Energy Star

Most of the energy that we use comes from fossil fuels like petroleum and coal that provide electricity and gas to power our growing energy needs. These fossil fuels, currently providing most of our home energy needs are finite resources, which mean that, they will eventually run out. Furthermore, the world’s population is growing rapidly. Countries are becoming more industrialised and are using notable amount of energy. Individuals are consuming nearly twice as much as energy as they were using 30 years ago. In Australia itself, the total amount of energy consumed by households has increased over the past two decades and is forecast to increase. This could be due to the dependence of our standard of living on easily available energy. Between

The low price elasticity of demand for household energy given the lack of easy alternatives means that consumers will continue to purchase it even when prices rise drastically as we can see from extract A they did over the three year period. Furthermore the complex pricing structures in the energy market make it difficult for consumers to exercise any consumer sovereignty because they lack the information or indeed don’t know how to interpret it, to make a decision which is in their best interest.

The Annapolis city government has aimed to reduce emissions by 75% by the year 2025 as well as achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). In order to achieve these goals, the city government has committed to reducing energy usage by 10% in public facilities by 2017 and 15% by 2020 (Savidge 2010). The city government also plans to achieve 25% of their energy from renewable sources as well as providing greener and more energy efficient upgrades to public facilities and city transportation (Savidge 2010). The Annapolis community has aimed to reduce emissions by 50% by the year 2025 as well as achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). The community has been and will continue to actively encourage locals to purchase green and renewable energy, use alternative forms of transportation, increase recycling and reduce trash production, and to preform energy efficiency upgrades (Savidge 2010). Such efficiency upgrades could take place in the form of financing home energy improvements, energy efficient mortgages, energy smart schools, or zero interest loans for energy conservation and “green energy projects (Roseland 2012).” Mark Roseland published a paper on sustainability “solutions for citizens and their governments” that outlines the benefits that simple energy efficient upgrades can achieve (Roseland 2012). He states examples where residents can save over $1000 each year on oil, gas, and electric bills while reducing their emissions through local

Compared to the rest of the country, we have pretty cheap electricity (around $0.08 per kWh from Alternative Energy) and our natural gas prices are about average (around $1.30 per therm from Alternative Energy). However, energy prices have been rising for the past 30 years, and homeowners with inefficient houses will end up paying a lot more to heat and cool their homes in the future. The real answer to the question about how to make your home more efficient in Seattle is

The energy-efficient appliance credit has been available for companies which produce high-efficiency appliances such as dishwashers, washers and refrigerators for home use. In general, this credit applies only to the number of those appliances made in the US during the tax year, which exceeds the average number produced in the previous two years. There is a maximum total of $75 million for this credit. In addition, each appliance type has energy saving requirements which determine the specific allowed credit for that

Sometimes Energy Star partners offer additional incentives to purchase energy efficient products. Use the Energy Star Rebate Finder to see if there are any special offers in your

Philadelphia is trying to help its city by reducing its vulnerability to rising energy prices. During the development of Greenworks in 2008, energy prices were at an all-time high and the prices were expected to rise (City of Philadelphia). Philadelphia has developed projects that helped them to have a better understanding of how to plan for and implement energy efficiency improvements. Therefore, Philadelphia now uses sophisticated utility management software for both current and historical data to achieve its goal, reducing the energy consumption. Also, they have realized that energy sources are not created equal. Pennsylvania Guaranteed Energy Savings Act (GESA) enables municipalities to enter into energy performance contracts, which fund energy efficiency work, which results in energy savings (City of Philadelphia). In October 2012, GESA focused on energy conservation measures (ECMs) including lighting upgrades, building controls, etc. for its four largest office buildings, including City Hall. The City Hall clock tower lighting was upgraded and it now uses LED bulbs, which are projected to save $10,000 in annual energy costs (City of

Despite the growing popularity and the benefits of these programs, adoption of above code certification have been dampened by the lack of empirical evidence and the quantification of a price premium associated with these certifications. This paper will address this problem and quantify the price premium of ENERGY STAR®

How can we all save and keep the big man from getting our money from high energy costs, such as electric and gas bills. We could take out a loan from the bank and get 20K to replace the old boiler with a new high efficient one. But then we would be paying someone else an interest rate at no less than 8% for home improvement loan. Or we can take a loan from our 401K and pay back into the 401K 4% interest tax free. I lowered my Natural gas bill by 50% 5 years ago by installing a fireplace insert into my inefficient traditional masonry fireplace. We quickly found out, that when having a fire in the old traditional fireplace that we felt the radiant heat at the expense of the rest of the house going cold as the heat went up the chimney. I looked

This is the only way, in my opinion, to reduce how much energy we use. Our society works off a unique set of rules and priorities that all come down to one thing, money. Making things so expensive or giving incentives for using less is the only way to get our attention.

The United States consumes more energy than needed, compared to the rest of the world. However, to properly address such an issue as over consumption of energy, one first must understand what “energy” is.

L.E.E.D. stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), this program is designed to inform and guide all kinds of professionals who work with structures to create or convert spaces to environmental sustainability. This includes architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, private sector executives and government officials. Proposals to modify the L.E.E.D. standards are offered and publicly reviewed by USGBC's member organizations, which number almost 20,000. From 1994 to 2006, L.E.E.D. grew from one standard for new construction to a comprehensive system of interrelated standards covering

Humans today are using much more electricity than we need to in our houses and this is impacting our world more then we realise. Although electricity is a huge advantage to humans it has the complete opposite effects on our environment. By using more electricity, we are using more of the earth’s resources and if we keep going down this road then we are going to run out. The solution for this mass overuse of energy is to build houses which are more energy efficient. Features like LED lightbulbs, insulating and even positioning your house in the correct position for natural airflow instead of using air conditioning are all ways we can help improve this problem.

Approximately one-third of all distribution network losses are due to transformers and 70% of the transformer loss is due to distribution transformers [1]. Installing slightly more efficient transformers in the United States has the potential to yield large energy and monetary savings. This creates an opportunity for ENERGY STAR to encourage increased market penetration of more efficient distribution transformers. Due to the large market size and difference in technology and material efficiency, ENERGY STAR can encourage higher efficiency products despite the higher cost. Additional research and stakeholder engagement is necessary to understand the potential barriers to adopting the more efficient technology, from its different operational characteristics to the incentives that utilities face during purchasing decisions.

3.3.2 Energy rating labels and energy star programme: Energy rating labels are a way to provide the information about the energy performance of the product so that the consumer can make a decision about the energy and cost saving potential while purchasing appliances. Labelling has been created to standardize the appliances under specific conditions. Star rating has been provided to show how much efficient the product is. Consumers can easily compare among the different models as well as different star rating products. Energy star programme is designed to meet a high standard of energy efficiency. The Energy star label is awarded by the government to the products which meets superior energy efficiency requirements set by the regulations. Energy star programme is one of the successful programmes of EECA since 2005. This program is an integral part of the Energywise programme which is to make people aware and encourage them towards energy efficiency products and practices. Currently, it is a voluntary programme and doesn’t cost to manufacturers while taking part in the programme. A wide variety of businesses and brands of the products are taking advantage of being aligned with energy star programme.