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Electricity Prices by Country

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Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#171

Post by jacquesm »

csunbird wrote: post #132
perardi wrote: 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.

That's really not that bad. Consider that my house - freestanding, about 200 sq meters - was using ~10000 KWh in 2020. I radically changed all that when the war in Ukraine started and the difference is huge, we are now negative with respect to the grid and still use gas but that will soon go towards a heatpump. Conservation cut our consumption (including own solar consumption) by roughly 70%.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#172

Post by Aeolun »

jcadam wrote: post #166
kahirsch wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By far more energy goes to heating than air conditioning, but a lot of heating in the US is natural gas (or oil in the northeast), especially in the colder places. About 43% of household energy use is heating and only 8% is air conditioning.[1] But for overall household electricity use, air conditioning is 17% and heating is 15% (all houses, not just all-electric houses). [2] [1] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/u…

Up here in Alaska, heating your house with electricity would be asinine if you have any other option.

I think that’s only because it’s more expensive. Whether you heat with electricity or with gas/petrol you still need the same amount of energy.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#173

Post by jacquesm »

shric wrote: post #141
csunbird wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 U…

That looks like you need a new fridge. And those little servers can really add up, I had a Synology 12 bay NAS with a 12 bay extension up and running 24x7 and it consumed about 300W continuously.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#174

Post by jacquesm »

robocat wrote: post #139
cbmuser wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poland is actually going to build nuclear power plants soon. In ten years, Poland‘s electricity mix will be much cleaner than Germany‘s.

EXPORTS In 2021, Poland exported $926M in Electricity. The main destination of Electricity exports from Poland are: Lithuania ($430M), Slovakia ($388M), Czechia ($56.5M), Germany ($28.8M), and Sweden ($23M). IMPORTS In 2021, Poland imported $1.45B in Electricity. Poland imports Electricity primarily from: Germany ($911M), Sweden ($299M), Lithuania ($131M), Ukraine ($63.4M), and Czechia ($43.5M).

A lot of Russian gas went straight to the gas turbines of electricity generating plants, which considerably skews these figures.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#175

Post by Aeolun »

0x073 wrote: post #148
jenadine wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’m inclined to believe solar and wind have similar percentages of storage available.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#176

Post by jacquesm »

prepend wrote: post #159
lunatuna wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add that part of the difference is service level between the US and Germany. In Germany the outages are far less frequent and for a lot less time.

Outages in the US are very rare. I’ve had three outages in the past 15 years. Two were just a second or two and came back on, one was for a few hours after a big storm. Of course the US is huge so service levels vary depending on where you are.

August 14th, 2003.

edit: That date is engraved in my memory: https://jacquesmattheij.com/a-world-without-power/

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#178

Post by Robotbeat »

nonethewiser wrote: post #156
Robotbeat wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Vast majority of people use electricity for stoves in the US. Apparently about 68%. That shocked me. I thought for sure gas was more common based off personal experience. https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/29082/most-common-type-of...

Yeah, it’s actually weird, because of the role it has played in the culture wars recently, but gas stoves are actually kind of a “coastal elite” phenomenon. Most common around California and New York City (and surrounding areas). And becoming a trendy feature in high end homes.

And unintuitive enough that I get downvoted for pointing it out. shrug

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#179

Post by jacquesm »

sefrost wrote: post #149
panarky wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

0.96 $CAD doesn't seem all that cheap.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#180

Post by jcadam »

Aeolun wrote: post #172
jcadam wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up here in Alaska, heating your house with electricity would be asinine if you have any other option.

I think that’s only because it’s more expensive. Whether you heat with electricity or with gas/petrol you still need the same amount of energy.

> I think that’s only because it’s more expensive.

Well, sure it is - and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon.

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