stabby_cicada made an interesting comment on how personal choice and leading by example can be combined with politics to effectively address climate change. This is a good article that combines the two approaches, it shows you some changes you can make along with reminding people the importance of voting, and being involved politically. The article mentioned the biggest user of fossil fuels in homes may be a gas fired furnace so if it’s time to replace your furnace you may want to consider an electric heat pump.
One thing not mentioned in the article is if you have any incandescent light bulbs that receive regular use consider replacing them with LED. The payback period can be pretty fast for example if you replace a 60w light with a 10w LED assuming you use it for an average of two hours a day and you pay $0.20 kw/h you’ll save $7.3 per year. This was calculated as follows:
(60 energy usage of old bulb - 10 energy usage of new bulb) * 2 hours per day average usage * 365 days in a year / 1000 to convert from watts to kilowatts * 0.2 cost per kwh = $7.3.
Over a 10 year period that’s $73 in savings.
If the light bulb cost $2.5 to buy you’d break even in only 125 days (a little over 4 months) if we use the same usage assumptions.
Payback period can be calculated like this:
$2.5 cost of light bulb/(50 our energy savings*2 hours of average use)*(1000kw /0.2 price per kwh)
The market also listens to your wallet. If you buy your electricity from a mixed source, there’s definitely some coal and gas in the mix, which isn’t helping with this problem. Instead, buy your electricity from sources you’re comfortable with, such as wind and solar. Nuclear is also better than coal, but that’s a can of worms for another day.
I have never heard of someone in the U.S. being able to choose their electricity source or vendor. (Other than putting up your own panels)
Must be nice!
Oh…. I didn’t know. Weren’t you guys supposed to be like all about capitalism and all that?
Anyway, here’s how it works. In my area there’s only one electrical grid, so that grid operator will collect transmission frees to finance their grid maintenance and shady corporate shenanigans.
That grid is connected to various sources, such as coal plants and wind farms. There are many companies that sell energy everywhere within the country, so I can choose whichever I want. Every company also has different products such as “mixed energy” or “100% renewable”, so I can choose the one that fits my ethics and budget.
We do claim to be the home of the free market a lot, yeah!
That sounds like an eminently reasonable system. The only way I could improve it would be to nationalize or whatever the delivery grid.
It used to be nationalized but that idea was too socialist/communist/gay or whatever for our politicians, so now each area is run by a different grid company.
Typical.