Everyone is attempting to save as much money as they can these days. What with reduced financial savings, lost jobs, rising commodity costs and general malaise following one of the worst recessions in history, nearly everyone is wanting to cut back on unnecessary spending.

Here are some easy suggestions that anyone can implement:

1. If you still have any incandescent light bulbs in your fixtures, make the small investment to convert them to fluorescent. I know – the exposed ones don’t look wonderful, especially in a chandelier. Hopefully, they’ll become a bit more aesthetically pleasing in the near future.

To assess, you’ll use 10 incandescent 60-watt bulbs to one 15-watt fluorescent. Of course the conventional bulbs are less costly individually, but 10 of them will still end up costing more in the long run. You’ll save over $40 in electricity costs – or more. This statistic is true at time of writing. Did I mention that this is ONE light fixture? How many do you have in your household? Do the math – these are not irrelevant savings.

As an added incentive, you will have decreased greenhouse gas from carbon dioxide by around 700 pounds. Not bad!

2. As an alternative to turning on your stove to bake one or two servings, look for a kitchen countertop toaster oven. This is great for folks who live on their own. I know someone who was making one pork chop, or a baked potato in his oven. When he switched to a convection toaster oven he was shocked at how much less power he was utilizing, and how much faster supper was ready!

3. That 30 year old freezer in your basement is a great plus when you want to stock up on groceries when they’re on sale, but did you know that any appliance over 10 years old is actually using roughly 60% more electricity than more current models are? Lose it! There are services that will come and pick up your old device and dispose of it in a responsible way, so it’s easy for you and will save you a lot of money also.

4. Swimming pools don’t have to be such an electrical power drain. By applying a solar blanket when the pool isn’t in use, you can save as much as 20% in heating costs. Besides that, try putting the pump on a timer. We have done this for 3 years and it works brilliantly. The pump shuts off at 8 pm and kicks on again at 8 am. I am happy to be spending 50% less money on powering the pump and the water is beautifully clear.

Little adjustments like this can go a long way to reducing the amount of money you’re paying for power every month. The planet will thank you too!

OPEC

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 20 years, you probably have heard about OPEC. OPEC is an acronym for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Twelve countries, Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela make up the membership of the cartel.

The developed world runs on oil, so it’s easy to see that oil (or rather, the production and exportation of oil) can be used as a very effective weapon. And it has been. And it likely will be again.

The Arab-Israeli conflict contributes to the problem. After the Six-Day War in 1967, OPEC was transformed into a political force, and a formidable political force at that. It was the Yom Kippur War of 1973 that brought things to a head. Arab countries were furious over the emergency resupply efforts that had made it possible for Israel to withstand Egyptian and Syrian forces. The 1973 oil embargo ensued.

But oil that is pumped out of the ground must be stored, or used. By the 1980s, there was an oil glut. There was more oil available than there was demand for it, and the price of oil began to take a nose dive. Exports declined, and so did the money. The members of OPEC were not happy campers.

But as I said, oil is the fuel that runs the world. The excess of supply didn’t last long. Oil prices fluctuate, but OPEC isn’t totally responsible. Oil is traded as a commodity on stock exchanges and investors can drive the price up by bidding on what’s called “futures.” This is the main cause of the high price of gasoline that American consumers were paying during 2008.

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Fossil Fuel: The Auto Industry Addiction

The worldwide auto industry loves fossil fuel. The auto industry has been addicted to oil since the first Model T rolled off of the assembly line. The internal combustion energy thrives on fossil fuel, gasoline, diesel.

But there’s a problem. The main suppliers of oil to feed the auto industry’s addiction keeps raising the price, and the supplies of oil are being depleted. There IS a bottom; an end. The world will eventually run out of oil.

Of course, we can’t put all of the world’s oil consumption habit on the shoulders of just the auto industry. If every automobile in the United States was a hybrid by the year 2025, we’d still be importing as much oil as we do today. We use a lot of oil, and we use it for all sorts of things.

The automobile industry is bearing the brunt of the responsibility and the industry IS responsible, but it isn’t totally responsible. Every single one of us use oil every time we turn on a light, use our blow dryer, or open a can of soup.

But cars are a large part of the problem, and the truth is that the auto industry is experimenting with alternative energy sources to power automobiles, and they have been for a lot of years now. There are a lot of possibilities.

Fuel made from plants is an option. So far a method of extracting and delivering biofuel hasn’t been perfected. Fuel cells are another possibility. The auto industry has been experimenting with fuel cells for more than 10 years. Fuel cells use hydrogen to generate electricity by creating a chemical reaction that releases energy that can be used to power a car or truck. The research is promising. The auto industry will kick the addiction to oil, not because it wants to but because it has no other choice.

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Coal Mining

The credit for large-scale mining techniques is given to Great Britain. The techniques were developed beginning in the late 18th century. The world needed coal, and lots of it. Coal was the fuel that powered the Industrial Revolution.

Oil, natural gas, nuclear, and other fuels have replaced much of the coal consumption over the years. Coal mining has become a political, social, and environmental issue in recent times.

But coal isn’t a “new” fuel that was “discovered” during the last few centuries. Coal has been used as fuel for a very long time. The Romans were using coal as early as the second century, and Romans described the use of coal for producing heat in what we now call Great Britain.

The Aztecs used coal for fuel, but also for making ornaments long before America was “discovered.” During the 1700s colonists found coal deposits in north eastern America. In the early days coal mining was done on a very small scale, as compared to modern coal mining operations. Coal can be found lying on the ground and at very, very shallow depths.

Drift mining was one of the earliest methods of coal mining. Drift mining is accomplished by cutting into the side of a hill or mountain, rather than tunneling straight down. The tunnel is horizontal.

Bell pit mining is another primitive method of mining coal where the coal lies near the surface on flat land. Tunneling is done straight down, and the coal is removed by the use of a bucket. The term “bell pit” is used because the shape of the mine is that of an upturned bell, wide at the top, but very narrow at the bottom.

Today coal is mined from deep within the earth, and a great deal of heavy equipment is used to accomplish the task.

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Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was a self-taught English scientist. He was actually a bookbinder who became interested in electricity, but he had not had any formal training. Through his own persistence, Faraday got an assistantship in the laboratory of Humphry Davy, who was a well-known scientist and experimenter of the day.

Faraday began to conduct his own experiments, and he wrote an article about electricity and magnetism in 1821. Michael Faraday is considered one of the greatest experimenters of all time.

In the course of his experiments, Faraday discovered that a suspended magnet would revolve around a current bearing wire, and this led him to the conclusion that magnetism was a circular force.

Perhaps the most important contribution that Faraday made to the effort to harness electricity for the good of mankind was his invention of what he called the “dynamo.” The dynamo was an early version of what we call power generators today. It was this invention that opened the door to harnessing
electricity.

One of Faraday’s most important contributions to physics was his development of the concept of a “field” to describe magnetic and electric forces. He also experimented with what we call a “capacitor” today. (A capacitor is an electrical device that can be used to store a charge.)

The facts are that getting from candlelight to electric light was a long journey. Lots of individuals contributed. We often give credit to Benjamin Franklin, and we think of him as the “father of electricity,” so to speak. Franklin DID contribute to the technology of electricity, but he doesn’t get all the credit.

To give credit where credit is due, we must start with the Ancient Greeks, who discovered that rubbing fur on amber caused an attraction between the two.

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Thank You, Ben Franklin

There’s a story that’s been circulating for more than a couple of centuries now that Ben Franklin “discovered” electricity when he went outdoors during a thunderstorm and flew a kite. Lightning hit the kite, and voila ó electricity was discovered by Ben! That makes for a really good story, and like most really good stories, it’s not quite true. It’s not even possible.

If Ben Franklin had been outdoors holding a string attached to a flying kite and a key, when the lightning struck the kite, Ben would have been toast, literally. The kite-flying experiment most likely happened but Ben was actually safely tucked out of harm’s way.

That’s not to say that the kite experiment is without merit. The kite experiment helped Ben Franklin establish a relationship between lightning and electricity. And the experiment led to the invention of the lightning rod.

In a letter to England giving directions for repeating the kite experiment, Franklin wrote: “When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leiden jar, maybe charged: and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening completely demonstrated.”

Ben Franklin continued his experiments about electricity. Electricity was called “electrical fluid” in those days, and Ben determined that “vitreous” and “resinous” electricity were not different types of “electrical fluid,” but rather electrical fluid under different pressures. Ben Franklin was the first one to name these charges as “positive” and “negative.”

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Horsepower Ran the World

There was a time when horsepower ran the world. We still use the term “horsepower” today to describe the power of machines. Originally, “horsepower” was used to define the power of a steam engine as compared to the number of draft horses that would be needed to move the same weight.

The history that lies between the horse and “horsepower” is the story of the evolution of civilization itself. Before the invention of trains, cars, and planes, people got from one place to another mostly thanks to the horse. Horses were used to pull everything from the lowliest freight wagon to the most elegant carriage.

Then Henry Ford and his kind came along, and the “horseless carriage” was born. “Horses”, they said, “had become obsolete.” But most of the population said, “Not so fast.” People weren’t thrilled. These horseless carriages were noisy, and the exhaust smelled bad. They frightened horses, and sparks from some of them burned wooden bridges down. They were VERY expensive, too.

In 1909, just a hundred years ago, a standard four-seat open tourer cost a whopping $850. In today’s dollars, that would be about $20,300. Horseless carriages were thought to be an invention without a future ó just toys for rich people. They were included in side shows of traveling circuses and were the subject of a lot of ridicule.

By the 1920s, though, the price had dropped to only $300, or about $3,200 of today’s dollars. More people could afford them, and more people DID own them. Mass production, the assembly line, was the basic cause for this drastic drop in price.

There weren’t a lot of color choices in those early horseless carriages. Henry Ford is quoted as having said, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Horses were replaced by “horsepower”!

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When Wood Was Fuel

Humans were still cave dwellers when they discovered that burning wood was a source of power. Probably the discovery was by accident. Lightning created a fire in the forest, and mankind discovered that burning wood, when controlled, was a very good thing.

Burning wood could provide warmth, and light. It could be used to cook food. They learned to build tents over burning wood, leave a hole in the top for the smoke to escape, and warm themselves on cold winter nights. When they built fires in caves, they developed hearths so that the smoke could escape.

Wood as a fuel source is as old as the earth. And wood is still used as a fuel source all over the world. Wood is a renewable fuel source, too. Trees grow every hour of every day, and without a bit of “help” from us.

Some wood is harvested from trees that have been specifically raised for the purpose, but most of the time, firewood is actually a byproduct of the timber industry. “Deadfall”, that is, trees that have fallen but have not begun to rot, is preferred as firewood because it is already partially seasoned. And standing trees that have died are an even more preferred source of firewood.

Firewood is more easily acquired today, of course, than it was in years gone by. Chainsaws and machines that split wood into pieces right for burning have taken a great deal of the manual labor requirement out of cutting firewood.

Burning wood for heat is illegal in some large cities because of concerns about air pollution. And we’ve never figured out how to burn wood without producing wood smoke. But in many places around the world, wood is still the chief fuel used to supply warmth. Wood WAS fuel, and wood still IS fuel!

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Black Gold: The Fuel that Changed the World

There was an old television show that was popular back in the early 1960s called “The Beverly Hillbillies.” It was based on the premise that a backwoodsman accidentally discovered oil on his property while he was shooting at an animal. You’ve probably seen the show in reruns.

The idea worked well for a television program, but anybody who knows anything about drilling for oil knows that just accidently shooting a bullet into the ground and finding the stuff isn’t all that likely to happen. Oil does flow from natural springs in locations around the world, of course. The Bible mentions “pitch” being used for building purposes. Crude oil that bubbles up from natural springs has been used in even more ancient times. Herodotus wrote about it. But in those olden times, crude was used as a medicine or liniment, not as fuel.

The Seneca Indians, who inhabited what is now western Pennsylvania, used it for medicinal purposes. When mankind learned how to drill deep into the earth and tap vast quantities of crude oil, the world was changed forever. At first kerosene that was produced from crude oil was used as fuel for lamps. It replaced coal oil, animal fat, and vegetable oil. But once the automobile was developed, crude oil was refined into gasoline and diesel and became the fuel that drives the world. Cars, trucks, buses, trains, ships and airplanes are powered by oil, diesel, and gasoline.

There was a time when the United States actually exported oil. Of course, those days are long gone, and now the United States imports the largest percentage of its crude oil from locations around the world, but the Middle East is the principle supplier.

While oil, black gold, is the fuel that has supplied the power that’s produced modern civilization, it’s not the fuel that will power civilization into the future.

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The Future of Fuel and Energy

The world isn’t going anywhere without fuel and energy. Humans use more and more fuel every day. We all use fuel to produce the energy that moves our cars, heats and cools our homes, and provides all of the comfort offered by modern conveniences. We use a LOT of fuel.

The problem is that the fuels that are now being used to provide that energy that we all need every minute of every day is being used up. It will be gone. It takes millions of years for crude oil to form deep inside the earth. There certainly won’t be any more formed in our lifetimes, or even in the lifetimes of our children, their children, or their children ó for a few million more years. Humans can and WILL run out of the fuel that provides the power that drives modern societies.

So what do we do? We need to find and harness different energy sources. And preferably these new energy sources will be renewable; that is, there will be more of the source created.

Some renewable energy sources that are being discussed, researched, and developed today are wind power (the wind will always blow), solar power (the sun will always shine), and water power (the tides will continue to roll in, and rain will continue to fall). The wind, the sun, and water are all sources of energy. We feel the effects of wind, sun, and water power every day. Even our ancient ancestors used wind, sun, and water power.

Power derived from burning fossil fuel was only one of many alternatives. Burning fossil fuels was and is the easiest way to produce energy, but it isn’t the only way.

Mankind will need to invest some more brainpower to develop that fuels that will produce the energy to power the world in the future.

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