Reducing Energy Consumption

There are lots of reasons why we should explore methods of reducing our energy consumption.

• Most of the energy we use we have to pay for
• Generating electricity pollutes the environment
• generating electricity consumes valuable limited resources

One way of reducing our demand for energy is to look for ways of reducing the amount of energy we waste. We can do this by using more efficient devices.

Here is some information about two types of light bulb. They are as bright as each other but differ in many other ways.

	Normal bulb	Energy efficient bulb
Power in	100W  (100J per second)	25W  (25J per second)
Power out	7W	7W
Efficiency	7%	28%
Cost	30p	£1.50p
Lifetime	1000 hours

There are a few things to consider when looking at methods of reducing energy consumption.

Is it   EFFECTIVE -                 does it save a lot of energy?

Is it   COST EFFECTIVE -     does the saving justify the extra expense?

From the data in the table above you should see that there would be arguments for and against replacing all the bulbs in your house with energy efficient bulbs.