>Hi Dragan,
>
>Not any really good energy options in the U.S. but here are a few:
>
>BioEnergy - promising, there must be enough waste out there to use!
>geothermal - promising but not available everywhere
>wind - available only in a few select locations
>solar - can only provide a portion of a homeowner's energy reqmts
>gas - fossil fuel that uses natural gas reserves and causes pollution
>oil - fossil fuel and relies on external sources and contributes to the U.S. being an oil hog, pollutes, etc.
>electric - generated by hydropower (impacts on watershed and kills many species of fish and aquatic life) or nuclear (scary) based
>wood - causes the destruction of tropical forests (or so they say)...also adds particles and carbon to the air when it burns...
>coal - cannot be used legally in the U.S. in new construction
One minor correction - the natural gas produces water and CO2 when it burns. But then, chemistry was always my weak spot, someone better correct me.
>Which do you use?
There's no silver bullet here. Can't be. We have to combine - use geothermal where available, use biogas where available, use sun where feasible. And stop wasting.
My way was to drive a bicycle whenever I didn't really need a car - i.e. a bicycle as a means of transportation, not as a recreational item. Not feasible here - in a car sized country, there's nothing near enough to drive a bicycle to. Whenever I need something, it's just too far for a bike ride.
The house we built was heavily insulated - the walls (cement foam blocks, which is already an insulator) were a foot thick, the windows fit snugly and had real thermopane glass (vacuumised).
I'll never buy an SUV or a truck. And I hope for my next car I'll manage to get my hands on something electric or hybrid.
And I telecommute. The first year of telecommuting drove my gas consumption from 330 galons a year to 232. And I'm doing that for the third year.
One small thing - I'm not replacing lightbulbs. I'm switching to those small neons. They consume about 25% of energy for the same light.