for your tea in an electric kettle uses half the energy your stove takes. Do you toast a slice of bread from a loaf or have a part-baked croissant which demands more energy to heat it? Then there’s your fridge: is it rated A+ or
Energy-hungry household appliances account for GHG emissions both in use and during their production. Before buying, investigate different models and choose the most effi cient. Choose to pay more for quality that promises to last – you will get a better deal than if you buy a cheaper model which you have to replace three times. If it breaks, try to have it repaired before replacing it (see the calculations of efficiency versus manufacturing emissions). Energy effi ciency labels are useful but sometimes misleading. They will tell you the appliance’s relative effi ciency for its size, but you would do better to take into account its absolute efficiency. The biggest users of electricity in the average household are tumble dryers, refrigerators and freezers, washing machines and televisions. And they are not always essential:
do you really need a tumble dryer, or could you manage with a clothes line?
A++ for its energy effi ciency? How do you clean your teeth – with an electric or a manual toothbrush?
You commute to the offi ce: do you use your car or the subway? And at work, a fl at-screen monitor and laptop use less power than desktops and cathode ray tubes. Lunch next. If you choose meat, that will normally have taken more energy to reach your plate than vegetables or pasta. (Mean-while, are you sure you have not left your computer – or any other appliance – on standby in your office?) After work you have a quick snack,
The International Energy Agency estimates that standby mode could be causing a full 1 per cent of world’s greenhouse gas emissions, close to what the entire aviation industry emits. Standby power consumption for most devices is small – typically ranging from 0.5 to 15 watts but the number of devices drawing stand-by power is large. A European, Japanese, Australian, or North American home often contains 20 devices constantly drawing standby power. A standard TV set, DVD or CD player wastes up to 50 per cent of the energy it consumes while in stand-by mode. As a result, standby power is responsible for 5–10 per cent of total electricity use in most homes and an unknown amount in commercial buildings and factories.
A simple way to reduce power consumption and the resulting emissions is to use a multi-plug rail with a power switch and turn it off over night. A complementary approach is for industry to aim at reducing electricity consumption in new appliances when they are on stand-by. The IEA has launched a campaign
aiming to reduce stand-by consumption to one watt.
www.iea.org/textbase/papers/2005/standby_fact.pdf.
THE CYCLE – REDUCE KICK THE HABIT 105
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202