Friday, October 19, 2012

Raising Our Kids' Energy Awareness

Growing up, our energy education consisted of my parents asking if we lived in a barn every time we left the door open, and getting yelled at when we stared in the fridge too long.  There wasn't a purposeful effort to educate us about energy or conservation, but just a lot of common sense practices like turning the lights off when we leave a room.  Times are different.  Energy is a bigger, and growing, strain on the family budget and we're more aware of how our individual activities impact the environment.  The next generation of kids will grow up being energy-conscious out of both necessity and responsibility.

There are a couple basic reasons why energy is a bigger issue for families today:

Homes are bigger.  We were a family of 5 growing up in a 1,500 square foot house with one bathroom (gasp!).  Today, we all want bigger homes which require more energy to heat, cool and maintain.

Construction practices are different.  Cathedral ceilings and recessed lighting for example are very on-trend, but perform poorly from an energy efficiency standpoint.  Also, certain time periods (notably the 70s and 80s) were known to use incredibly inefficient practices and are prone to air leakage and thermal barrier issues.

We have more stuff.  We had one TV in the house when I was a kid, no cell phones, no DVD player...man were we deprived!  In contrast, I'm friends with a couple that has two kids and 9 TVs in their house (plus all the other gadgetry).  All this stuff takes power and costs money.

We spend more time indoors.  So not only do we have more stuff in the house, but we spend more time indoors using all this stuff.

FEMP for Energy Action Month
The point is not to glorify the 'good old days' - no point in that.  But, we do need to think about today, and the future, because our world has changed.  One of our parental responsibilities now is to blend the common sense we learned from our parents with the new information we now have, to shape kids that are even smarter than us.  October is National Energy Action Month, and a perfect time to introduce energy awareness, in all its forms, to your family.  Check out our 'Be An Energy Star' family activity as a way to get started while having some fun.



Posted by: Kylene Golubski
President
Pro Energy Consultants



No comments:

Post a Comment