Let's take a minute and think about how many things you use electricity for throughout your day -- and even while you're sleeping.

How many did you come up with? Let's look at some examples together!

• In the winter, that electric blanket keeps you toasty while the heat pump keeps the house at a comfortable temperature and the pipes from freezing.
• In summer, imagine sleeping through 90-degree nights at 95% humidity.  Air conditioners make life so much better, especially if you live in the South!
• Your smartphone has been charging all night so that the alarm can go off and wake you up to start your day!
• You shower in water probably heated by electricity. Even getting the water pumped to your house takes electricity!
• You pop something into the microwave to heat up for breakfast since you already have a busy enough morning.
• If you’re lucky, there’s an electric Soul/Leaf/Tesla in the garage waiting to silently drive you around today.
• The tablet or laptop in your backpack; the tunes playing in your earbuds; there is no end to this list….
• Don’t forget the food you eat.  Very little would be on your table or in your fridge (did we mention that already?) without electricity to plant, harvest, process, transport and prepare all that food.
• Think of all the materials and products you use every day.  They come from hundreds and thousands of industrial processes you may never have thought of—electric motors, injection-molding, CNC (computer numerical control) machines.  So much of industry is built on electricity.

This list is already really long but think about all the things we have left off! It might be easier to list the things that electricity can't do!

Photo by Anthony Indraus on Unsplash

A quick summary would be that electricity is:

Versatile:

• You can do almost anything that requires energy by using electricity.
• You can convert electricity into many other forms of energy, and you can convert many other types of energy into electricity, making it even more versatile.

Convenient and Efficient:

• It is easy to transport and distribute.
• There are usually low losses at the point of use.

and Clean:

• It doesn't pollute at the point of use.
• It's not radioactive, so no worries of getting superpowers from a spider bite.
• It can be produced from clean, renewable methods such as wind, water, and sunlight.

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash