Negawatts (reducing energy use through conservation) is the cleanest and often the cheapest energy source, beating wind, solar and nuclear.
Since early 2006, my family has reduced our electricity use by about a third. This has required no major lifestyle changes (although some minor ones). It cost nothing-- and, going forward, it will save us hundreds of dollars per year.
Dick Cheney notwithstanding, conservation is a key aspect of a sound energy policy. In fact, government statistics show that if every American household made the same proportionate reductions as us, we'd reduce total US electricity demand by over 10%-- enough to reduce American coal consumption by about 25%-- making an enormous dent in greenhouse emissions.
And if we were to try harder, or spend a bit of money, we could reduce emissions a lot more. But here's what we did so far:
(Update: Pat208 asks in the comments whether you've joined the One Billion Bulbs team that Pat diaried recently. Currently Instapundit is cleaning our clock, and gloating. Click hereto join our group.)
First, a bit of background. I live in a 2000 square foot single-occupancy house in the northeast, heated with natural gas. I'm married with 1 or more kids (sorry.. trying to reveal as little identifying info as possible).
Second, some disclaimers. As you'll see on the graph below, I started at roughly the US average. Although I've reduced this significantly, I've done nothing to brag about-- my household electricity usage is still rather high, about the same as the average Japanese household. Also, this graph may exaggerate how well I'm doing, since I'm expecting an uptick in the summer (some air conditioning) and in the winter (fans associated with heating system, and lights on more).
On the other hand, as described below, I expect to continue reducing my average electrical use.
Third, my local utility happens to charge electricity rates that are nearly double the national average (I have no idea why). That means I am saving a lot more money by reducing my electric usage than you probably will. (I could plow the savings into buying renewable energy-- but my utility doesn't offer this option.) The reduction in my electric bill has more than payed for all the gadgets I've bought so far to help reduce my bill. And the bill will stay low, even if I stop buying gadgets.
Now, here's a graph of our average monthly electricity use for the last 40 months or so.
My monthly household electricity use (in kW-hours), as measured by my utility, for the periods before (maroon) and after (green) we started conserving. Also shown are US and Japanese average household usage from 2001 (most recent data available). Source.
Once we got serious about conservation, we slowly and steadily lowered our electric usage.
OK, now let me tell you how I lowered my bill, so that you can do the same. But first, I'd like to stress the importance of introducing changes gradually. It is very tempting to try to do everything at once-- but this can lead to disaster ("you don't want me to ever use the drier again, dear??!!!"). Phase changes in, slowly. Look again at the graph of my electricity usage. Over the course of a year, we reduced our electricity use gradually, at the rate of about half a kilowatt hour per month, every day, for a year. (We didn't plan it this way.. it just sort of happened.) Over time, these small changes add up to significant, sustainable cuts in power usage.
Lighting
Turn off lights when you leave the room. Obvious and simple in principle, but difficult to implement in practice. What if I'm going to go back into the room in 10 minutes? In 5? In 2? I tend to believe fairly aggressively in turning off lights, because often people think they'll return soon, but then get distracted.
CFLs A no-brainer. By now, we've replaced nearly ever indoor light-bulb we could with a CFL. Of about 20 replacements, one died within a few weeks. And I'll admit, the slight delay when turning on a lap light did take some getting used to.
Replace less-efficient lights with more efficient ones. We have some non-standard fixtures and track-lights for which we simply cannot find appropriately sized CFLs. So the solution, for now, was to buy fixtures that do take CFLs and use those instead of the less efficient ones for now. Eventually, they'll start making CFLs that fit our fixtures.
You do not need to leave the outside lights on. Ever. (Well, ok, maybe for guests.) Its nice for you to put the lights on three hours before your spouse comes home so s/he doesn't have to fumble with locks and keys in the dark. But you can also solve the problem with a $5 or $10 keychain light. Better to use a low-power LED for a few minutes then hundreds of watts of outside lights for a few hours. And you won't accidentally leave the lights on all night (as many in my neighborhood do).
(Update-- In the comments, DisNoir36 suggested outdoor lights with motion-detectors on them. Solves this problem and lets you know when something comes on your property.)
Clothes Dryer. You do not need to use the dryer as much as you do now. In fact, you may not have to use it at all. The driver is a huge electricity suck. Buy an indoor drying rack or clothesline. We bought three indoor drying racks (roughly $25 each) which we keep in our unfinished basement. A load of laundry takes about 2 days to dry, so you have to plan ahead a bit. Obviously, this is a definite lifestyle change.. so it helps to have support from all other family members. Take my advice: Do not stop using the clothes-dryer cold-turkey. Phase in this lifestyle change. Eliminating just one dryer load per week will save quite a bit of energy.
Some people prefer sun-dried clothes to drier-dried clothes. Others prefer the reverse. Personally, I've found that I can't really tell the difference within 10 minutes after I put the clothes on.
Measurement: Kill-a-watt & Smart meters: One great way to reduce energy use is to understand how you currently use it. That allows you to attack the biggest problem first.
I bought a Kill-a-watt for about $25. That's a device which goes in between an appliance and the wall socket, and tells you how much power the appliance uses (instantaneously, and averaged or totaled over time). This lets you figure out what is worth worrying and what is not.
I also bought a Power Cost Monitor from Blue Line Innovations just a few weeks ago. (I got a deal: my utility is trying these out, selling these $135 devices to 200 customers (first-come, first-serve) for only $30.) This is basically a kind of Smart meter (although its not hooked up to the Net.) It tells you how much electricity your entire household is using (instantaneously, averaged or totaled over time). They're kind of fun to play with: turn the oven on, and watch your power use skyrocket.
The kill-o-watt and Smart meter are even more useful when used together. I learned, for example, that nearly half of my current power usage is to run my refrigerator. OK, time for a new fridge.
Vampires: There's a lot of talk out there about vampires, which are devices that draw power even when off. For example, pretty much anything with a remote will suck a few watts constantly, just listening for the remote. I took the standard advice and put some of these (TV, stereo) on a power strip, which is off when they are not in used. However, to be honest, my trusty kill-o-watt tells me I'm not really saving much power by doing this. I could save more power by turning off my wireless modem when overnight and while we're not home, but I haven't done that, yet.
Appliances-- As I mentioned, I need a new fridge. My current one uses around 5 times the electricity that a new energy-star fridge would. I've just started researching, but I think payback time will be 3 to 5 years (which is a lot better than any wind or solar installation is in my neck of the woods). So I'll probably do this, which will further reduce my power usage. You might also find it worthwhile to invest in new appliances.
Conclusions
I am sick of hearing that reducing greenhouse emissions is too expensive or will wreck the economy. I am sick of hearing that our national goal should be to slow the rate at which growth in electricity usage increases. My experience indicates that a typical household can slash emissions by a third or more with modest effort and zero expense (actually, considerable savings). Americans use so much energy that there is a lot of low-hanging fruit ready to be picked.
Now for the bad news...
Low-income folks probably won't implement these sorts of conservation measures. They cost too much up front, even though they save money in the long run. I spent one or two hundred dollars on light bulbs, drying racks, meters, lamps, and other non-essentials. That is a lot to spend to "save the planet" particularly for a family with a takehome pay of, say, $20k or $30k per year.
High-income folks probably won't implement these sorts of conservation measures. The amount of money saved (a few hundred a year in a part of the country with typical electricity costs) just is a small part of the income of a family earning, say, $70k/yr or more. As an hourly wage, its just not very good, especially because it can involve, let's just say, delicate negotiations with other family members.
Conservation makes large numbers of people slightly better off. Wind, solar, nuclear and carbon sequestration offer the potential of making small numbers of people rich. Our economic system is naturally biased towards the latter, instead of to conservation-- a far more effective option.
This is why it is so important for us to do this sort of thing and talk it up to our friends. For so many reasons, we need to conserve.
Have you and your household started seriously trying to conserve yet? Tell me in the comments what worked and what did not.
(Update: There are many fine sites out there to learn more and find new ways of saving electricity. One good one is Michael Blue Jay's)