Air Quality Awareness Week 2015 – Part 2: Homing in on home energy use

Hybrid_Power_System[1]The name of the game: reducing pollution.

Various air-pollution-reduction strategies will be presented throughout this series. Obviously many, many more exist than what are being offered here. But, each and every one presented has value and benefits air quality, even if the benefit is but a minor one.

Meanwhile, the two presented today – indoor lighting and outdoor independent photovoltaic power generation – equally find application in residential, commercial and industrial settings.

Let there be (LED) lighting: a good place to start is inside the home. Replacing fluorescent with light-emitting diode (LED) lighting could result in energy use being less. Perhaps LED lighting’s most attractive feature is its relatively low power consumption. Moreover, LED lights operate far cooler than what typical incandescent lights do. Add to this that LEDs last and last and last. And what’s more, they are easy to replace.

In discarding, both fluorescent and LED lighting should be properly disposed of. Check in your local area to learn what provisions (programs and services) are in place for proper fluorescent and LED lamp/light disposal.

Under the sun: In the home saving energy is the name of the game. And, in some cases, it takes going outside of it to achieve just that. A home powered by an outdoor solar (photovoltaic) system is one that can do much in the energy-savings regard.

SolarpanelBp[1]Solar system purchase and installation costs can be high. Though once installed and operational, these save money over the long run compared to electricity that is purchased exclusively from the utility.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels are relatively easy to clean when dirty. By simply hosing them off, panel surface dirt will wash away. Not just this, but clean panels make for more efficient panels.

A big advantage of having one’s electricity being PV produced and supplied becomes quite clear during black and brown outs. In other words, in many cases, there is no interruption in service.

The operation of a PV system coupled with home LED lighting on the inside along with other energy-savings-measures taken, can go a long ways toward reducing demand on the utility-fed grid supply and that, in turn, can help in the area of less pollution being pumped into the air from power plants that rely on the burning of fossil fuels as a means to produce energy and electricity.

You may wish to consult the book: “30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth,” an Earth Works Press publication distributed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, to learn more.

Up next in Part 3, the commute.

Image above (upper): U.S. Department of Energy

Published by Alan Kandel

2 thoughts on “Air Quality Awareness Week 2015 – Part 2: Homing in on home energy use”

  1. What wind? How wind is created.
    Our part of the world, water is water, such as wind and water on the surface of our land is. This wind instrument is always around us. material are wandering in the water, floating like this. These materials are mixed with a and a very strong way. Just like water. As we have seen fog. The ingredients are as a magnetic screen. And why is our everything decay. A room in the house when the fan is turned on, the fan on the air in some parts of a magnetic screen was torn off and the worse part of our body, and we do feel it. the wind has been created with the help of the wing. If you do not have any energy from the outside, so the wind will not occur .

  2. Thanks for the great share! I also like the idea of Home Energy. The best part I like is this: The reliability and availability of modern energy sources cause people to tend to assume that it will always be accessible. And as for the case of non-renewable energy sources, most people do not know or maybe even refuse to accept that it will eventually run out.

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