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Information about Energy Savings

All of us are concerned about energy savings, but often we think there's nothing we can do on an individual basis. This article posted on FoxNews.com on July 14, 2006 gives helpful tips on saving energy in your home: Around the House: Energy Efficient Appliances to Help You Save Money.

And Inhabitat reports that saving energy can be beneficial to your health as well as good for the environment:

Replacing a 100-watt incandescent with a 32-watt Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb (CFL) can save you at least $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb, AND, if every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with a CFL, it would prevent enough pollution to equal removing one million cars from the road. How’s that for a win-win situation?

But doing our part in our own homes isn't enough. Each of us uses a relatively small amount of energy compared to the huge amounts used by municipalities. According to an article in the July 29, 2006 issue of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the cost of operating streetlights would increase 9 to 12 percent if cities change from traditional streetlights to the new shielded types required by an Arkansas state law. There was such an outcry from municipalities in Arkansas to this law that another law was passed that allows cities to pass local ordinances opting out of the requirements because the new streetlights are "prohibitively expensive."

Laws that require private property owners to use specific kinds of outdoor lighting can increase energy costs to individuals, businesses, and customers. David B. Kopel and Michael Loatman describe the increased electricity costs caused by overly-restrictive lighting-fixture ordinances in Dark Sky Ordinances: How to Separate the Light from the Darkness:

If a parking lot owner wants to cover the entire lot with at least some light, and municipal regulations force the owner to use full cut off shields on the light poles, then the parking lot owner will have to use more poles, which will be spaced relatively closer together. As a result, more electricity will be used to illuminate the parking lot. So the aesthetic environmental gain (no upward light from the parking lot) must be balanced against the environmental loss (more energy used). And the extra electricity expense imposed on the parking lot owner (and, necessarily, on the customers of the parking lot) must be considered.