The cheapest and quickest way to reduce our energy costs and pollution from electricity generation is energy efficiency. This includes turning equipment off when not in use and selecting appliances that use less energy for a given task (i.e. 5 star white goods, LED lighting etc). It also means designing and building houses and workplaces to be naturally cool in summer and warm in winter. Such buildings may still need additional heating in winter and air conditioning in summer, but the equipment can be smaller and run less than for buildings without such climate responsive features.
This is done
- by sufficiently insulating the building envelope, in particular the ceiling or roof
- by protecting windows from the summer sun, awnings on northern windows, with additional screening for eastern and western windows if necessary
- by allowing in the sun in winter whilst avoiding glare and
- by allowing breezes to flow through the building easily.
In industry, most motors have an annual cost of electricity considerably greater than their upfront cost. This means replacing standard equipment with high efficiency motors and pumps can be extremely economic. In addition, by replacing long, thin, winding piping with sharp corners and big pumps with short, large-diameter, relatively straight piping and small pumps, savings can also be made upfront.
Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL)
Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
An OLED desklamp by LG.