Energy Use At Home
To understand -- “why renewables” – we need to understand how we use energy today and where it comes from. The Energy Information Administration (a part of the U.S. Department of Energy) tracks energy pricing and consumption and publishes a wide range of useful reports. The illustrations below are two good examples.
Heating (space and water) accounts for 61% of home energy consumption. That energy comes from:
- Natural gas which is produced domestically or imported from Canada.
- Fuel oil and propane which are by-products of the oil refining process.
- Electricity which is generated by power plants fueled by coal (51%), nuclear reactors (21%), natural gas (17%), petroleum (1%) or renewables such as hydroelectric power (3%), biomass (3%), geothermal (1%) and solar (1%).
Over 90% of our heat comes from fossil fuels that add greenhouse gases to our environment and which have increased substantially in price over the past 10 years.