It might not be a new thing for us Pakistanis but it certainly is getting worse by the day. this winter has been extremely bad in terms of load shedding and power outages that plague my nation. Power shortage cripples everything from daily life activities of reading, washing to industrial processes of all sorts. Our country is suffering from a huge power deficit this winter. It is estimated at a daily shortage of around 3000 Mega watts of electricity.
What is happening in Pakistan is not new for the world either but in milder terms. The energy pundits are forecasting a worldwide shortage of fossil fuels and energy to run the world. The demand for energy is rising everyday with world population increase and increasing using of gadgets in accomplishing event the simplest of tasks.
But as ever we Pakistanis are looking for our lame leaders to come to our rescue. If we were any wise we should have known that this is never going to happen. It is therefore that the nation starts thinking of producing its own household energy for itself. We have to learn to be innovative in the way we do everything.
First and foremost is energy conservation. We must understand that there is a limit to everything. We have to learn to share and divide. After all we cant have a dam to ourselves alone. we have to learn to cut on our electricity. I suggest the following:
1-Use energy savers instead of ordinary bulbs. The importance of using energy savers is even more when the costs of energy is higher.
2- Turn off un-necessary lighting around us. We have to learn to see in the dark or at least learn to enjoy darkness.
3- Plan the placement of lights in a room for maximum advantage. Putting light bulbs in corners or close to the ceiling may not be efficient as part of their light is absorbed by nearby wall structures and goes to waste. I suggest movable bulb stands instead of fixed lighting.
4- Make use of sunlight during daytime. Build more windows. Orient houses so that they receive maximum sunlight during daytime.
5- Do not waste energy when not needed by keeping thermostats of everything to a medium level.
6- Doors and windows leak air and thus act as energy waste. It is important that they are sealed properly so that no air passes through when they are shut.
7- We waste a lot of electricity on wedding ceremonies and other functions. excessive lighting should be looked down upon.
8- Use of mirrors to direct light inside house during day reduces energy needs. Use of fibre optic cables to bring concentrated sunlight into interiors of big buildings can be very useful. this is called Hybrid Solar Lighting. HSL can make use of 50% of the sunlight as compared to photovoltaic cells which convert around only 15% of it.
9- Implementation of daylight saving times (DST) can be very useful. It helps us use maximum amount of sunlight hours. In other words we have to learn to wake up early in the summers to use the part of the day that we waste sleeping. DST is not evenly effective in all regions of the world.
We must remember that for every 1KWH of electricity we save, we end up preventing 2 pounds of CO2 emission into atmosphere.
What is happening in Pakistan is not new for the world either but in milder terms. The energy pundits are forecasting a worldwide shortage of fossil fuels and energy to run the world. The demand for energy is rising everyday with world population increase and increasing using of gadgets in accomplishing event the simplest of tasks.
But as ever we Pakistanis are looking for our lame leaders to come to our rescue. If we were any wise we should have known that this is never going to happen. It is therefore that the nation starts thinking of producing its own household energy for itself. We have to learn to be innovative in the way we do everything.
First and foremost is energy conservation. We must understand that there is a limit to everything. We have to learn to share and divide. After all we cant have a dam to ourselves alone. we have to learn to cut on our electricity. I suggest the following:
1-Use energy savers instead of ordinary bulbs. The importance of using energy savers is even more when the costs of energy is higher.
2- Turn off un-necessary lighting around us. We have to learn to see in the dark or at least learn to enjoy darkness.
3- Plan the placement of lights in a room for maximum advantage. Putting light bulbs in corners or close to the ceiling may not be efficient as part of their light is absorbed by nearby wall structures and goes to waste. I suggest movable bulb stands instead of fixed lighting.
4- Make use of sunlight during daytime. Build more windows. Orient houses so that they receive maximum sunlight during daytime.
5- Do not waste energy when not needed by keeping thermostats of everything to a medium level.
6- Doors and windows leak air and thus act as energy waste. It is important that they are sealed properly so that no air passes through when they are shut.
7- We waste a lot of electricity on wedding ceremonies and other functions. excessive lighting should be looked down upon.
8- Use of mirrors to direct light inside house during day reduces energy needs. Use of fibre optic cables to bring concentrated sunlight into interiors of big buildings can be very useful. this is called Hybrid Solar Lighting. HSL can make use of 50% of the sunlight as compared to photovoltaic cells which convert around only 15% of it.
9- Implementation of daylight saving times (DST) can be very useful. It helps us use maximum amount of sunlight hours. In other words we have to learn to wake up early in the summers to use the part of the day that we waste sleeping. DST is not evenly effective in all regions of the world.
We must remember that for every 1KWH of electricity we save, we end up preventing 2 pounds of CO2 emission into atmosphere.
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