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So now the race is on to find substitutes for oil and natural gas before these sources dry up or become so scarce that few people can afford them. It’s a race against time. Some experts predict, for example, that the United States oil reserves will be used up by about the year 2035. They’re the optimists. The pessimists are predicting 1998!

And this brings us to energy conservation today. Every bit of oil or gas energy we save now will “buy” us that much more time to come up with other sources to generate electricity, power our transportation systems, and produce the many products we all have come to take for granted. What Can We Do to Help?      This booklet will give us a better understanding of how energy is lost. In Section I you will take a look at some of the factors affecting your own family’s energy consumption. In Section II you will investigate some ways to reduce that energy consumption. And, finally, in Section III we will talk about solar energy —one of the most exciting and versatile alternatives to oil and natural gas.      We hope you will have fun doing the experiments — and learn something too, of course. But more than that, we hope these exercises will raise your “energy awareness” so that you will be constantly on the alert for ways to save or avoid wasting energy in your daily life.