As Autumn comes around again I start to think about energy conservation. There is talk about power cuts in the UK being more likely this winter. Two nuclear power stations have had to be shut down for repairs and a coal fired power station is off line due a major fire. All this raises the threat of power cuts as capacity is tight.
Of course the best form of power is “negawatts”, i.e. not using energy in the first place and this is where energy conservation comes in. Our energy consumption (or at least electricity consumption) hit an all time low about 8 years ago. Since then its been on an upward trend although with ups and downs. The reasons for this are simple. The children were growing up, staying up later and using more energy. Even when one left home our electricity consumption carried on going up.
Installing second PV system a few years ago didn’t stop this relentless rise in electricity consumption. I was disappointed but not surprised by this. My explanation was that at the time we had nailed down our electricity consumption as far as we were able. But as a Christian who was concerned about climate change and the global energy crisis, I started to look for solutions. We had swapped our normal incandescent bulbs for GLS ones that used 35% less electricity, put in CF bulbs in many places and bought some LED’s. None of this made a difference in that electricity consumption was still rising, although it will have stopped it rising still further.
It was a delightful surprise then when my electricity consumption has started falling this year and my energy conservation efforts are starting to bear fruit. Its not that there has been more sun this year and more homemade electricity, this year is going to be worse than last year. The only explanation I can up with is that the number of LED’s as I keep gradually adding them has reached a critical level which shows. The economics stack up as well. Why not thinking about buying a few? Energy conservation could well be the future.
PS. don’t be put off by the slightly weird colour of the picture of a bulb above its just the contrast in the shot, the light is identical to an incandescent bulb.
Neil