up to around 25 miles per gallon. And so industry did that. But it has remained
static this whole time. And more recently we have new CAFE standards that said by the
year 2016 the average has to be 35. And so the corporations will hit that. And by 2025
it is supposed to be 55. And so what we can do is we can have higher standards and that
causes corporations to create more efficient vehicles. The easiest way to do it with the
least amount of inconvenience however is not getting new fuels or it is not conserving,
it is not becoming more efficient. The easiest way with the least amount of inconvenience
is just designing appropriately. So your house is a great place to start. So if we are looking
at your house we should orient your house, when it is built, so it is facing south, so
we can get a huge amount of energy from the sun. That is passive energy. And we want to
build it so we are not getting a huge amount of energy coming in during the summer but
we are getting more energy, especially in the northern climates during the winter. And
then we want to maintain that energy on the inside. So getting really good insulation.
These are all things that we can do. You do not even have to think about it when you walk
in your energy efficient house. It is just designed in a way that it going to consume
less energy or reduce the amount of energy that you are using. So to reduce peak demand
we can use a tiered system or variable pricing. Energy reduction is conservation and energy
efficiency. Examples, turn down the thermostat, walk or bike, use a laptop instead of a desktop.
Examples on efficiency use highly efficient light bulbs, get a hybrid and maybe we could
also do energy star appliances. And then we can use design. So orient your house in the
right way, use passive heating and thermal inertia. So those are all ways that we can
reduce energy. And that is the best form of energy there is. And I hope that was helpful.