Below is the text version of the Earth Day animation. Or you can go to the U.S. Department of Energy Web site.
The animation consists of two different scenes:
This is a picture of an energy efficient home, cut open to show its many different features and appliances. This scene describes what you can do to increase the energy efficiency of your home. It contains information about efficient appliances in general, air conditioners, water heaters, solid state lighting, electronics, cars, and lighting systems. It also describes solar thermal and solar power panels, energy efficient windows, smart meters, attic insulation, and advanced fuels and hyrbids.
What you can do: Choose ENERGY STAR® appliances!
If everyone purchasing a clothes washer in 2008 chooses an ENERGY STAR model, together we would save 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, 60 million Btu of natural gas, and 69 billion gallons of water. The electricity saved in one year would power every household in Washington, D.C., for eight months. Enough water would be saved in one year to fill the Rose Bowl Stadium 818 times.
If everyone purchasing a refrigerator in 2008 chooses an ENERGY STAR model, consumers would save 875 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and more than $92 million in energy bills each year.
Even if you aren't ready to replace your appliances, keep them clean and in good repair; clogged air vents or worn-out parts make motors work harder, which wastes energy!
What you can do: Choose an ENERGY STAR® air conditioner!
If everyone purchasing a room air conditioner in 2008 chooses an ENERGY STAR qualified model, it would save 831 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. That would prevent more than 1.3 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year—equivalent to taking more than 116,000 cars off the road—and save consumers over $87.5 million each year in energy bills.
Even if you aren't ready to replace your air conditioner now, consider weather-stripping the seams around the unit to provide better insulation. Keeping cool air in will help reduce your electricity bills during the summer!
What you can do: Purchase an energy efficient water heater.
Energy efficient electric or gas, gas tankless, gas condensing, solar and heat pump water heaters all use less energy than standard water heaters. (Find out more about your choices here!)
In 2009, you'll be able to choose an ENERGY STAR® water heater as well. On April 1, 2008, the Department of Energy announced the first-ever criteria for ENERGY STAR qualified residential water heaters. Just like other ENERGY STAR qualified products, these water heaters will save consumers energy and money. An ENERGY STAR qualified model will save 7%-55% in comparison to a typical water heater, depending on water heater type.
Even if you're not ready to replace your water heater, you can save energy by insulating your water heater and your hot water pipes—heat lost from your tank is wasted energy! You can find more tips on ways to save here!
What you can do: Install solar electric panels on your roof!
Solar energy is clean, unlimited, secure, and sustainable. And, because the fuel is free (sunlight), it is not subject to price increases or volatility. Even better, solar energy resources are generally abundant throughout the United States. Learn more about your home and solar power from Get Your Power from the Sun (PDF 763 KB). Download Adobe Reader.
Rebates offered through your utility (ask them!), plus state and federal tax credits, can reduce upfront costs of installing solar technologies by as much as 50%. Innovative new financing options are also lowering upfront costs.
What you can do: Install solar water heating. Solar energy is a reliable and efficient source of hot water and heat. You can also light your home more efficiently by incorporating natural daylighting.
If you aren't ready to purchase a solar water heating or solar electric system, consider landscaping. Planting trees, shrubs, and hedges around your home can reduce the amount of sunlight that comes in, which means less heat in the summertime. In winter, when the leaves are gone, sunlight comes right in and provides warmth to your home. If you think you might want to install solar at a later day, plan landscaping carefully so it won’t shade solar panels in the future.
What you can do: Get the junk out of the trunk and properly inflate your tires!
An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your fuel efficiency by up to 2%.
Properly inflated tires are safer, last longer and save fuel. You can improve your gas mileage more than 3% by keeping your tires inflated to the recommended pressure.
Car pooling and sharing travel makes a difference. Reducing the number of vehicles on the road decreases congestion and reduces CO2 emissions. Plus it can be a great way to make friends!
The small percentages noted above may not sound like much, but it all adds up!
It won't be long before even more efficient vehicles are on the road. The Energy Independence and Security Act, signed by President Bush in December 2007, will raise national fuel standards to 35 mpg by 2020 and increase fuel economy standards by 40%!
What you can do: If you're buying a new car, consider a hybrid or a clean diesel vehicle. Fuel-efficient models come in all shapes and sizes, so you don't have to sacrifice utility. Even better, hybrids and clean diesel models save up to $1,500 in fuel costs each year.
Dozens of models of flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are also available, designed to run on gasoline or a blend of up to 85% ethanol (E85). Except for a few engine and fuel system modifications, they are identical to gasoline-only models, and many more models and classes are in development.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), currently in development, will represent an even greater leap in efficiency—to the point that urban drivers may never have to use gas for their daily commute. Read more about PHEVs.
What you can do: Change your lights to energy-saving compact fluorescent lights (CFL).
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a CFL bulb, we would save almost six billion kWh per year—enough energy to light nearly three million homes. We'd also save more than $600 million in annual energy costs and reduce greenhouse gases by the equivalent of nearly 750,000 cars. The average CFL lasts 6000 to 15,000 hours, and when you replace it, you can recycle it! Learn how from our CFL FAQ (PDF 149 KB). Download Adobe Reader.
As for incandescent bulbs—they will be undergoing substantial changes. New energy-savings standards are being phased in starting in 2012, meaning inefficient incandescent bulbs of today will be a thing of the past!
Take the Pledge to "Change a Light, Change the World!" Over 1.6 million Americans committed to changing at least one standard incandescent bulb to an energy saving bulb, also known as a compact fluorescent lightbulb.
What you can do: Purchase solid state lighting (SSL) for home applications.
Solid State countertop lighting, holiday tree lights, "night lights," and walkway illumination are durable, long-lasting and use about one-tenth as much energy as incandescent bulbs.
The Department of Energy is working to speed up wide home use of SSL for general lighting needs, providing an even more efficient alternative to incandescent bulbs. In the fall of 2008, ENERGY STAR® will recognize lighting products in several categories, including under-cabinet lights, task or desk lights, recessed can lights, and several types of outdoor lighting.
What you can do: Ask your local electric utility if Smart Meters are available in your area.
A Smart Meter allows you to communicate in real time with your provider about your electricity usage. This device helps you save money by shifting some of your consumption to off-peak periods; this helps your utility offer you a wider range of plans and services.
Smart Meters are becoming more widely available—and they can save you money by helping you monitor (and adjust) when you use electricity. Smart Meter technology is also being developed that will allow you to log in to your computer and turn on or turn off your home's systems, including heating and cooling, lights, and appliances.
What you can do: Turn off your power strips or unplug electronics. Power strips can turn off several appliances with the flip of one switch.
Your electronics—computer, TV, VCR, even your phone chargers—use energy even when they're turned off. Stand-by power can account for as much as 20% of home energy use. Unplugging your devices (or turning off the power strip) can save you money.
What you can do: Choose an ENERGY STAR® window!
Energy efficient windows lower solar gain (the heat that enters your home through a window) and are better insulated, so that homes stay cool in summer and warm in winter.
If you aren't ready to replace your windows, caulking your window seals around the glass can provide additional insulation. Visit Energy Savers for more info!
Replacing single-pane windows with new ENERGY STAR windows could save you $126–$465 in annual energy bills, depending on your climate zone.
What you can do: Air seal and insulate your attic! Learn about the most cost-effective levels of insulation for your climate zone.
More than 50% of the energy used in a typical American home is for space heating and cooling. Much of that conditioned air escapes through poorly sealed, under-insulated attics. Only 20% of homes built before 1980 are well insulated.
Properly sealing and insulating your attic can save you up to 10% annually on energy bills.
You can also save by insulating your home's ventilation ducts.
This is a picture of a long street, lined on both sides by various forms of energy production facilities as well as some energy efficiency technologies. This scene provides information about many sources of energy, including wind, natural gas, hydrogen storage, biofuels, clean coal, nuclear energy, geothermal, solar electric power, and water power. It also provides some information about advanced energy efficiency techniques, such as the smart electric grid, industrial efficiency, and an example of a zero energy home of the future.
The Department of Energy, in collaboration with a network of home builders across the country, is doing research on zero energy homes. Zero energy homes combine advanced building techniques with renewable energy sources such as solar or geothermal to minimize the home's energy needs from outside providers.
When perfected—there are buildings that are very close, even today—these homes should be so energy efficient that they can sell back surplus electricity to the utilities!
There is no "silver bullet" to a zero energy building; it takes several elements working together. Integrating building technologies and materials with renewable energy sources and smart metering can reduce a home's consumption to near-zero.
One step you can take toward making your home more efficient is to get an energy audit. This is a set of tests that will tell you how well your home uses energy, and will suggest ways to improve your home's energy performance.
What You Should Know: Coal is our nation's most abundant energy resource. It powers more than half of the electricity generated in America today and will continue to play a prominent role in our energy mix. The President has invested billions of dollars, in cooperation with leading businesses, to develop technology that helps utilities to cut sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Through seven U.S. regional partnerships, the Department of Energy is making progress on demonstrating the potential of pumping carbon dioxide safely underground, through a process called sequestration.
What You Should Know: Wind is the fastest-growing renewable power source in the US. "Wind farms" provide electricity to two million households in 34 states, and use of wind power grows by more than 20% every year. The U.S. wind energy industry installed 5,244 megawatts (MW) in 2007. Currently, wind provides just over 1% of our nation's electricity; experts estimate that wind energy could provide as much as 20% of our nation's electricity.
Each 1,000 megawatts provides power to 280,000 homes, and avoids 1.8 million metric tons of CO2 production every year. And the potential for more wind-generated power is enormous. Achieving this vision means investing in transmission, allowing the abundant wind resources to reach our urban load centers.
What You Should Know: The 'Smart Grid' is a concept that is currently being developed by the Department of Energy, in partnership with industry and utilities nationwide.
When complete, the Smart Grid will integrate advanced components, computing, and information technologies into the nation's electric grid to provide a more efficient secure electricity source, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This new grid will be self-healing from power disturbance events, operate resiliently against physical or cyber attacks, and accommodate a wide range of generation and energy storage options.
What You Should Know: Utility-scale solar power is becoming a reality. Through combinations of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power, harnessing the power of the sun for entire communities is no longer on the drawing board; it is being developed.
To make this happen, the Department of Energy is working to make solar photovoltaic energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. The strategy is to reduce the cost of solar energy through research and, via market transformation, to eliminate market barriers to the widespread adoption of solar technologies.
What You Should Know: The Department of Energy is working with industry to improve industrial energy efficiency and environmental performance.
Through its Save Energy Now initiative, the Department helps plants operate more efficiently and profitably, identifying ways to reduce energy use in key industrial process systems. The Department recently celebrated the 500th energy saving assessment; to date, the results of 431 have been reported, with identified energy savings of $744 million, implemented energy savings of nearly $106 million, identified natural gas savings of 73.6 trillion Btu, and potential CO2 emission reductions of 6.3 million metric tons—the equivalent of taking nearly 1.2 million cars off the road.
The Department also offers BestPractices technical resources including software tools, training, and publications.
What You Should Know: Leaders in retail and other industries are working together with the Department of Energy to transform the energy performance of commercial buildings. Businesses benefit from returns on energy efficiency investments—and the nation benefits from a healthier environment and greater energy security.
Improvements and innovations in technologies from refrigeration to space heating and cooling to smart metering all have a significant role to play in creating the next generation of commercial buildings. Several progressive commercial building owners have incorporated solar and wind technologies into their buildings as well, reducing their energy bills in an environmentally friendly fashion.
What You Should Know: Nuclear power provides abundant energy, without generating carbon emissions, to safely and securely meet global energy needs.
As part of President Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative, the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) was created to address energy demand with clean, safe, affordable nuclear power; while reducing proliferation and managing used nuclear fuel.
Twenty-one nations have voluntarily embraced this approach as a path necessary to support economic growth and to improve the environment.
What You Should Know: Imagine growing our way to energy security. That's what the Department of Energy aims to do through its research into cellulosic biofuels by partnering with industry, academic institutions, environmental groups and others.
Since 2007, the Department of Energy has committed more than $1 billion to support a domestic, sustainable cellulosic biofuels industry. This industry will use technologies that allow cost-effective conversion of substances like corn stover, forest residues, and switchgrass into biofuels. In November 2007, the first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefinery broke ground in Georgia, incentivized by DOE funding.
What are the benefits? Potentially, this means an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (compared to gasoline), as well as using non-food feedstocks and supporting economic growth in rural areas. Current law requires 36 billion gallons of biofuels in the marketplace by 2022, and caps the total amount of corn-based ethanol at 15 billion gallons. (The United States currently uses approximately 140 billion gallons of gasoline annually.)
What You Should Know: Hydrogen is not an energy source; it's an energy carrier—it stores and delivers energy. It can be made using any form of energy, including renewable energy sources like biomass, solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy.
In a fuel cell, hydrogen provides clean, efficient, and reliable power to:
Fuel cells can operate at two-to-three times the efficiency of traditional combustion technologies; even better, when using pure hydrogen, the only emission is water vapor.
The Department of Energy is partnering with industry, academic institutions, environmental groups, and others to make the goal of plentiful, affordable and sustainable hydrogen energy a reality.
What You Should Know: Geothermal energy comes from the earth's own heat. It's clean and sustainable for numerous applications, from heat pumps to electric power generation. Geothermal energy resources include heat from soil at shallow depths down to hot water and rock miles beneath the earth's surface.
Energy from geothermal resources is an important source of clean energy, because it can be a baseload source of power. Unlike wind and solar, which are intermittent resources, energy from geothermal is constant. A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study indicated that the United States could develop 100 gigawatts of energy from next-generation geothermal resources by 2050.
What You Should Know: The movement of water generates large amounts of energy. Electricity can be produced from the power of waves, tides, ocean currents, and free-flowing water in rivers and channels. The technology to harness this power is under development, and a number of different methods are currently being designed and tested.
The Department of Energy established a research and development program for marine and hydrokinetic technologies in 2008 to further develop these resources and better understand their potential to contribute to this country's energy future.
What You Should Know: Natural gas accounts for nearly 22% of U.S. energy consumption and is over 50% of American homes' main source of heating fuel. It burns cleaner than other fossil fuels and is an important part of our secure energy future.
Natural gas power plants can serve as strong complements to intermittent power sources like wind and solar energy, because they can be brought on-line quickly when, for example, the wind tapers off at a wind farm.