Is Your House Causing Global Warming?

It was a scorcher yesterday, so I cranked
the air conditioning but then I started getting chilly, so I got under my electric blanket. It’s possible there’s a better way… Howdy domicile dwellers, Trace here for DNews. When you’re puttering around the house you’re
probably not thinking of melting ice caps or changes in rainfall patterns. You probably just want the temperature right
and the lights bright enough to avoid shin-high furniture. And this is a huge challenge for climate scientists. Climate change is such a massive, world-changing
issue, that it’s difficult for any one of us to feel responsible. “No raindrop blames itself for the flood.” But part of that is putting it in perspective,
right? A third of U.S.

Homes still use coal to generate
those kilowatts; 36 states use it either as the main source of power or electricity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration,
the average consumption for a residential home was 15,497 kWh. To generate 1 kWh with a coal plant requires
about 1.04 pounds of coal (0.47kg) — which produces about 2.13 pounds of CO2. So for every kilowatt hour you can cut, you're
saving 2 pounds of harmful greenhouse gas, not to mention other pollutants from entering
our atmosphere! So, if we limit the amount of energy we're
wasting at home, we all save money AND help the environment! Win-win! And there are a TON of ways to do this… For example, about 45 percent of that is used
for air conditioning, heating, lighting and water-heaters! Obviously, the easiest way to cut your use
is to keep the temperature set below 68 in the winter and wear a sweater, or above 78
in the hot summer months and go au natural.

All this will let your home heat itself more
efficiently and remove over 1000 pounds of CO2 from the air annually. Remember when your mom shouted, "Shut the
door, you wanna heat the whole outdoors?" She is right, but the windows were likely
worse culprits; 10 to 25 percent of all energy loss from a house come from windows! Simple stuff like simply using curtains to
keep the hot sun out in the summer can make a big difference. Double-paned windows are help too. They have two panes of glass, with air in
between. Believe-it-or-not air is a poor conductor
of heat, so they insulate the house better, like a transparent down jacket. And if you're one of those — go big or go
home types — look at your light bulbs. Incandescent bulbs waste 90% of all the energy
it takes to make the light as heat. Swapping just one for a more efficient alternative
would reduce greenhouse gases by 400 pounds over the bulbs' lifetime. 400 pounds from one measly bulb! There are a couple choices now: the crazy
spiral tube-y ones called Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

If every household in the US swapped out only
one of Edison’s old-school bulbs that would be the equivalent of taking 800,000 cars off
the road. LED bulbs ARE more expensive but last 8 to
10 times longer than a CFL (and 50 times longer than old-school bulbs) and, unlike CFLs, they
don’t use mercury. To put it in perspective a 100w lightbulb
used for 1,000 hours (one lifetime) will require 100,000 watt hours — or 100 kilowatt hours. The LED equivalent over that same time would
only be 25 kWh — cutting another 160 pounds of CO2. In the US the EPA gives appliances an Energy
Star label, telling us all how much energy they'll using in a year. Using efficient appliances, AND living smartly,
will save thousands of dollars in energy costs and can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 65
tons per year PER PERSON! Helping the planet is like putting money back
in your wallet. I kind of love that. Another way to help save energy is by using
smarter appliances. “AT&T Digital Life smart home security helps
keep you connected to you home, so there are no more what ifs.” I know the internet likes to argue about it
but in the scientific community there’s no contest: climate change is real.

So why is it so hard to get people to care? Part of it, is not calling it climate change… I explains why, here. Let us know what steps you’ll take or how
making a change worked out for you in the comments, subscribe for more and I’ll see
you next time on DNews..

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