APPLIANCES AND LIGHTING

The next chance you get, go on a “scavenger hunt” around your home for things that use energy. You’ll probably find several dozen electric lights (don’t forget the bulb inside your refrigerator!), a dozen or more different appliances (refrigerator, TV, toaster, washing machine, etc.), a few electric clocks, a stereo, and maybe even an electric toothbrush.

It has been estimated that a well-equipped home consumes over 35,000,000 BTU’s of energy each year keeping these “energy eaters” well fed.

A lot of this energy is wasted energy! That’s bad news. But here’s the good news: It’s easy to conserve much of the energy we are wasting.

Here are four experiments that will turn you into an energy-saving expert. But, before you begin, let’s spend a few moments discussing how you can determine how much energy each of the electrical appliances in your home uses. It’s really very easy. All you have to do, is to look on the back or bottom of the appliance to find the electrical “ratings” information. Probably, you will see a group of numbers pretty much like the numbers in the sketch on this page.

Ignore all the numbers except the wattage rating. . . this number is the key to energy consumption.