My Union Station

Consumer Power

Do we know how much power we have as consumers? Think about it, we all need or want something and there is always someone willing to sell it to us. But what if we decide to change our buying habits?

Can we move the market? Can we shape future markets? I don't know about you, but I don't like paying $2.00 for a gallon of gas. Like I said earlier, my wife has a car that gets better gas mileage than mine. I often think I should "borrow" it for my commute to work and save myself a few dollars.

What about our consumption of electricity? On average for a mid sized home we use about 1500 Kilowatts per month. Of course with more and more consumer electronics being purchased this total continues to increase. Consider this; General Electric (and others I'm sure) makes a compact florescent replacement lamp designed to replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb. It uses only 26 watts of electricity and has a 5 year warranty. I recently replaced 5 bulbs in my basement and this will save me nearly $300.00 over those 5 years.

OK. Again this may not sound like much but if I could convince my family and my wife's family to do the same thing it would change things in the long run. Imagine having to build another power plant to keep up with energy use.

I've also been reading and reviewing LED (light emmtting diodes) technologies and I believe this has the potential to cause a dramatic change in home and industrial energy use. You may not have noticed this, but traffic lights are being replaced by LED lamps. there are also street light replacements available. Not only does this reduce energy consumption, but it reduces the need for frequent maintenance. The LED lamps are far more reliable and therefore don't burn out as often.

you can even buy LED bulbs to replace the standard incandecent bulbs in your home. They are expensive but will last considerably longer than the standard bulb. The energy savings are tremendous.

posted by vjpfire @ 8:32 PM