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We now hear “Go Green!” and “Conserve Energy!” on a daily basis. It is the rally cry of mother earth. The awareness of a need for increased energy savings is in the spotlight thanks to pollution, energy shortages, obvious waste and abuse, as well as because of politics and human greed. But why it has come to the forefront of so many conversations is not as important as the fact that it has. Television ads, newspaper editorials, magazine articles, and informational internet sites have educated people around the world more in the last five years than in the previous one hundred years in regard to the conservation and saving of energy and gasoline in particular. Reasons for saving fuel and energy are many, but the two most predominant ideas that stand out are the destruction of our only home; the earth… through pollution and greenhouse gases, and secondly for financial savings and the cost of harnessing, producing, and using fuel and energy . Someone has to pay for energy and for gasoline, it has never been free and it never will. We will focus on the latter of the two. Can we raise the bar on energy savings by pushing the fact that less energy used equals smaller energy costs on a personal level? Is an individual’s personal wealth an easier sell when it comes to saving gas and energy?

Let’s look at the costs of daily life in an industrialized nation. The most obvious example is lighting which is powered by electricity. The invention of the light bulb has extended the usefulness of daily life well into the night and even through the nighttime hours until sunrise. There’s heat in the fall and winter seasons powered by various fossil fuels including oil, natural gas, coal, wood, and electricity (generated by fossil fuels). We need to cool ourselves in the summer months through air conditioning. It’s invention and widespread use has increased summer electricity use exponentially. Water flows freely from your faucet as well. However, water is far from free. To pump it from an underground well you need electricity. If you have access to public water, it is delivered through a system of public pipes and water lines. This water is pumped from strategically located pumping stations through the use of high capacity electric pumps but only after being thoroughly filtered and treated at a local water treatment facility, which of course requires a large amount of electricity to operate. Then there is the automobile… a staple of life in developed nations. Motorized vehicles require fuel like gasoline and diesel fuel to operate. Fuel is produced by refining oil which is pumped from well beneath mother earth. The process to develop gasoline is a process that requires energy and then that finished product is consumed as energy for our vehicles after we’ve purchased it from a filling station of course.

Some of us may conserve resources because we care about the future of our planet but unfortunately many do not. It is inconvenient for some to take a bus to work or to turn down the thermostat in your living room. However when we look at energy savings as a means of putting cash back into our pockets every month the idea of energy saving becomes much more appealing. A ride on the bus to work each day is not everyone’s cup of tea, but turning down a thermostat shouldn’t be an issue for anyone. As a rule of thumb, every degree above 68 that you set your home heating thermostat costs you an additional 3 to 5% on your heating bill. With today’s utility rates this could mean $200 to $400 dollars annually if you kept your house at 72 degrees. And in summertime, does your home air conditioner really need to run all day? In most cases no… In warmer regions where air conditioning is a part of daily life it could be just a matter of raising the thermostat a few degrees to realize hundreds of dollars of savings on your electric bill annually. How about the family car? Do the kids really need it to drive to school when the bus rolls past the house every day? Can you combine errands and eliminate some miles rom your driving? With gas prices fluctuating in relation to weather, natural disasters, oil prices, and the stock market, it is difficult to estimate the savings at the fuel pump for any individual. But there are plenty of online gas calculators available free of charge that can help you see your specific fuel spending as well as some idea of how much you can save yourself.

These are merely three of the many examples of how saving energy and fuel can directly affect your personal life and that of your family immediately. In tough economic times, the media should place more emphasis on saving your hard-earned money for other things beside utilities and handing over your hard-earned cash at the gas pump. The thought of rewarding ourselves in cash may be just what we need to spark even more energy savings worldwide.