[Footprint] Energy Basics

Most of our energy today comes from fossil fuels - largely coal, oil and natural gas. This energy does not just heat our homes and power our cars, it is also used to provide our food and virtually everything we consume. We also use it to help us create virtually everything we produce.

If we take the step of saying that fossil fuel usage is bad, due to the risk of running out and due to the risks of climate change then we have to question what our alternatives are.

Well we're not going to find anything as cheap - so that basically makes us poorer (see item at sundaypapers.org.uk). So, if we are going to be poorer then our first challenge is to use less energy, because we aren't going to be able to afford lots!

So how can we use less fossil fuels? I've already outlined a move toward LPG. But we also need to think about using less electricity - one thing that we have done is moved to a gas hob heated kettle as the efficiency of going straight from gas to hot water is a whole lot more efficient than going from gas (or coal perhaps) to steam, to mechanical power, to electricity, then moving the electricity and then converting back to heat for the water. We can buy less stuff (as then less energy is used for manufacture). We can use things that are getting thrown away. We can buy local goods and we can travel less.

So we find we can do a great deal of good merely by reducing our fossil fuel usage. However, we might find that we still have a nagging worry that we are still using those fossil fuels...

We've decided that we aren't going to panic, that we probably won't be able to change in every way immediately, that we probably need to both plan our new lifestyle and get used to the idea of a low energy way of life.

The next step is to convert totally to sustainable energy, be it solar, wind or biomass. This isn't as simple as it sounds and I will need to cover some considerations around this in another article (wait for 'Sustainable Energy Basics).