'Fifth fuel' can power your bike to work

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With gasoline prices chugging toward $4 a gallon and the price of electricity on the rise, conservation is becoming fashionable again.

Too bad it took so long.

Energy experts sometimes refer to conservation as the “fifth fuel” because it holds so much potential for satisfying the world’s demand for energy.

A big advantage of conservation is that it is the cleanest source of energy around. It emits no greenhouse gases and creates no nuclear waste. Even better, it can save consumers and taxpayers money.

One obstacle to conservation is that it often costs money to make money. Smart consumers pay as much attention to operating costs as they do to the initial cost of purchasing a home, appliance or vehicle.

A highly efficient refrigerator, for example, will cost more upfront than a cheaper model. But it will pay for itself two or three times during the lifetime of the refrigerator.

Consumers can check for the government-backed Energy Star rating. A new refrigerator that qualifies for an Energy Star rating this year will use 40 percent less electricity than a similar Energy Star-qualified refrigerator made in 2001.

“Electricity-saving technology is evolving so quickly that most of the best options now on the market didn’t exist last year,” said noted conservation expert Amory Lovin of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Sometimes consumers are too impatient for a payback on their investment. Homeowners, for example, often want an investment in insulation to pay for itself in three years, according to the United Nations Foundation.

The same problem afflicts government officials. Columnist Neal Pierce recently pointed out that if America’s 10 biggest metro areas converted their street lights to light-emitting diodes (LEDs), they could cut in half the 3 billion kilowatts the street lights use, and cut the cost in half. Carbon emissions also would be cut in half.

The reduction in energy usage would be equivalent to taking 213,000 cars off the road.

But it would take five years before the savings would cover the investment, Pierce wrote.

In the future power companies may install sensors and computers to make the electrical grid smarter. Consumers may be able to sign up for lower rates if they let the power company make certain adjustments in usage, such as blocking the dishwasher from running during peak demand for air conditioning.

“The most environmentally sound, inexpensive and reliable power plant is the one we don’t have to build because we’ve helped our customers save energy,” said Jim Rogers of Duke Energy.

In the meantime, there are plenty of low-tech options available to reduce carbon emissions and save money. Did you know that today is National Ride Your Bike to Work Day?