Measuring household electricity at individual equipment level
Why is electricity use increasing in households? In order to answer this question, the Swedish Energy Agency has taken measurements of how individual items of electrical equipment are used in 400 households.
One of the studies within the project "Improved energy statistics in buildings" is taking a look at how energy is used at the level of individual items of electrical equipment in 400 households. The measurements include all electricity use on a day-to-day basis (washing, dishwashing, making food, lighting, computer and TV use etc.) and the results will indicate the pattern of use in total and how it varies over a period of 24 hours.
The measurements started September 1 2005 and continued through to June 2008. SCB (the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics) prepared the selected households which included villas/houses and apartments which were spread around the area of Mälardalen. A small number of measurements were made as well in both the north and the south of Sweden. Most of the households participated for a period of one month, but 40 households participated for a whole year.
The purpose is to map out electricity use per machine and to show the consumption pattern. The objective is also to find out how much of the total energy is being used when machines are on stand-by. This will provide a basis for control measures which will make electricity use in households more efficient.
Stand-by-use, i.e. the electricity used for example when the TV and computers are on stand-by, will be measured partly at machine level and partly in total for the household. As well as providing better statistics, the results can be used to make consumers aware of their own electricity use. The results can also be used to motivate producers to develop more energy-efficient machinery.
At the moment, analyses are being carried out of the results of the measurements. When the analyses are ready, the results will be presented on this website.
