ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THE HOMEIn Canada, the average household uses 141 gigajoules (GJ) of energy each year, in the form of electricity, natural gas, heating oil, propane, kerosene and wood. These fuels provide energy for space heating and cooling, water heating, and appliances such as refrigerators and lights. Residential homes account for approximately 22% of Canada's energy use. In Canada, the United States and many other industrialized countries, the cost of energy such as electricity, natural gas and heating oil was very low, prior to the "oil crisis" of 1973. Most existing homes and apartments were built before this time, and therefore were not designed with energy efficiency in mind. Although building standards have been improved in recent years, the majority of homes are still very inefficient, using much more energy than technically possible. There are a large number of methods of improving the energy efficiency of the average home. In fact, in many cases it is possible to reduce overall household energy use by greater than 50%. Reductions in home energy use have several benefits both to the homeowner and society as a whole. Decreased energy use results in lower monthly energy bills for the homeowner. In many cases, the costs of financing energy efficiency improvements are far lower than the cost of purchasing electricity or fuels. Decreased electricity and fuel consumption benefits the environment. This is because burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) to produce electricity or space heating produces emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and acid gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxides (NOx). CO2 is a greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming, while SO2 and NOx emissions cause acid rain.
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