Compare Electricity Suppliers and Conserving Energy TipsAs you look for ways to lower your home energy usage, you may ask, “Why is it important to conserve electricity and compare electricity suppliers?” Besides saving money on your energy bills each month, there are a number of reasons why conserving electricity is a good idea.
Which Suppliers use Green Energy There are a few different companies that use green energy but there are not many that are 100% green. Most green energy suppliers will use a split of green and brown energy, meaning some of the energy is created using sustainable sources like wind and sun but some is from burning fossil fuels and nuclear power stations. Get free advice from energyadviceline.org.uk who can tell you who uses sustainable sources and who uses brown energy. They will also be able to get business electricity price comparisons for you.
What It Means to Conserve Electricity The idea of conserving electricity means that you should only use it when necessary and avoid wasting it. This means doing simple things, such as turning off lights when you leave a room, as well as more involved processes, such as replacing standard light bulbs and appliances with those that use less electricity. While you may not notice much of an impact on your day-to-day life when you make these types of changes, the environmental impact of your actions will be much larger.
Why Is It Important to Conserve Electricity? One of the biggest motivators people have for conserving electricity in their homes is the accumulated savings in their energy bills at the end of the year. There are other reasons why conserving electricity is important beyond the impact on your wallet.
Less Use of Fossil Fuels Electricity can be obtained from solar or wind power, but most electricity used in homes comes from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil or coal. These fuels are needed to power the turbines that produce electricity. These resources are not unlimited or renewable; the faster they are used and the more electricity that is consumed, the quicker they will be depleted.
Less Pollution and Fewer Greenhouse Gases Burning fossil fuels for producing electricity releases enormous amounts of pollution into the atmosphere. Acid rain, soot, carbon dioxide, and toxic gases are just a few of the ways electricity production poisons the environment. Even the act of mining coal to be burned is detrimental to the ecosystem. Another damage to the ecosystem is seen in oceans and soil whenever there’s an oil spill. These ecological threats are just a few of the reasons why it is so important to conserve electricity.

Less Chance of Radioactive Pollution As an alternative to burning fossil fuels, much thought and effort have been put into building nuclear reactors. Nuclear energy is produced by splitting unstable uranium atoms in a process known as fission. This process produces both enormous amounts of heat, which in turn produce electricity, as well as a tremendous amount of radioactive waste products. This waste is frequently disposed of improperly, leading to a potentially deadly pollution problem. Conserving electricity and not putting as great a demand on power plants lessens the need for more nuclear power plants.
Reduction in direct energy consumption: Energy efficient electric motor systems direct energy consumption is the energy consumed during the production cycle. It is the energy needed to do work. Improvements in this area require improvements to the drive systems and machinery selected. In industrial machines, the selection of energy saving equipment is typically done during the design phase but in many cases can be retrofitted later onto aging machinery.
One of the most direct ways to reduce energy consumption is to only run motors while the operation is in the cycle. Industrial machines using hydraulics or mechanical systems driven by induction motors require stored energy to assist them in performing the work. Since these systems cannot switch on and off quickly and are not easily controlled, they are forced to remain on often at constant speed. The large power output of a synchronous motor allows for the motor to be idle when not in the process significantly reducing the power consumption. Replacing inefficient induction motors or hydraulic systems with modern permanent magnet synchronous motors is often the first step. Implementation of power source regeneration is another excellent means of reducing the power consumption of an electric motor system. During deceleration of an electric motor, it will act as generator and energy is put back into the system. In a conventional system that energy is sent to a discharge resistor. A discharge resistor dumps that electrical energy in the form of heat. That waste heat is non-recoverable. By contrast, power source regeneration returns electricity to the supply line to be used by other equipment. The electrical energy is recovered and waste heat is greatly reduced. Power source regeneration requires a drive system with an intelligent power module that can sense the flow of current and switch accordingly. When used the effects are significant. Implementing a servo driven system utilizing drive amplifiers with power source regeneration can see savings of 30% to 40% in electrical power consumption. |