Conserving Energy:What can we do in the quake's aftermath?
Reassessing our lifestyles and eliminating waste
The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake brought about the multiple disasters of the earthquake, the tsunami, and the accident at the nuclear power plant. When the junior writers started searching for ways to help, some of them became part of a chain of email messages calling for cooperation to conserve energy. Soon, however, the electric power companies announced that these messages weren't accurate; at the same time, we learned that they weren't wholly false.
Where does the truth lie? We interviewed an official of the Chugoku Electric Power Company and understood that conserving electricity is a helpful habit. In Japan, a nation with limited energy resources, it's important to conserve a wide range of energy resources: in addition to electricity, these resources include natural gas, water, and gasoline.
As individuals, our contribution might be small. Still, we took a close look at our lifestyles at home and tried ways to conserve energy. As a result, we were able to discover how we can lend support, within our power, to the disaster area in eastern Japan and to Japan as a whole.
|
Interview with Yasuyoshi Tanaka, Manager, Public Relations & Environment Affairs Division of the Chugoku Electric Power Company
"Conserving energy in western Japan is a meaningful thing to do," stressed Yasuyoshi Tanaka, 47, the manager of the Public Relations & Environment Affairs Division of the Chugoku Electric Power Company.
Because the electrical frequency is different in the two ends of the nation--50 hertz in eastern Japan and 60 hertz in western Japan--only one million kilowatts can be contributed from western Japan and 100,000 kilowatts from the Chugoku region. However, if energy is conserved in western Japan, it would create the possibility of sharing gas and oil with eastern Japan. According to the Chugoku Electric Power Company, coal comprises 51% of the energy resources used to generate electricity in the Chugoku region. Nuclear power is 15% of the total, a figure half as much as the average percentage of other parts of Japan. "Renewable energy," which includes eco-friendly solar power and wind power, currently comprises only 1% of energy resources, and water power is 6%. Such energy resources are susceptible to weather conditions. The balance between energy generation and consumption is monitored at a control center for the power system in the city of Hiroshima. For the Chugoku region, two nuclear power plants lie in the city of Matsue. Currently, only one of them is operating and it provides 820,000 kilowatts of the 7-million-kilowatt demand for the region. In the event that the nuclear plant stopped operating, would it be possible to compensate for the shortfall in energy through other resources? The Chugoku Electric Power Company estimates that if the nuclear plant were to stop operating this summer, when the demand for energy is high, other means of power generation could compensate over the short term. But if this situation lingered for a longer period, concern would grow over a shortage of such energy resources as oil. Nationwide, nuclear power comprises 30% of Japan's total power generation sources. Mr. Tanaka told us: "We can't stop operating the nuclear power plants unless we're able to secure a sufficient amount of energy through thermal power or renewable energy sources. Otherwise, without the energy generated by the nuclear power plants, we would bring about a power failure." Is it possible, then, to reduce the amount of energy we use? The Chugoku Electric Power Company has asked consumers to conserve energy. However, the consumption of electricity in fiscal year 2010 increased by 16.4% compared to 2001. The amount of energy consumption for each electrical device, such as air conditioners and refrigerators, has gone down, but the total number of such devices has increased. One reason for this is the growth of homes and kitchens that rely completely on electricity. The company estimates that electricity consumption is increasing 1.1% each year. Mr. Tanaka said: "Taking advantage of the recent earthquake to reassess our lifestyles, I hope people will think about the importance of energy and bear in mind the reality that Japan currently depends on imported natural resources, such as coal and oil, for its energy needs." (Ren Nonaka, 16 , Marina Ishimoto, 15, and Daichi Ishii, 14) |
Conserving energy in western Japan 
|
How much energy can we conserve in our daily lives? We asked Mitsuru Shinguubara, 63, an energy conservation instructor who is certified by the Energy Conservation Center of Japan, to check our lifestyles. Mr. Shinguubara checked the lifestyles of 10 junior writers. The full checklist contains 20 items. It includes such questions as "Do you boil only enough water for your intended use?" and "Do you try to limit the number of times you open the refrigerator door?" We can choose from four answers, from "I'm doing this well" to "I'm not doing this at all." Then, by totaling your energy expenses for a month, you can assess the result. We discovered that all of the junior writers who took part in this exercise are following governmental regulations for garbage collection, but at the same time, half of them are leaving their TVs on for long periods of time. Mr. Shinmiyahara told us: "This doesn't mean that doing these 20 things is enough. If you become conscious of conserving energy, you can find many other things to do as well." On Earth Day, June 5, you can check your "eco-lifestyle" at an event held in front of the Hiroshima Prefectural Office. You can also check your energy use at the website of the Hinodeya Institute for Ecolife. (Shotaro Takata, 17) |
I installed a device in my house to measure my family's energy consumption for a period of ten days. This device, designed to aid with conserving energy, shows a graph every 30 minutes which reflects the power consumption in a home. The amount of energy consumed in a day is also recorded. The visible data made me more conscious of my use of electricity. I stopped watching TV while I'm studying and when I have nothing else to do. Instead, I started reading more. I began thinking that I can save money by conserving electricity and spend the savings on other things. Mr. Shinguubara installed the device in his home in November 2008. Before that his electric bill was 14,500 yen a month; afterwards, it dropped to 12,000 yen. Because he writes down the amount of power he consumes each day, he has become more aware of conserving electricity. He smiled and said, "It's like a scale: just looking at the number makes a difference." (Saaya Teranishi, 14) |
|
We tested another device which measures the amount of electricity used by electrical appliances. The device is a "watt meter" and it can be plugged right into an outlet. Electrical appliances continue to consume power even when they are switched off. This "standby power" of such appliances involves the remote control or the power indicator light which always remains on. Sometimes, however, it's difficult to know, like in the case of a vacuum cleaner, whether or not the appliance has this "standby power." I checked my laptop computer with the "watt meter." It recorded 16 watts of "standby power." When I switched it on, it rose to more than 50 watts. But when I closed the cover, it went down to 24 watts. Just closing the cover when we aren't using the computer can lead to conserving energy. The amount of energy consumption of an electrical appliance is a calculation of its power and its hours of use. According to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, electrical appliances that consume a lot of electricity are air conditioners, refrigerators, lights, and TVs. If you use an air conditioner, when you shorten the length of time you use it and you turn up the temperature setting in summer and lower it in winter, you can conserve energy. You can borrow a "watt meter" from the Environmental Policy Division of Hiroshima City Hall when they are available. (Yuumi Kimura, 14) |
Life after the earthquake Mrs. Fujimoto, born in Kure and living in Miyagi
| No electricity for a week | Eating meals with a flashlight |
| No running water for two weeks | Unable to take baths |
Emiko Fujimoto, 57, who was born in the Kure, a city not far from Hiroshima, lives in the town of Murata town, outside Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture. Ms. Fujimoto suffered from the power outage and the disruption in water that lingered for a week following the earthquake. During the blackout, her family of four ate their meals with a flashlight.
The biggest problem brought on by the power outage was the fact that they couldn't use the refrigerator. Each day they carefully checked the food in the refrigerator to see if it had gone bad and they ate it little by little. As for drinking water, her second son, Takahiro, 18, who was still in high school at the time, brought home bottles of water every day from his part-time job. They drank the water and washed dishes with it, but Ms. Fujimoto said that they didn't have enough to get the dishes very clean.
While the water supply was cut off, they couldn't take baths, but they felt uncomfortable complaining about it since taking a bath seemed to be a luxury under such terrible conditions.
Every morning, before she went off to her part-time job, she would check the tap. When water came from the faucet, she felt very happy over the fact that they could take baths again. And after the power was restored, it seemed that the lights were so bright.
The powerful earthquake raised her awareness of the importance of conserving energy. Although it was challenging to live without water and electricity, they thought: "People of long ago lived like this, so we can overcome the situation today." With such an outlook, they were able to endure the inconveniences. (Shiori Ueki, 16)
|
Junior writers challenge themselves to conserve energy |
Targets to conserve energy set and tried for one month |
| |
| Turn off the lights at bedtime I was in the habit of keeping the bright room light on when I went to bed. But I bought a small lamp and now I use that instead. At first, I felt anxious, but the warm orange light soon eased my fatigue. Last week, I tried turning off the lamp before I went to sleep. The first night, I couldn't fall asleep for about an hour, but I wasn't as frightened as I thought I would be. And now I have no trouble sleeping without any lights on. (Yuumi Kimura, 14) | |
| Turn off the TV whenever possible Before, when I was at home, I left my TV on all the time, even if I wasn't watching it. I even left it on when I went out. For one month, I tried turning it off and I made some progress, but sometimes I still found that the TV was on when I woke up in the morning and that I had forgotten to turn off the main power switch. (Yuji Iguchi, 14) | |
| Watch only selected TV programs When I started this exercise, I would check the TV listings in the newspaper every morning and make a plan with the programs I wanted to watch. However, I gradually began turning on the TV without thinking because the room was so quiet or I would watch TV with my family. (Nene Takahashi, 15) | |
| |
| Turn off the TV when I go to bed I was in the habit of falling asleep with the TV on, so in the beginning, without the TV, I couldn't settle down to sleep. So, at first, I was still leaving it on once or twice a week when I went to bed. After another two weeks, I got used to falling asleep without the TV and so I stopped watching it before I went to sleep. (Marina Ishimoto, 15) | |
| Unplug everything in my room at bedtime In the beginning, I was unplugging everything in my room before I went to bed. But after about a week, I forgot to do it because I was going to bed late. In particular, I often forgot to unplug my desk lamp. I charge the battery of my cell phone every two days, but I often left my cell phone still plugged in after it was already charged. (Shotaro Takata, 17) | |
| |
| Try not to play with a portable game too much I just bought a new portable game, so it was hard for me to resist playing with it for long periods of time. However, as I thought of the other junior writers trying to conserve energy, I was able to begin playing with it for shorter times. And after school started again, I had to study for a long time and this cut into my play time, too. As a result, I played with the game for less than two hours a day, which was my goal. (Saaya Teranishi, 14) | |
| Watch TV for an hour a day, in a power-saving way I found it easy to watch TV at a lower volume and on a screen with the brightness turned down. I tried staying aware of the time so I would watch TV for only an hour and only the programs I really wanted to watch. The hardest thing for me was remembering to turn off the main power switch. At first, I was turning the TV off with the remote control, but finally I was able to do it. Although I was able to cut down on the amount of time I watch TV, I started spending longer periods of time on my computer. (Sachiko Kitayama, 14) | |
| Shorten the times charging my cell phone and using my computer Before I was charging my cell phone and using my computer every day. But then I started waiting to charge my cell phone until the battery had almost run out. And I only used my computer three days a week for 30 minutes each time, but I didn't feel any inconvenience. (Shiori Ueki, 16) | |
| |
| Go to bed early and get up early, three days a week It was difficult for me to change my habits so I was only able to go to bed early and get up early eight out of twelve days. But, because I was setting the time I went to bed, I could cut down on the time I was wasting watching TV. In the morning, I didn't watch TV so much and I didn't need to turn on the light, so it was easy to conserve energy in this way, too. (Daichi Ishii, 14) | |
| Go to bed by 11:30 every night I only managed to hit this target four days out of the month. It always took time to finish my homework and prepare for the next school day. When I was studying in the living room, I always had the TV on and I was watching it. And there were many days that I whiled away the time daydreaming without doing the things I was supposed to do. (Ren Nonaka, 16) |
© COPYRIGHT 2005-2007 CHUGOKU SHIMBUN.NO REPRODUCTION OR REPUBLICATION WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.