Energy Basics
It is defined as the ability to cause a change or do work.
What is Energy?
These energy resources are classified as such because they are being used faster than they can be replaced.
What is nonrenewable?
The First Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Conservation of Energy) states that energy cannot be created or this.
What is destroyed?
This unit is typically used to measure electricity consumption on a monthly utility bill.
What is a Kilowatt-hour (kWh)?
Gases like carbon dioxide that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere are known by this collective name.
What is a Greenhouse Gas?
Energy itself cannot be seen directly, but it can be detected when this occurs.
What is a change?
These energy resources are defined by their ability to be naturally replaced in a short period of time.
What is renewable?
Every time energy changes form, friction or system limits usually cause some energy to be given off as this unusable form.
What is waste heat (or heat)?
Equal to roughly 100,000 British thermal units, this unit is used to measure natural gas usage.
What is a Therm?
This metric on an energy calculation is used to measure the total greenhouse gas impact of your energy use.
What is lbs of CO2 equivalent?
This term describes energy found in nature that has not been subjected to any conversion or transformation process.
What is Primary Energy?
This specific resource is a popular renewable option, and uses the sunlight to produce electrical energy.
What is solar energy?
This branch of physical science deals directly with the relations between heat and other forms of energy.
What is Thermodynamics?
Formed by using other primary natural resource fuels, electricity belongs to this category of energy sources.
What is a secondary energy source?
This online tool is provided by the EPA to help people visualize and understand the real-world impact of their energy use.
What is the Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator?
While stored chemical energy or a battery sitting on a shelf represents potential energy, this term describes the energy of motion.
What is kinetic energy?
Wind, biomass, and geothermal are renewable resources, but this gaseous fossil fuel is classified as nonrenewable.
What is natural gas?
This term describes the ratio of useful energy output compared to the total energy input in a system.
What is efficiency?
This household appliance is the most common culprit for high electricity bills during the summer months.
What is air conditioning?
This simple home modification is a highly effective way to reduce overall heating and cooling energy costs on a utility bill.
What is improving home insulation?
This is the primary purpose of an energy bill.
What is to show the cost and amount of energy used?
Driven internally by nuclear fusion, this is the ultimate original source of almost all energy on Earth.
What is the sun?
As energy undergoes a higher number of sequential conversions in a pathway, this happens to its overall quality.
What is it decreases?
In cold climates, households use much higher quantities of natural gas during this specific season for space heating.
What is winter?
Because a power plant introduces multiple energy conversions along its transmission pathway, this action—doing it directly at home—is actually more energy-efficient than using electric heat from a coal plant.
What is burning directly in the home for heat?