There are several reasons for wanting to go in this direction. Firstly, there is the consideration of pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming, as electrical power is primarily produced by coal burning powerstations. Secondly, the rising cost of power is making it a more viable option to invest in alternative technologies.

Electricity is the flow of electrical power or charge. It is a secondary energy source which means that we get it from the conversion of other sources of energy, like coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power and other natural sources, which are called primary sources. The energy sources we use to make electricity can be renewable or non-renewable, but electricity itself is neither renewable or non-renewable.

Electricity is measured in units of power called watts. A kilowatt represents 1,000 watts. A kilowatt hour (kWh) is equal to the energy of 1,000 watts working for one hour. The amount of electricity a power plant generates or a customer uses over a period of time is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). Kilowatt hours are determined by multiplying the number of kW's required by the number of hours of use. For example, if you use a 100-watt light bulb 5 hours a day, you have used 500 watts of power, or 0.5 kilowatt hours of electrical energy.

Most of our power is produced by burning coal.

If we had a light on for one year, all of the time, it would use 0.1 kWh per hour, which is 873 kWh (there being 8730 hours in a year). Electricity generated per ton of coal is 2,460 kWh/ton. Due to the efficiency levels of coal burning power generation, we would burn 375 kgs of coal to have this one light on for a year. That’s a lot of coal. A typical 500 megawatt coal power plant produces 3.5 billion kWh per year. That is enough energy for 4 million of our light bulbs to operate year round. To produce this amount of electrical energy, the plant burns 1.43 million tons of coal. It also produces:

This information was taken from www.howstuffworks.com, and while the measurements are imperial it is an excellent web site you should check out is you want to know how stuff works.

It is clear that this use of power is not sustainable and there is now ample evidence of the effect of greenhouse gasses on the increase of global warming. We have got to stop burning coal and start using renewable resources to supply our ever increasing energy needs.

There are two major steps that you can make

1. Green Power Production – Where you remove your self from the electric grid altogether and produce all of your own power

2. Use Of Power Saving Technologies – If you want to save money, and the environment, you should look for and use the most energy efficient technologies.

Everyone can do something to save on energy costs and greenhouse gas production. Every appliance you have in the home has an energy rating. This is a star system, here in Australia, where the most energy efficient appliances have six stars. These energy rating system stickers are on all new appliances to assist consumers making there decision as to what to purchase. Just walk around your home and check out what you have in your house. I was very unhappy to find that most of my electrical goods had two to two and a half stars, far below the ideal for energy efficiency and conservation. Now I am not advocating going out and purchasing all new appliances, but when we are looking at replacing an item, we all need to keep this in mind and do our best to get a better deal for ourselves and the environment.

Cost is one issue that we all have to take into account when purchasing a new electrical appliance. What we need to be looking at is the overall cost, not just the up front cost.

For example, if you are going to purchase a new refrigerator and the energy efficient model costs $100.00 more, consider the cost in electricity of running the inefficient model versus the efficient model over the years you expect the appliance to last. In most cases you will find that the energy efficient model will be cheaper when you take the up front cost and the running cost together to form the overall life cycle cost of the appliance. This will only become more apparent as the price of energy continues to escalate

An excellent resource for information on the energy efficiency of appliances is www.energyrating.gov.au

In the area I live in, I obtain my electricity from Energex. On their web site I found the following:

“This is your electricity tariff for general residential usage and is effective from 14 November 2005.

I have an upright freezer that uses 959 kWh per year. That is a cost of $129.44 per year at the current rate. Over 10 years the running cost would be $1294.36 and this is if there was no raise in price, which is ridiculous to expect.

On the www.energyrateing.gov.au web site I was able to locate two freezers that used only 345 kWh per year for a 10 year running cost of $465.65, based on the same assumption of no price increase over the 10 years. So I could have spent a lot more on my freezer and ended up saving myself money and saving the environment at the same time.

While we are on the topic of food cooling/freezing here are some tips on refrigerators and freezers.

• Do not position a fridge or freezer in direct sunlight or next to an oven or other heat source as this can increase energy consumption substantially.
• Allow food to cool before putting it in the fridge.
• Make sure there's plenty of air flow around the back with at least an 80 mm gap; if the refrigerator of freezer is installed in an alcove or cupboard, make sure there's good ventilation out of the top as well. Restricting ventilation could add 15% or more to the energy bill. It is a good idea to have a vent to the outside both below and above your freezer of refrigerator. This can cut the energy consumption by up to 25%. The cool air is pulled in from the bottom. As it passes the back of the refrigerator it is warmed and passes out of the top vent.
• Never put a refrigerator or freezer in an unventilated cupboard.
• Clean the condenser coils on the back occasionally (if there are any) - it makes a difference to the performance!
• Defrost regularly if you don't have a frost free model. Ice insulates and if it isn't removed before it becomes thick, the unit will become less efficient. With freezers, defrost whenever the frost grows to around 5mm thick.
• Don't open the door more frequently than you need to; and make sure the door seal is clean and tight. Don't leave the door open while you are standing there deciding what it is you want.
• Don't set the temperature too low. A change of one degree can effect energy consumption by 5%. Freezers should operate at -15°C while fresh food compartments should be held at around 4°C to 6°C.
• When away for longer periods, turn off, empty and clean the refrigerator and leave the door ajar.
• If you have a second refrigerator for those times where you have a surplus of food form the garden, make sure that you store it turned off with the door open until you actually need to use it.

Most households use standard “incandescent” light bulbs ranging from 40 watts to 100 watts. The light bulb has changed little since Thomas Edison invented it. Despite the fact that there is new technology out there, few people use the newer compact flourescent lights that are now on the market. These compact flourescent lights use dramatically less power but seem much more expensive, well we've done some maths, and come up with a surprising result.

A case in study:

I have been using a standard 40 watt light bulb in the lamp in my bedroom. The cost of this light bulb is around 47 cents, this can be replaced with an 11 watt compact fluorescent light for a cost of $3.35. The difference in watts is 29 watts. The standard 40 watt incandescent light bulb will last about 2 years. The compact fluorescent light bulb is stated to have a 6 year lifetime at 3 hours per day.

Let’s compare the overall costs, assuming that we use the light for 3 hours per day over a 6 year period and that the 40 watt bulbs lasts 2 years and compact fluorescent bulb lasts 6 years. The price paid for a kWh of "power" is 13.497 cents.

At the same time as saving money by using energy efficient lighting, we would, in the example above, save 1234 pounds, or 560 kilograms, of green house gas emissions, as well as a few other poisonous gasses emitted by coal fired power generation.

When I started this article I had standard light bulbs in most of my light fittings. My intention was to fit energy saving light bulbs, as and when, the standard light bulbs gave out.

My thinking was to save money by not replacing bulbs that had not yet died on me. Since doing the above calculations, I now understand that I would be doing myself and the environment a huge favour if I went ahead and replaced all my inefficient bulbs right away with energy efficient, compact fluorescent bulbs, and I ask you to consider doing the same.