A FEW THINGS WASTE WATCHERS SHOULD KNOW

To a scientist,“energy” is a very special thing. It is the ability to do mechanical work or to produce a change in temperature (to heat or cool). If think about it, you'll realize that all of our familiar uses of energy fall into these two categories. For example:

• we produce light by heating the filament of a lightbulb to make it glow brightly
• we wash clothes by swishing them around in a tubful of water (this takes mechanical work)
• we heat our home in winter by first heating air orwater, and then by blowing warm air into each room or circulating the warm water through radiator
  
  

Much of the energy we use every day is in the form of electrical energy. As you probably know, in most parts of the country, electricity is produced by generating plants that burn coal or fuel oil. Thus, by conserving electricity you are actually conserving coal or oil.

A gallon of oil, or a pound of coal, or a cubic foot of natural gas contains a certain amount of energy. To know how much, you have to understand how energy is measured. One very popular measure is the British Thermal Unit (or BTU, for short).

One British Thermal Unit (one BTU) is the amount of energy required to increase the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.