Green Vietnam

Besides the immense amount of exhaust emitted from buses, cars and motorbikes, there seems to be a few things that Vietnam has gotten right.

About 15-20 minutes before I want to take a shower I turn on my little personal water heater and soon enough the water is hot enough for a 10-minute shower. When I moved into my apartment about 4 1/2 months ago my landlord informed me that in order to save money on my electric bill it's advised that I only keep the tank on when I know I will shower shortly after. These tanks are the norm in Vietnamese homes.
It was only until recently that I started to think...why don't we have the same sort of thing in the United States? Why is it necessary to keep a large tank of hot water running throughout the day when we're not even planning on using it? These small tanks or even tankless water heaters just seem to be more practical and economical to have than the more common storage water heater. Because I am in no way an expert of this sort of thing I would love it if someone could explain to me why these fixtures haven't caught on in the US.

Secondly, I noticed early on in my time in Vietnam that everywhere I went I saw energy-saving fluorescent lights whether they are the long ones or the smaller CFLs. Not sure if this is a conscious environmentally friendly move on behalf of Vietnam, or what. Even though there has been a great shift from the typical incandescent light bulbs to CFLs in US the change has been slow moving.

The tankless water heaters and the great use of fluorescent light bulbs in this country has made me think more about what can be done in the US to save on energy.

I know this is a dorky topic, but it's just something that I've been wondering for the past week or so.