2008-01-20
An Inconvenient Truth
After my previous posting on energy I searched for some more figures on energy consumption. I wanted to get a rough idea of the energy consumption of families (in The Netherlands). So I looked for the figures for energy consumption per year of gas, electricity and petrol.
An average car drives 13000 km/year. With an efficiency of 15 km/l the total usage of petrol is 866 l/year. The energy (more correct heating value) of one liter of petrol is 35 MJ, which is equal to 9.7 kWh/l. The average energy consumption of a car is thus 8400 kWh/year.
An average Dutch family uses 1600 m3 natural gas a year. The heating value of Dutch natural gas is 32 MJ/m3, which is equal to 8.9 kWh/m3. The average energy consumption on gas is thus 14200 kWh/year.
An average Dutch family uses 3300 kWh/year electricity. However, this is the net usage. Power plants have an efficiency of nearly 60%. The gross usage is thus 5500 kWh/year.
The total power consumption of those three resources is 28100 kWh/year, with a distribution of 30% petrol, 50 % gas and 20% electricity.
What do we save if we replace a 60 W electrical bulbs by an energy saving 10 W CFL? The saving is 50 W * 3 hours/day * 365 days = 55 kWh/year net, or 92 kWh/year gross. This is only 0.3% of the total energy consumption of a family! I think we're often not focusing on the right topics for energy saving.
Note, that I assume there is only 1 car per family. The current figure is already somewhere between 1.0 and 1.1 car per family. I also do not take care of the energy loss due to transport and refineries.
References:
http://www.vrom.nl/Pagina.html?id=9288
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heating_value
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardgas
An average car drives 13000 km/year. With an efficiency of 15 km/l the total usage of petrol is 866 l/year. The energy (more correct heating value) of one liter of petrol is 35 MJ, which is equal to 9.7 kWh/l. The average energy consumption of a car is thus 8400 kWh/year.
An average Dutch family uses 1600 m3 natural gas a year. The heating value of Dutch natural gas is 32 MJ/m3, which is equal to 8.9 kWh/m3. The average energy consumption on gas is thus 14200 kWh/year.
An average Dutch family uses 3300 kWh/year electricity. However, this is the net usage. Power plants have an efficiency of nearly 60%. The gross usage is thus 5500 kWh/year.
The total power consumption of those three resources is 28100 kWh/year, with a distribution of 30% petrol, 50 % gas and 20% electricity.
What do we save if we replace a 60 W electrical bulbs by an energy saving 10 W CFL? The saving is 50 W * 3 hours/day * 365 days = 55 kWh/year net, or 92 kWh/year gross. This is only 0.3% of the total energy consumption of a family! I think we're often not focusing on the right topics for energy saving.
Note, that I assume there is only 1 car per family. The current figure is already somewhere between 1.0 and 1.1 car per family. I also do not take care of the energy loss due to transport and refineries.
References:
http://www.vrom.nl/Pagina.html?id=9288
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heating_value
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardgas
# posted by Sander @ 21:18 
Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
Ehm... met als bron Wikipedia..? Nou ik draai mijn spaarlampje er niet uit hoor Hoe zit dat eigenlijk met motoren dan? :o)
Post a Comment
<< Home
