Now, a Change in Wasteful Habits

To lessen demand for electricity, 750,000 lights have been removed from federal buildings in Washington. Officials in St. Paul, facing severe fuel shortages, plan to close schools in January and February. Seattle City Light is offering awards to customers who show the greatest improvement in scaling down electrical usage. First prize: five telephone poles.

If the Arab nations carry out their oil cutbacks, the U.S. could wind up 2,000,000 bbl. short of the 17 million bbl. that it consumes each day. Energy experts in government, business and academe have been pumping out suggestions to help consumers conserve fuel. For example, one immediate way to pare energy demand is to continue Daylight Saving Time right through winter, thus chopping by an hour the heavy night-time use of electricity. Some other potential conservation measures:

TRANSPORTATION. The equivalent of 6,000,000 bbl. of oil a day is burned in gasoline on the nation's highways. The Treasury Department estimates that 1,200,000 bbl. of oil daily could be saved simply by ordering mandatory auto tuneups every six months, imposing a 50-m.p.h. speed limit for passenger cars, and insisting on more extensive use of car pools.

HEATING. If Americans were to lower their thermostats by three degrees and do their laundry in cold water, the country's oil needs would decrease by 730,000 bbl. daily. By insulating heating ducts and pipes that run through unheated spaces as well as weather-stripping and installing storm doors and windows, householders would cut energy demand and reduce their heating bills by an average of 12 1/2%. Substantial fuel savings can also be made by 1) leaving radiators and hot-air registers unobstructed by draperies, 2) cleaning furnace filters at least every two months, 3) opening shades or blinds on sunny days and closing them at night in winter.

ELECTRICITY. Short of tossing away unnecessary gadgets like electric toothbrushes and shoeshine kits, one of the fastest ways to conserve energy is to switch to fluorescent lighting, which requires far less power than the ordinary--and highly inefficient--light bulb, but gives off from three to seven times as much illumination. There are many ways to pare energy use, but most of them would have to be enforced by law--or at least a strong national publicity campaign--to make them effective. For example, consumers can use regular refrigerators, which require 40% less power than those that are frost-free, and black-and-white television sets, which need nearly 30% less voltage than color sets.

For the longer run, there is much more that the U.S. can do. One area ripe for improvement is the generation of electricity at the power plant; all but 38% of the fuel used goes up in smoke or heat. Industry, which uses 40% of the nation's energy, could slash its requirements by a quarter if it followed a common European practice: install devices to capture heat escaping from stacks and other outlets.

Meanwhile, ready or not, most Americans will have to change their life-styles to some degree in the next few months. Says Mike Ameen, vice president of the Arab American Oil Co.: "There'll be more sex during the day and more blankets at night."

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