Cut your energy consumption to save your environment, and your money

I was recently made aware of a free online service called WattzOn. WattzOn allows users to measure personal energy consumption, compare consumption over time and with other users, and analyze data that may allow users to cut back on energy consumption, thereby saving money, and potentially the environment.

The United States is the world’s largest energy consumer in terms of total usage, and is seventh in the world in per-capita consumption. Moreover, our energy usage is dramatically outpacing our population growth, suggesting that each one of us is using far more energy than we should be. Furthermore, our energy consumption is only expected to increase over the coming years. With this in mind, those of us who are environmentally-conscious should do everything in our power to cut back on our consumption.

WattzOn is an example of a free service that may allow us to begin doing this. If enough of us make small changes to our lifestyles, large results can be obtained. If doing a small part to save the environment is not enough to motivate you to monitor and alter your energy consumption, perhaps the current economic downturn will provide some additional motivation to cut back on usage and save some money each month.