Are Fire Safety and Everyday Energy Conservation Related In Any Meaningful Way?
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009Being energy wise is becoming more and more a part of our culture recently. Conserving energy in our homes and driving is very worthwhile. Even though oil prices have come down to half of their peak in mid-2008, we know that they could go up again in a hurry.
I drive a large Yukon XL, which is basically a Suburban. Mileage is not so good, but I’ve cut back to making three trips to the office weekly whenever possible. The fuel budget has been helped by that strategy. If it weren’t for the load-carrying capacity I would look for a more fuel-efficient, smaller automobile.
Several years ago we put in extra insulation in our home, and we use a whole house fan to reduce the amount of air conditioning we use. Energy talk on the news and in magazines slowly does have some influence on how we think and act.
Imagine the wasteful expenditure of energy in fighting a wildfire, with Diesel for fuel-guzzling choppers, planes and trucks. Also, think about all the gasoline used by folks vacating their threatened homes. There is some related discussion of this on the Minutemanfire website, which includes wildfire prevention in its sphere of interest. It is amazing that homes could be destroyed even with tile roofs and a swath where the vegetation had been removed.
Rebuilding a fire-damaged home likewise utilizes energy that would otherwise be saved, a further link between fires and energy usage. We may not think about it much, but in fact there is a connection between fire prevention and conserving energy.