Energy conservation

Energy conservation is achieved through efficient energy use, in which case energy use is decreased while achieving a similar outcome, or by reduced consumption of energy services. Energy conservation may result in increase of financial capital, environmental value, national security, personal security, and human comfort. Individuals and organizations that are direct consumers of energy may want to conserve energy in order to reduce energy costs and promote economic security. Industrial and commercial users may want to increase efficiency and thus maximize profit.

Electrical energy conservation is an important element of energy policy. Energy conservation reduces the energy consumption and energy demand per capita¹ and thus offsets some of the growth in energy supply needed to keep up with population growth. This reduces the rise in energy costs, and can reduce the need for new power plants, and energy imports. The reduced energy demand can provide more flexibility in choosing the most preferred methods of energy production.

By reducing emissions, energy conservation is an important part of lessening climate change. Energy conservation facilitates the replacement of non-renewable resources with renewable energy. Energy conservation is often the most economical solution to energy shortages, and is a more environmentally benign alternative to increased energy production.

Critics and advocates of some forms of energy conservation make the following arguments.

Standard economic theory suggests that technological improvements will tend to increase, rather than reduce energy use. This occurs in two ways. Firstly, increased energy efficiency makes the use of energy relatively cheaper, thus encouraging increased use. Secondly, increased energy efficiency leads to increased economic growth, which pulls up energy use in the whole economy. This does not imply that increased fuel efficiency is worthless, increased fuel efficiency enables greater production and a higher quality of life. However, in order to reduce energy consumption, efficiency gains must be paired with a government intervention that reduces demand.

Some retailers argue that bright lighting stimulates purchasing. Health studies have demonstrated that headache, stress, blood pressure, fatigue and worker error all generally increase with the common over-illumination. It has been shown that natural daylighting increases productivity levels of workers, while reducing energy consumption.

Technology needs to be able to change behavioural patterns, it can do this by allowing energy users, business and residential, to see graphically the impact their energy use can have in their workplace or homes. Advance real-time energy metering is able to help people save energy by their actions. Rather than wasteful automatic energy saving technologies, real-time energy monitors and meters such as the Energy Detective², Enigin Plc's Eniscope³, Ecowizard⁴ or solutions like EDSA'a Paladin Live⁵ are examples of such solutions.

Notes to the text

1. demand per capita – потребность на душу населения.

2. Energy Detective - The Energy Detective, also known as TED, is an energy demand feedback device that promotes energy conservation by making residential consumers aware of how much electrical energy is being used in their homes.

3. Enigin Plc's Eniscope - an advanced real-time smart meter is an example of cutting edge energy saving technology; a good opportunity to save money on your lighting, air conditioning, electric motors and refrigeration.

4. Ecowizard - a new system from Japan, a subsidiary of Crossbow Technology, that enables users to analyze and monitor energy consumption in real-time using intuitive visualization tools allowing intelligent and efficient energy conservation.

5. EDSA’a Paladin Live - This new software platform is a “master controller”; enables the use of distributed and on-premise energy sources that include local co-generation, wind and solar without affecting the reliability of utility grid.