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Be Energy Smart

It's estimated that worldwide, buildings account for about forty per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, yet between a fifth and half of energy used in buildings is simply wasted through inefficiencies such as poor insulation or excess lighting.

That's a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, then, simply being pumped into the atmosphere for no good reason.

Being aware of this means that that we can make a real contribution to tackling climate change NOW, just by being smarter about the way we use energy in our homes and offices.  Here in Fiji we use fans and air conditioning 95% of the year to combat the heat but a lot of times these are left running for much longer than needed.  The same goes for the way we use lights.  Sometimes they look great, but how good are they for the environment?  We need to be smarter and find more economical methods.

Once you start thinking about it, you can come up with hundreds of ways to save energy, many as simple as flicking a switch.  Not only will it help prevent climate change, but being energy-smart will also save you money by reducing your bills. 

So before we even have to think about nuclear power, wind power or carbon trading to mention a few remedies which could play a role in preventing climate change in the future, let us start work now on the simpler ways to tackle climate change.

Tips

• Fit compact flourescent lightbulbs - they pay for themselves in a year, last up to 10 times longer than conventional bulbs and save more than 66 per cent in lighting costs during their lifetime.
• Shut doors so you only cool the rooms you are using.
• Turn off appliances at the wall when you're not using them - standby mode is still using energy and it uses 5% of household energy.  Add that up over a year and that's alot of wastage. 
• Install solar hot water - it will give you free, and carbon-free, hot water and pay for itself in a few years.