Why Energy Efficiency Matters

When I first brought up the topic about the Neighborhood Energy Forum to my parents, their question was “is that what you’re studying for Psychology?” They didn’t take what I was saying seriously because they thought this wasn’t related to what I’m majoring in at school. So, I sat them both down and I actually explained what the Energy Forum is all about. I had to go into detail about how we could become more energy efficient and the incentives the government and utility companies were offering. I think this was what caught my father’s attention the most, the money saving incentive. Once I realized that this was the way to get him to take me seriously, I explained to him more about how he can get tax cuts and money in order to do some of the work needed to make our home more energy efficient. He was really interested at that point and said he would like to attend the Forum.

Kensington, Brooklyn (photo by Jon Melnick)

After I finished explaining to my father, my mom asked me what is the point for all of this that the organization you work for is trying to do. Her question reminded me of something we were talking about in our Friday meetings. We were talking about a campaign called the 2030 Challenge, which wants reduction in energy consumption and green house gas emission to become a priority in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. I thought this would spark her interest since she’s a mother, she would care more about the impact of not becoming more energy efficient for us.

All in all, both my parents are now interested in the Neighborhood Energy Forum and what it is trying to accomplish. It was hard at first to explain what I wanted to get through to them because they weren’t educated here. Most people from my country could care less about such problems because they really don’t have the educational background to understand such things. I think everyone can benefit from the information that will be provided at this forum in some way or other. That is why, we need to figure out a way to educate people who should know about this but don’t because of their inability to understand. When everyone has an equal opportunity to understand the facts and impact of energy efficiency, we can hope to reach our goal faster.



1 thought on “Why Energy Efficiency Matters”

  • Great article
    When you get a house that needs little or no dedicated heating it is known as PassivHaus (i.e. passively heated). The PassivHaus is super insulated, relatively airtight and very efficient. That means running costs will be low. It can be argued that PassivHaus sacrifices all other things on the altar of energy efficiency. Airtightness means mechanical heat-recovery ventilation is essential and that leads to a clean homogenous atmosphere

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