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Sam Schest
Professor Al-Taher
Writing 101
3 November 2014
Saving Electricity
Everyone loves money, right? How would you feel if somebody handed you a
twenty dollar bill for doing nothing out of the ordinary? Believe it or not, this can happen
to you! Well, nobody will actually hand you twenty dollars, but with the methods I’m going to talk about in this paper, it will make you save money, maybe more money than
you would think! Electricity is always running in your house non-stop and what people
don’t know is that electricity is generated by fossil fuels which harm the earth’s environment. There are certain things you can do to prevent your electricity bill from going up,
and not only if that saving you money, but it is also making the environment much better. I’m going to talk about the things you can turn off or on that you wouldn’t even think
is using up that much electricity and also things to buy so that it would make the environment a better place.
The number one easiest way to save electricity is to turn off the lights in whatever
room you are not using. If you use incandescent bulbs turning them on and off won’t ruin them. No matter how long you will stay away from a room, if it’s fifty minutes or fifteen, turn off the lights! The amount of electricity you will save by doing something little
like that isn’t throwing fifty dollar bills in your pocket a week, but the small amount of
money you get doing it will add up over time. “Fluorescent bulbs are more affected by
the number of times it is switched on and off, so turn them off when you leave a room
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for 15 minutes or more” (Fifty ways to Help). So if you use fluorescent bulbs in your
house, you are actually saving and making the environment better.
That being said, fluorescent light bulbs are highly recommended over incandescent light bulbs. People say they won’t buy fluorescent light bulbs, because they are a
few dollars more expensive than your regular incandescent light bulbs. This is true, but
Fluorescent light bulbs last 10-20 times more than incandescent bulbs. (Fluorescent vs.
Incandescent Bulbs). That being a fact, people still don’t believe that fluorescent bulbs
last that long compared to incandescent but I know why. People don’t know how to
properly use fluorescent bulbs; they are so used to using incandescent bulbs so they
turn of fluorescent light bulbs just as frequently as their old ones. This is where they are
wrong. Fluorescent bulbs are more effective being on more than they are getting turned
on and off. Using fluorescent light bulbs will not only save you money by saving electricity and by not purchasing so many light bulbs but they are better for the environment.
The incandescent light bulbs use heat which means it wastes a lot of electricity. The fluorescent bulbs use less heat so therefore it would be more efficient.
If every house in the United States were to replace just on incandescent light
bulb with one fluorescent light bulb, the pollution reduction would be the same as to removing one million cars from the road today (Fluorescent vs. Incandescent Bulbs). All
you have to do is get one new fluorescent bulb, and you are already making a difference! You may say you won’t get fluorescent light bulbs because you don’t like the lighting of them since they produce a higher watt. That is fine, but you can use these bulbs
in a walk-in closet, basement, or garage where you don’t always use a light. These are
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small, baby steps in order to make this environment better. You can also save your
money by buying light bulbs that last longer.
There are some things you can do besides turning off lights and using more efficient light bulbs. There are little things that you can do around your house that will make
a big impact in the environment and also save you money. One thing that you can do is
instead of turning on the lights, open a window. Simple right? Making this a habit will
result in you saving money on electricity and also money. If you notice that all your appliances are out of date, you can purchase some new energy saving model appliances.
Another thing that people do is wash their clothes and dry them excessively. This can
be prevented by not throwing relatively clean clothes in the hamper. If it’s nice outside
and you already washed clothes, put them outside and let the sunshine take care of it. If
you are totally against drying your clothes outside just remember, you clothes last longer while being air dried. (50 Ways to Help the Planet). Changing just the water cycle on
your washing machine can make a difference significantly! “If all the households in the
U.S. switched from hot-hot cycle to warm-cold, we could save the energy comparable to
100,000 barrels of oil a day” (100 Ways to Save). When the weather is bearable and
you don’t need to have the air condition on, open up some windows and turn the air off.
The money will add up, and it will also save a ton of electricity.
When it comes down to using electricity, you use a lot of it when you're not even
at home. You most likely leave a ton of appliances plugged in when you go off to work
or go out with your friends. You’ll not be home and you'll have the air condition cranked
up or the heat on, but it wouldn’t doing anything for you but wasting your money and
putting electricity to no use. Something else that people always leave plugged in is their
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computer monitors at home. When you are out of the house working or doing other
things, your computer is probably sitting on stand by using up your electricity. If you
don’t use your computer all the time, you can unplug it and then see the money you
save up just because you did it. Another alternative is using a power strip; it reduces the
amount of electricity. If you need to use your computer all the time and can’t wait till it
starts up, you can put your computer in sleep or hibernate mode so there is a quicker
access instead of leaving it on a screen saver where it would be constantly using a
good amount of energy.
Most ask, “Why does electricity effect our environment?” This is because mostly
all of the electricity being used in the United States is generated from fossil fuels, such
as natural gas, oil, and coal. (Fluorescent vs. Incandescent Bulbs). Maybe you are unable to do everything I have listed to do in order to save some electricity, but doing maybe one, two, or three of the things I said makes a difference, even if it’s something
small. Thirty-nine percent of Americans use of total energy comes from electricity.
“Therefore, electricity consumption is an important portion of a consumer's environmental footprint (Environmental Protection agency). So make sure you look through your
house and check if you need to make any light bulb replacements, or if there are things
plugged in your outlet that you barely use. Think about it like this, if you save electricity,
you save money, so with that extra money you save up from doing the right thing, by
yourself something nice!
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Worked Cited
"50 Ways to Help the Planet." 50 Ways to Help the Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov.
2014.
"100 Ways to Save Energy at Home." 100 Ways to Save Energy at Home. N.p., n.d.
Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
"Fluorescent (CFL) vs. Incandescent Bulbs." Fluorescent (CFL) vs Incandescent Bulbs.
N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
"How Does Electricity Affect the Environment?" EPA. Environmental Protection Agency,
n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.