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Electricity Prices by Country

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141–150 of 312 posts

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#141
post #84

One little thing that stuck out: The USA leads the way in terms of household electric usage in the world – an average US household consumes approximately 975 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, three times more than for example the United Kingdom. Which got me wondering how big US domiciles are versus those in the UK. Turns out: lot of big-ass houses here in the US. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-…

I am using 1300 kWh per __year__ in Germany in my three room apartment, with an electric oven and cooker. That is a lot of electricity for a single home, even with electric heating.

I went on vacation for two weeks last month and unplugged everything except the fridge and one HP Microserver N54L and the apartment averaged a little over 4 kWh per day (~120 per month, ~1440 per year)

However, when we are not on vacation the average is around 10 kWh per day.

Edit: We don't use electricity for heating or cooling (Sydney, Australia) as it's included with the apartment at a flat rate of 10 AUD (6.61 USD) per month

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#142
post #110
post #84

One little thing that stuck out: The USA leads the way in terms of household electric usage in the world – an average US household consumes approximately 975 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, three times more than for example the United Kingdom. Which got me wondering how big US domiciles are versus those in the UK. Turns out: lot of big-ass houses here in the US. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-…

I'd guess that a far bigger factor is that the US has a much higher percentage of houses the use electricity for room heating. I believe that it is similar for water heating. In the US there is also a high percentage of houses that use electricity for the stoves and oven and for clothes drying. A brief didn't turn up how much electricity is used for those things in the UK, but if it is like much of the rest of Europe…

Not to mention cooling. How many people in the UK even have air conditioning?

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#143
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In the US around 26% of houses use electricity as their only energy source, compared to around 9% for the UK. Something that was interesting to me when I moved from California to central Oregon was that nearly everything was powered by electricity. I didn't even know anybody with a gas stove in Oregon.

I do not know anyone in Portland metro without a gas line to their house. Furnaces, stoves, and water heaters until recently use gas. I am guessing central Oregon may have been too rural for it to make sense to install gas utilities everywhere?

Could be. We were also on the other side of an entire range of mountains so that may have also had something to do with it.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#144
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd guess that a far bigger factor is that the US has a much higher percentage of houses the use electricity for room heating. I believe that it is similar for water heating. In the US there is also a high percentage of houses that use electricity for the stoves and oven and for clothes drying. A brief didn't turn up how much electricity is used for those things in the UK, but if it is like much of the rest of Europe…

Not to mention cooling. How many people in the UK even have air conditioning?

I've lived all over the UK, houses and apartments, and never had air-con.

You might get a week or so during summer when it's quite hot but then a large fan is sufficient.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#145
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a important lesson about using nuclear power as an energy source in there. Contrast that with Germany which is shuttering their nuclear power plants in favor of renewables.

There is no such lesson. EDF is going bankrupt, France is spending billions trying to replace reactors aging out and about 20% or so of the ~70 billion decommissioning costs are funded. The important lesson here should be that retail prices != prices.

I stand corrected!

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#146
post #123
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. In many states in the US, cost per Kw/H is lower for businesses, even very small ones, than for residences.

Kw/H -> kWh It really is quite impressive to write a 3-letter unit with 4 errors.

And yet, you seem to have figured it out.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#147
post #110
post #84

One little thing that stuck out: The USA leads the way in terms of household electric usage in the world – an average US household consumes approximately 975 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, three times more than for example the United Kingdom. Which got me wondering how big US domiciles are versus those in the UK. Turns out: lot of big-ass houses here in the US. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-…

I'd guess that a far bigger factor is that the US has a much higher percentage of houses the use electricity for room heating. I believe that it is similar for water heating. In the US there is also a high percentage of houses that use electricity for the stoves and oven and for clothes drying. A brief didn't turn up how much electricity is used for those things in the UK, but if it is like much of the rest of Europe…

Vast majority of people use electricity for stoves in the US. Electric is also common for water heating. Less common to use electricity for space heating except for the South and for auxiliary rooms.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/En...

Imagine if they had been growing the nuclear instead of reducing it, it would have allowed to almost get rid of lignite and coal. Instead it is still a portion. (And solar and wind being intermittent you can't just have that)

Nulcear is only for base load, coal can be used for medium spikes. Nuclear can't replace coal for this.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#149
post #74

I'm incredibly lucky to live in Quebec, Canada: 100% green hydro power at low rates. Tarif D has the first 40kwh at 6.509 Canadian cent/kWh, then 10.041 [0] It's also state owned. From what I've seen it's the best combo of green and pricing in the world. 0: https://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/customer-space/rates...

Same in Seattle. 100% hydro. Zero emissions. 0.11 USD per kWh. Owned and operated by the City of Seattle, not a profit-making corporation.

0.96 CAD per kWh just up the road here in BC.

I moved to Canada from the UK and it’s still unbelievable to me how much cheaper energy is here.

If you’re renting a place you don’t even pay for gas. I have unlimited gas in my apartment all year round! I’ve never been so warm in my life.

I would highly recommend any young Brits reading this to seriously look at making the move. It’s amazing out here.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just any coal, but lignite, the nastiest, dirtiest kind of coal. Definitely greener than nuclear. /s

And yet Germany has fewer CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity produced than the USA.

Barely. It's not really much different. For the full year 2021, about 350gCO2/kWh in Germany vs 375gCO2/kWh.

Germany spent an insane amount of money, punished the use of electricity effectively (therefore undermining their own competitiveness in EVs), caused a significantly negative impact on household finances and industrial competitiveness (to the advantage of coal-powered China) and still only gets roughly US level of cleanliness in electricity. Because they simultaneously decided to get rid of nuclear power plants. shrug

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