Energy 101

Helping You Find a Comfortable Balance Between Energy and Efficiency

In the world of energy, Butterfly can help delineate the choices and make sense of the tradeoffs. For example: Energy. We use a lot of it and we waste a lot of it. And the way the system works, saving a little energy at the point of use saves a lot back up the way. It is staggering how much energy is lost/wasted along the way, if you just think of the complete line of delivery of power to you. For instance, it is estimated that the average person sitting at a laptop computer is utilizing around 1% of the embedded energy of the coal that started the process of delivering the power.

Most coal used for electricity generation is now mined in Wyoming and shipped across the country to power plants. Each of those plants consumes entire trains full of coal every day. The average coal plant today is about 31% efficient, meaning that for every BTU of coal burned, less than a third of that energy ends up as electricity. Coal fired power plants generate huge amounts of CO² and other pollutants. Yet, the U.S. has more coal than any other country in the world and it is incredibly cheap as compared to oil. Tradeoffs. The “right” answer for electricity production, renewable, has the opposite set of characteristics – new, expensive, power production is variable, and much of the equipment to produce the power is produced outside the U.S.   So the answer to which way to go is “both”. Tradeoffs.

At Butterfly, we understand that the environmental concerns of today are intertwined and complex in nature. Just when you think you’ve worked them out, you run into what seem to be contradictory opinions. That’s why we work every day to do the research, discuss the issues, and figure out the best solutions. We are fiercely devoted to having the latest technologies fully dissected so that we can present them with confidence to you. So if you have another “does it really help to…?” question as you move to support a healthier home, business and life, you can be sure that we probably already have that question in our sights – and may very well already have the solution waiting. You only have to ask.