Energy efficiency got a bad name at approximately the moment that a cardigan-wearing President Jimmy Carter gave a televised address to the nation in 1977
and told us all to turn down the thermostats. Ever since, the idea of
using less energy has become equated in the public’s mind with sitting
in the dark, freezing (or, in summer, broiling) and drinking warm
beer—in short, going without. But the nation’s leading organization of physicists is here to tell
you that it doesn’t have to be this way, and that the nation can use
less energy to achieve the same (or higher) standard of living and
productivity. In a new report,
the American Physical Society points out that the United States—with 5%
of world population—accounts for 20% of the planet’s annual energy
consumption. We pay about $700,000 every minute to foreign countries for
oil, and generate more than half of the electricity for our buildings
from coal, the worst producer of CO2 emissions. But perhaps the
strongest reason for energy efficiency—notice it is not energy
conservation, although that would inevitably follow—is that it has
worked in the past: in 1975, the first year of U.S. fuel economy
standards for cars, the average car got 14 miles per gallon. That rose
to 28 mpg for new cars and 22 mpg for new pickup trucks, minivans and
SUVs by 1987. The vehicles still got where they were going, and people
drove just as much (more, actually)—hence efficiency, not only
conservation. The physicists identify several fat targets for improving efficiency.
Every 10% reduction in vehicle weight, which can be done through
greater use of high-strength steel, aluminum and composite materials
without compromising safety, produces a 6% to 7% increase in fuel
economy. Buildings’ use of energy can be reduced 15% to 35% through more
efficient insulation, windows and light; eliminating infiltration and
duct leakage; upgrading furnaces, boiler and air conditioners; new power
supplies that waste less electricity in stand-by or low-power modes;
and energy-efficient appliances—all of which pay for themselves in lower
utility bills. (Since 1975, Californians have saved more than $30
billion, $2,000 per household, in energy costs thanks to efficiency
requirements: the energy needed to cool a new home has fallen by
two-thirds, to 800 kWh per year, even though homes are 50% larger than
in 1975.) |