COLUMN: Time to see the light and save energy

Columns

December 21, 2007

By David Lillard The Niagara Gazette Fri Dec 21, 2007, 09:51 PM EST

Each year as the calendar moves toward the new year, I find myself thinking about Dick Cheney. The vice president once called energy conservation a “matter of personal virtue” not part of a national energy plan. It was a backhanded compliment, likening people who practiced conservation to some quaint religious sect — pious but outside the American mainstream.

But just a few years later, public opinion polls show that Americans view energy conservation as patriotic. It’s something we do to preserve our way of life, not lose it.

Cheney is right, though. Conservation is virtuous. It’s what my parents, who grew up during the Great Depression, call being thrifty. They raised seven kids on a pipe coverer’s wages and sent them all to college through their thrifty approach to managing cash — an envelope for groceries — one for bread and milk, another for incidentals, another for things we kids needed. We lived pretty well for a working-class family, and my parents retired young, all thanks to thrift.

Energy conservation offers the same kind of thrift. You save to enhance your life, not yuk it up. In reality, a lot of energy produced in the United States is not used at all. It’s wasted like produce forgotten in the fridge. Here are a few examples from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Your television uses more electricity during the hours it’s turned off than the time when it’s turned on. If you watch television four hours each night, your set actually draws slightly more energy during the 20 hours each day because modern televisions idle in standby mode. That way the picture lights up instantaneously when you turn it on rather than taking a couple of seconds to warm up. This slow draw on your power is called vampire energy. If you can live with a two-second warm-up, you can save a lot of energy and not miss a single show. Those little clocks on microwaves and VCR’s are another example. They suck energy without adding to your quality of life.

An outlet with an on-off switch or a power strip is all you need to eliminate phantom energy drain, even if you just turn all this stuff off at bedtime, you’ll save a lot.

Your washing machine uses 90 percent of its energy to make hot water. Says the DOE: “Unless you’re dealing with oily stains, the warm or cold water setting on your machine will generally do a good job of cleaning your clothes. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut a load’s energy use in half. Energy saved; way of life intact.

About 20 percent of your house’s electricity goes to indoor lighting. Just using more efficient bulbs can save 50 to 75 percent on energy usage. Same amount of light — no cramp on your way of life.

For outdoor lighting, common sense saves even more energy. That’s because most outdoor lighting does a better job of lighting up the sky than the ground or sidewalk. And the big myth about outdoor lighting is that it deters crime. Evidence, some of it from the U.S. Department of Justice, suggests otherwise, DOJ found no statistical correlation between street lighting and crime. In San Antonio, law enforcement officials have found that darkening the area around public schools had the direct affect of lowering the vandalism rate. Since they reduced the level of lighting on schools, the annual cost of repairs due to vandalism went down from $160,000 to $41,000.

Why the difference between conventional wisdom and reality? Without getting too technical, it boils down to two things. First, the human eye can differentiate only so much contrast between darkness and bright light. When night lighting is too bright, as it usually is in shopping centers and car dealerships, the eye is literally blinded by light. And because a brightly-lighted parking area usually lies between “protected” stores and, say, a police cruiser on rounds out on the road, it can be impossible for police to see criminals standing right in front of a shop.

Full cutoff lighting fixtures point the light on the subject, not up in the sky. Using the right fixtures cuts crime and saves energy, and they cost less to operate but cost the same to buy as other lights. In short, saving energy preserves our way of life.

This list of examples goes on and on. So as we ponder anew year, ponder this. Personal virtue, national energy policy and old-fashioned American thrift go hand in hand.

David Lillard is co-editor the Blue Ridge Press, and he turns off the lights when he leaves the room.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Columns

GLYNN: VFW post keeps spirit alive
At one time, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars-Post 313 would march down Main Street in Youngstown on Memorial Day to the 1812 Cemetery near Old Fort Niagara. That same scenario out of the past occurred for decades in cities, towns and villages across the U.S.

May 27, 2012 1 Photo
HAMILTON: Dandelions, parades, broken poles and people
There are still those remnants of the fading bouquets of floral tributes that still hang at that base of a tree on city hall’s lawn. It is near where, last year, from his shiny silvery cart, Melvin Johnson sold hot dogs and sausages to both city employees and passerbys while his tiny white dog excitingly yelped at anyone that came near.

May 24, 2012 1 Photo
No Headline Provided
May 24, 2012
GLYNN: Gillibrand seeks help for prime bread-winners
A recent report shows that working mothers across the Empire State earn nearly 15 percent lower pay for the same work as men.

May 23, 2012 1 Photo
BRADBERRY: There really are spirits in the water
Over the centuries since it was “discovered” hundreds of millions of people have traveled from every corner of the world to visit Niagara Falls making it the most visited of the great waterfalls on the planet.

May 22, 2012 1 Photo
CONFER: The reality of rationed health care
The ongoing debate over Obamacare has brought to light the concept of rationed healthcare. Opponents of health care reform keenly point out that while the bill never explicitly calls out rationing, it features certain provisions that will lead the markets to adjust to strict federal demands and, therefore, dispense certain procedures in smaller amounts or not at all. Because of it being the first time that the subject has really come up in public circles, most people, especially on the right, believe that rationing is something new. It’s not. The free markets have been practicing that for quite some time. I should know; with a 4-inch long, 1-inch wide scar running south of my belly button – and a couple of related scars around my groin – I could be the poster child for rationed health care.

May 21, 2012 1 Photo
CITY DESK: A regrettable error
We owe Carol Sensabough an apology.

Several weeks ago, the long-time reader and Niagara Falls resident sent a letter to the editor explaining that she took offense to some of the things written by a syndicated columnist, Stephen Dick.

May 21, 2012 1 Photo
HIGGS: Niagara Falls' own West Side story
Trusello’s Bakery was on Elmwood behind the family home at 840 19th St. The family, Richard, William (Billy) and Sam along with two sisters, lived in the house.

May 21, 2012 1 Photo
GLYNN: Falls, Ont., rolls out red carpet for Wallenda
Before Nik Wallenda even started practicing his high-wire routine in downtown Niagara Falls, state Sen.George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, had noted the warm welcome the tightrope walker received across the river.

May 20, 2012 1 Photo
HAMILTON: Civic ‘ParticipAction’ can work too
Back in the 1970s, our Neighbors to the North ran a national campaign called ParticipAction to encourage Canadians to get off their butts and do things for the sakes of their bodies.

May 17, 2012 1 Photo
More Columns Headlines

Columns

Search Results

COLUMN: Time to see the light and save energy

Site Map

Contact Us