The following facts and information should be helpful in developing your :30 Energy Smart video. Contest winners will be chosen from those who make the most creative use of this material in "educating" and engaging the public.
Interesting Energy Facts
In focus groups many people expressed interest in the environmental impact of their energy use, but were equally motivated by saving money. They were also likely to engage in energy efficiency actions if they were personal, local, interactive, positive, easy, and fun.
Phantom Load is the energy that continues to be drawn from appliances and electronics in your household, even while they are in the OFF position. A TV, lap top, cell phone charger, and play station, when plugged into a wall outlet will continue to draw power even while turned off.
Phantom load wastes roughly the same amount of energy as produced by 18 power plants!
In an average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off!
Phantom load can account for up to 10% of your monthly electric bill!
Plugging in your entertainment center and your computer workstation to a power strip and turning each off could save you about $60 per year.
Because laptop computers draw 70% less power than desktops, when you next buy a computer, consider a laptop. It could save over $18 a year.
If you leave three 60-watt light bulbs on for just an extra hour a day, you'll waste approximately $7.50 a year. That adds up when you think about how many bulbs are left on unnecessarily.
If every American home replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a CFL bulb, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save over $600 million and reduce the emissions equivalent of 800,000 cars.
If you switched just 5 traditional light bulbs to CFL's, you'd save over $150 over the life of those bulbs and over 2,000 lbs of Green House Gases.
If you are using a second refrigerator in your basement or garage, do you really need it? Unplugging it would save you over $100 per year.
For each option, an estimated savings in kWh per year is given, along with dollar savings. The annual savings can be determined by multiplying kWh used by the average price of energy-- 11.23 cents/kWh in 2008.
