Follow These Tips to Conserve Energy at Your School Today

Every day, we are looking for more ways to save energy to help our environment. We turn off lights when we're not in the room, shut off faucets when we don't need water, and recycle things for various uses so they don't go to waste in landfills. About 10% of the total energy consumption in the U.S. was from renewable energy in 2015. That may seem acceptable, but there is definitely room for improvement. So, if you are a teacher or school administrator, follow these tips to help conserve energy in your school today.

Electricity

The most obvious thing you can do when it comes to electricity conservation is to turn off all lights when they're not in use. To remind your students to turn off the lights, try hanging up little signs next to light switches. Use energy efficient or LED bulbs instead of the traditional bulbs. Run lessons and experiments on energy conservation in your classroom, so your kids can understand it better. The more they understand its importance, the more serious they'll take turning off the lights.

Heating and Cooling

Set your thermostat to a reasonable temperature to ensure a level of comfort for both teachers and students. Fans can also help cool a room down. This way, you are saving energy by not relying on air conditioning. Programmable thermostats can also help you keep track of a temperature in a room.

Tech and Computers

Assure your computers are able to go into sleep mode when not in use. Doing this makes saving energy a lot easier. Have students turn off monitors if the computers are not going to be used again for a while. Always check to be sure all the computers are off at the end of the school day. Computers take up a lot of energy, so cutting down any way you can is good.
Schools are a powerhouse of energy usage, from lights to heating to the various tools of the trade used to teach a child. It can be difficult sometimes to figure out how to reduce energy costs, but providing a good, quality education to kids is an excellent way to start.

Follow These Tips to Conserve Energy at Your School Today

Every day, we are looking for more ways to save energy to help our environment. We turn off lights when we're not in the room, shut off faucets when we don't need water, and recycle things for various uses so they don't go to waste in landfills. About 10% of the total energy consumption in the U.S. was from renewable energy in 2015. That may seem acceptable, but there is definitely room for improvement. So, if you are a teacher, school administrator, or even a student, simply follow these tips to help conserve energy in your school today.

Electricity

The most obvious thing you can do when it comes to electricity conservation is to turn off all lights when they're not in use. As a reminder to turn off the lights, try hanging up little signs next to light switches. Use energy efficient or LED bulbs instead of the traditional bulbs. Run lessons and experiments on energy conservation in your classroom, so all your students and colleagues can understand it better. The more people understand its importance, the more serious they'll take turning off the lights.

Heating and Cooling

Set the thermostat to a reasonable temperature to ensure a level of comfort for both teachers and students. Fans can also help cool a room down. This way, you are saving energy by not relying on air conditioning. Programmable thermostats can also help you keep track of a temperature in a room.

Tech and Computers

Assure your computers are able to go into sleep mode when not in use.  Turn off monitors if the computers are not going to be used again for a while. And always check to be sure all the computers are off at the end of the school day. Computers take up a lot of energy, so limiting their energy use anyway you can is good.

Schools are a powerhouse of energy usage, from lights to heating to the various tools of the trade used to teach a child. It can be difficult sometimes to figure out how to reduce energy costs, but many energy saving ideas, even as insignificant as they may seem, can help make your school and the environment more energy efficient.

Beat the Summer Heat Without the Big Energy Bill

Americans look forward to summer vacation all year, but the warmer weather can also bring it's own set of challenges. The heat is great for a beach vacation, but it also makes the average energy bill go through the roof. Air conditioning represents the largest use of electricity in American homes, and that statistic is unlikely to change with the record high temperatures that the United States has already seen this year. Alternative energy companies encourage consumers to think differently about their power suppliers for environmental reasons, but there are also economic advantages involved.

Three Ways Homeowners can Slim Down Their Summer Electricity Bills:

Install a programmable thermostat

Even before alternative electricity suppliers become involved, homeowners can reduce their summer spending by installing and programming a smart thermostat. This appliance can maintain your desired room temperature to keep you comfortable. Heating and cooling systems will kick on and off as needed, rather than working continuously. 

Motivated homeowners can even set temperature changes according to time of day, so that their system isn't burning energy to keep the house cool while everyone is away at work. The result is an efficient heating and cooling system that expends less energy. Programmable thermostats save consumers an average of 10% on their yearly energy bills. 

Update your appliances

Alternative energy companies often suggest an energy audit, or an appliance-by-appliance look at where your home uses electricity. Out dated TVs and old refrigerators can be significant drains on your energy bank. It may be more cost effective to replace those appliances than to pay for their inefficiency. For instance, modern refrigerators are 60% less expensive than they were in 1975, and they use 75% less energy. 

This means you can abandon that weird ice cave in the back of the freezer and save. Heating and cooling systems are especially big drains, so think about your hot water heater, oven, and microwave in addition to your fridge. Updating appliances is a great way to slim your energy bill before you consider alternative energy companies.

Consider alternative power companies

The energy market is slowly shifting and becoming more competitive.  Previously, regulated markets meant that only one power provider supplied all aspects of a home's energy and the cost was controlled publicly. Deregulated markets allow companies to become innovative and compete to offer the best services for the best price. The deregulation of electricity markets isn't about making the power supply less controlled; it's about letting new technology improve the market. Look into your options and decide what's best for your energy needs. 

Alternative Energy - Now And In The Future

Alternative energy sources such as solar and wind have become more a part of our lives as advancing technology has made them increasingly viable. Energy industry deregulation has enabled these renewable energy companies to enter the market and compete with traditional power suppliers.

But how does it affect us as individuals and consumers? As alternative electricity for your business or home becomes price-competitive, you'll begin to consider the advantages of switching over. In the meantime, there are a number of interim ways to cut your energy costs. One that has become increasingly common is the smart meter. Around 50 million smart meters of them have been installed on homes across the United States. That represents about 43% of total residences.

About 19% of your home electricity bill is the cost of air conditioning. Simply installing a programmable thermostat can reduce that expense by approximately 10% every year. Another major factor affecting how much you pay is your water heater, which accounts for 14 to 18% of your total utility bill. Try turning off its breaker when you're asleep or at work. If that results in significant savings, consider buying a water heater timer.

Usage varies by household, of course, but the average American's monthly electricity usage is 903 kilowatt hours. That translates to a bill of about $107. Before considering alternative energy sources, you'll need to know how much they will save you on an ongoing basis and how long it will take to amortize their cost of installation and/or equipment.

Over the next few years, we can expect to see increasing application of alternative energy sources as our society attempts to wean itself from the use of fossil fuels and coal to generate power. But even now, we should all endeavor to do what we can to reduce unnecessary use of electricity.

It just makes good sense, in terms of both our wallets and our environment.

Green Energy Gets Smart

It was so many decades ago that there were approximately 2.5 billion people on the planet, and of that number, approximately 152 million lived in the United States. Citizens of the U.S. expected a strong power supply to keep their refrigerators cold, their air conditioners humming and their radios and TVs going. The power infrastructure was expected to accommodate the constant ebb and flow of energy consumers on-again, off-again mindset, and the power companies understood that they had to move quickly to fulfill that demand as well as grow to meet the coming demand. 

Since then, the U.S. population has grown to approximately 320 million, and the amount of electricity use has also grown greatly even as a plethora of companies have and continue to conceive and improve consumer goods requiring electricity. In 2013, American energy consumption was measured to have been more than 13 times greater than what was used in 1950. The power grid has grown as well, and while it sometimes has some hiccups, the huge consumer and commercial use it maintains is constantly being improved. 

The amount of electricity consumption in the U.S. will give one a jolt: in 2014 alone, about 3.8 billion kilowatt hours were used to power American residential, commercial, industrial and transportation. The load this puts on power companies is significant, of course, and 36% of the use was consumed by residential use. As such, this is where much of the advancement in power use, savings and measurement may be found. 

Within the residential use of electricity, power companies have determined that most of that use is for heating, lighting and air conditioning. Nearly as much as those three are refrigeration and some appliances (such as TVs and other entertainment equipment) account for a significant amount of the electricity consumed. It has also been determined that somewhere around 40% of the electricity goes to laundry appliances (primarily clothes washers and dryers) as well as computers and computer peripherals. Nevertheless, advancements in appliances’ use of power continues to be a focus. These days, the average American refrigerator is 20% larger but costs 60% less than those sold in 1975, and it uses about three-quarters less energy. 

In the commercial sector, the single biggest use of electricity is for lighting. This amount of lighting covered is so vast as to seem invisible to us until we think about how our world would be if lighting were cut off. Street lights, parking lots, the bright exterior lights on buildings and the significant amount of lighting required to keep stores, offices and parks well-lit. Even small, seemingly little-used spaces require constant lighting: elevators, closets, walk-in freezers, dressing rooms, stairwells, underground parking lots and bathrooms are all examples of places that we each use but a few minutes of the day but because of safety reasons require near-constant and bright lighting. In time, alternative electricity for your business will be a big part of the typical business plan. 

Despite the great use of power in America, it is not constantly being increased in large amounts. Improvements in the efficiency of appliances, economic downturns and consumers’ careful use of energy consumption has contributed to a slight decline of power between 2008 and 2014. Smart meters are one aspect that helps power companies to understand when consumers’ power demands are at the highest, lowest and between the two. Approximately 50 million smart meters have been installed in U.S. homes, a figure which represents perhaps 43% of American homes overall. Smart meters also cut down on the energy required to read meters, which is significant when one thinks of the fuel, manpower and vehicle maintenance needed for power companies to get this done. 

Alternative power companies have entered the field over the last few decades and continue to improve market share as well as contribute to energy savings via green energy appliances, programmable thermostats, housing improvements and smart meters. There will also be newer and more easily acquired alternative energy sources that will allow consumers to choose energy sources that best fit their lifestyles.

Alternative Electricity Companies Look to Silicon Valley

As the world and the people that live in it have become more and more concerned with sustainability, energy suppliers' distributions have become an issue of importance. Many communities have already deregulated energy markets, and now one of the country's leading, innovative communities is doing the same. 

Silicon Valley has long been known as the intellectual hub when it comes to technology in the United States and now the city of Los Altos, California looks like they'll try their luck with alternative electricity companies. According to the Los Altos Town Crier, the Los Altos City Council will make their final recommendation January 26 on whether or not the Silicon Valley Community Choice Energy (CCE) Partnership will be allowed to work with the local PGandE electricity company already in place to deliver more renewable and potentially cheaper electricity. 

"It's given us a choice," said Los Altos Environmental Commission Chairman Gary Hedden, speaking on his own behalf. "To me, that’s the big attraction." 

The cost of generating and delivering electricity has decreased considerably in recent years thanks to technological advancements. For example, in 1995 the average delivered cost of electricity for investor-owned utilities was 7.1 cents per kilowatt hour and generation accounted for about two-thirds of the price. Today, generation only accounts for less than half the price, according to the Edison Electric Institute. 

For a community that's known for living on the cusp of modernization, they were hesitant to make the move from the norm. They first considered the move way back in April, and now things are finally moving after about a year. While no solid numbers on just how much consumers can expect to save on their bill are available yet, energy industry deregulation generally means more competition, better services, and ultimately better prices. 

Under the proposed partnership, CCE will actually work with PGandE. PGandE will maintain the grid and distribute the services, while CCE procures energy from alternative electricity suppliers. This strategy makes sense to at least one former member of the California Energy Commission and current resident of the area. 

"Utilities' business is to sell energy – not get customers to save energy," said Jeff Byron. "I'm keen on renewables, but the stuff I’m more interested in seeing is consumers being more efficient in their usage." 

Alternative electricity companies are a great solution to many of the problems local communities face and more officials would be wise to investigate services like Starion Energy for renewable, affordable, and reliable alternative electricity companies.