Colorado Reader January 2020: Fueling your life (Electricity) | Page 6

Wise ways we use electricity
Research on new and exciting opportunities to save money and reduce emissions
with electricity is important. Here are some cleaner, greener ways electricity is used.
Energy storage
Although sunlight and wind are clean and renewable
sources of electricity, they don’t produce any power
when it gets dark or the wind stops blowing. By
keeping that energy in different types of batteries,
we can release this stored energy later, when we
need it most.
Pumped hydropower is a system that uses excess
electricity to pump water uphill to a reservoir that
acts like a battery. When electricity is needed, the
water is released from the reservoir to flow downhill
through turbines which generates electricity.
Electric cars LED bulbs
We have the option to drive cars that use electricity
instead of a car that uses gas. We can charge those
vehicles when the wind blows and the sun shines and
store that electricity until we need to drive the car. Energy efficient bulbs reduce the amount of electricity
it takes to light our homes. That’s because LED (light
emitting diodes) bulbs transfer much more of the
electricity they use into light than other bulbs. They
use 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs for the
same amount of light, and half as much as compact
fluorescents. On top of that, an LED bulb will last much
longer than the other bulbs.
Heat pumps help heat and cool your home by
moving heat energy to and from the air rather than
using natural gas or other fuels to keep your home
comfortable. Heat pumps can deliver 1 to 4 times
more heat energy to a home than they consume.
What else can we do to use electricity wisely?
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