Math and Awareness

By: Jon Dougal
Date: February 9, 2009

Many people avoid numbers. They think they’re not math inclined so they go into avoidance. BUT numbers are important. Just as you need to review your budget occasionally to see if there is any adjustments necessary to stay afloat, so too are numbers necessary to get a grip on the true costs of a society.

When you know that it takes fully 20% of all the energy produced in the US to move water around you can see how every time you turn on the faucet it cost you (the taxpayer ) money. Using this knowledge you might ask yourself a few questions when you see water running down the street with no apparent reason.

When you know that buildings consume about 40+% of all energy produced you start to be more enthusiastic about energy efficient buildings. Buildings produce 40% of all green house gas emissions should cause you to be concerned when businesses leave the front door open and the heat or cooling air is leaving the building at great cost to the business and therefore reflected in the price you pay at the cash register.

Breaking down the figures take the residential sector (from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy) consumes about 20% of total U.S. energy. About 5% is used in space heating, 2.6% air conditioning, 2.9% water heating, 1.3% regeneration, 2.4% lighting, and 1% color television. Clothes washers, dryers, freezers, cooking, personal computers, furnace fans, boiler circulators, etc., do not, by themselves, reach the 1% level.

But “other uses” reach the 2.8% level! Think hot tubs. The commercial use of refrigeration is just about equal to the residential use of refrigeration. In other words, the Shaw’s and Hannaford’s of this world use about as much energy for refrigeration as do households.

Put those figures in your consciousness budget and go about your daily life with a new perspective.