The economical use of energy resources

The increasing cost of producing organic fuels, especially oil and gas, requires that great attention to be paid to increasing the efficiency of using energy resources and thus to reducing their consumption. The U.S.S.R. Long-Term Energy Management Program addresses the main ways to save energy. These include replacing more expensive fuels by cheaper ones, developing nuclear power and other measures aimed at improving the structure of the heat and energy balance, and increasing the efficiency of fuel and energy use. An especially large potential for savings is to be found in the production and utilization of low-temperature heat. In particular, new approaches are suggested to optimize the parameters of cogeneration plants and heat supply systems, as well as the parameters describing end uses by consumers. Emphasis is given to the promise of district heating with hot-water heaters run on natural gas, combined with gas-fired turbines, with recovery of exhaust heat. Heat pump installations provide space heat and hot water to dispersed consumer and boiler installations with fluidized-bed furnaces are of great importance, as are new schemes of heat supply for agricultural production and for biological conversion of organic waste. On the demand side, ways of lowering the requirements for low-temperature heat include enhancing the thermal resistance and tightness of buildings, updating building heat loss standards, incorporating new construction materials, and improving the methods for regulating the heat supply in district heating systems. The size of the potential savings of energy resources associated with each technology is estimated.