Dan Willis - Energy Accounts: Architectural Representations of Energy, Climate, and the Future

During the nineteenth century the United States was a leader in the adoption of new energy forms. In each case, the transition required forty to fifty years (Nye, 1998, passim). It required fifty years (1790-1840) to build a system of water-powered factories that were the basis for industrialization. Steam power was rare before ca. 1820, and required half a century to achieve dominance in 1870. The shift to electrification took until 1930, while the transition from coals dominance to oil and natural gas lasted from ca. 1910 to 1960. One may debate precise dates for these transitions, but none was accomplished in less than four to five decades. Former Vice President Al Gore has called for a new transition in just one decade, but implementing a new energy regime is difficult to accomplish quickly. It is a complex social process involving many actors, not all of whom will gain from the transaction. For homeowners, a new or renovated house with excellent insulation and low energy demand is a large investment. Electrification of American homes did not entail a decline in the use of coal, gas, or oil. But in the new energy transition overall consumption will need to decline, which is historically unusual, as Jevonss paradox comes into play (see David Owens essay on this issue). Moreover, utilities are at best ambivalent about reductions in consumer demand. Power plants are expensive and built to remain operational for decades. Closing them is only economically attractive after utilities amortize the cost of construction, and therefore utilities have developed alternative energies more often as additional capacity for growing markets than as substitutes for existing power systems to be taken off line.

The United States was the worlds leader in electrification. Americans electrified their homes sooner and made more extensive use of appliances than Germany, Britain, France, or Japan. However, high US energy use became so embedded in the landscape that it is difficult to shift to alternative energies. Americans society is deeply intertwined with single-family suburban homes and an energy-demanding form of life. It is therefore useful to examine the transition when Americans electrified their homes and established the foundations for their high-energy lifeworld.