Chart of US energy consumption vs. waste

“Interesting to see the various energy inputs (left), their uses (middle boxes), and the final waste vs. usable energy (right). I calculate about 61.5% of our energy was wasted in 2002, the year this chart shows.

Work on your personal energy conservation, if you've already given up on your New Year's resolution.

http://eed.llnl.gov/flow/02flow.php


Other charts available here:
http://eed.llnl.gov/flow”

“Thanks for the energy flow charts and data. Good links and good ideas for us to reduce consumption.”

“I thought this might start up a firestorm of comments. C'mon people, tell us how you are going to (or have) cut down on some of your waste?”

“In terms of oil based products alone, close to 4 gallons are used each day in this country for each American.

Th average per day use of oil for the rest of the world is about 1/2 gallon per day.”

“A few years ago a presidential candidates platform was based on the fact that the cost of oil to operate the tankers was the problem
for the US. His solution was to use sailing ships to bring the oil .I can't remember his name ,but he could be the captain of my ship any time. his thinking is way ahead of any politician I've heard lately. Stop driving soooo much!!!!”

“I walk to work and to lunch.

I burn no fuel and also have perfect blood pressure and cholestorol.......don't hate me!!”

“Marko,three weeks ago I finally refilled my tank from Katrina week. I can walk every where I need to go, but then again I don't work anywhere but at my stock trading station.”

“My own recent accomplishments:

- January: got rid of almost every incandescent light in my house, put in CFL's
- February: bought a Kill-A-Watt, used it to identify about two dozen "phantom loads" around my house and put them on switches to get them totally off when not in use
- coming up: replacing our fridge and deep freezer, new models are about 75% more efficient; installing solar hot water this summer

(phantom loads are ones that still suck electricity even when they are "off" - VCR's, TV's, satellite receivers, computers, etc)

Results are still out but I figure I'm saving several thousand watt-hours a day now, and will double or triple that with the items under "coming up".”

“CFL.....Canadian Football League??”

“Compact fluorescent light. I think”

“Yup. http://www.cflbulbs.com/”

“THat techboy is such a techie!!

A friend of mine just bought a VW diesel and is itchin' to find a source for Bio-Diesel fuel so he can stop supporting the petroleum cabal.

He installed a corn-burning stove a few months ago and they only use propane for hot water any more.
The corn stove keeps the house so warm that the heat system hardly ever kicks in.
The propane supplier is ticked off......GOOD!!
Stove corn is $6 per 100# and that lasts almost two days in the coldest weather.

He's fed up with paying good money for products that people are dying over.
He says he would rather see his money go to American farmers.”

“I wonder if that corn is taxed or not?”

“Hmmmm, taxed as a fuel?

It should be the same as firewood.”

“I use my woodstove for 98% of my heat. I figure I save about $2000 a year on propane. Those corn stoves are cool. It would be nice to arrange for a 1-ton delivery direct from a local farmer in the fall. Supporting local farming at its best.”

“Turn my thermosat off everyday I leave for work and don't turn it back on untill I start to fill a slight chill then I only turn it up to 68 max. As for the rest well my fiancee lives 70 miles away and the wedding is 70 miles futher than that so I'm driving every weekend. Of course I'm getting the motorcycle out now the weather is nicer.”

“marko - is your friend interested in making his own? If he doesn't mind scavenging used cooking oil from local restaraunts, he can. Its a little labor intensive, but not bad. Search Google for "make biodiesel" and you'll get page after page telling you how. Nice side benefit is you get lots of glycerin from the process, if you want to make your own soap, too.”

“Buy Organic/Local Farm products

Spot the hidden calories

Today a big proportion of the energy going into food production and distribution is fossil fuel energy. Fossil fuel energy is a finite resource, and its use in food isn’t always easy to see. As with other resources, we in the U.S. consume more than our share. Here’s some facts:

The U.S. expends three times as much energy per person for food than developing nations expend per person for ALL energy activities. And fossil fuel energy inputs into food production and distribution increased dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century.
The modern production and distribution system expends 10-15 calories of energy for every calories of food energy produced.
Chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides are based on petrochemicals. Between 1960 and 1980, chemical fertilizer use in the U.S. expanded three times, and herbicide use, over 4.5 times.
Chemical fertilizers alone accounted for 30% of energy use in agriculture in 1974.
Different food sectors use different amounts of the total fossil fuel energy used in food production and distribution: on-farm production represents just 17.5 percent of the whole, while processing accounts for 28.1 percent, distribution for 9, transportation for 11, restaurants for 15.9 percent, and home preparation for 25 percent.

http://www.cias.wisc.edu/foodshed/pubsntools/meal1.htm”