At home, how much more electricity are we consuming

[ToughButterCup]

Has anyone seen generalised data about how much more electricity the average household has consumed since the onset of COVID? 

I realise that not everyone has been able to work from home, and that others have - against their will - been required to do so.

 

If you have seen some numbers online, could you link to that data source please?

[SteamyTea]

Not sure if 2020 and 2021 numbers are in yet.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/regional-and-local-authority-electricity-consumption-statistics#full-publication-update-history

Edited February 20, 2022 by SteamyTea

[ProDave]

That is an interesting question.

 

For us, I doubt you would see much difference.  The house is warm 24/7 with most of the heating being done in the daytime by the ASHP.  So no additional heating needs.  And using electricity in the daytime for say a computer, would mostly just be a means of helping to self use solar PV generation, so apart from the depths of winter on one of those grey days, there would not be much increase in electricity costs.

 

However, compare to a more typical UK house, a Victorian semi that leaks heat quickly, you would have additional (gas) heating costs as the house would normally be left to go cold if empty in the day, and additional electricity costs if you don't have PV.

 

BUT anyone working from home would save on the cost of the usual commute.  In some cases that will be a significant cost.

[SteamyTea]

Just now, ProDave said:

BUT anyone working from home would save on the cost of the usual commute.  In some cases that will be a significant cost.

Tell me about it.  Last month spend £600 on diesel.  Almost a years worth of electricity for my house (<4 MWh I think it was).

[ToughButterCup]

15 minutes ago, ProDave said:

...

However, compare to a more typical UK house, a Victorian semi that leaks heat quickly, you would have additional (gas) heating costs as the house would normally be left to go cold if empty in the day, and additional electricity costs if you don't have PV.

 

BUT anyone working from home would save on the cost of the usual commute.  In some cases that will be a significant cost.

 

I was wondering whether anyone had done some generalised number crunching on additional domestic electricity  consumption.

Edited February 20, 2022 by ToughButterCup

[ToughButterCup]

Quote

  ...

The 4.8  per  cent  fall  in total  electricity  consumption  was driven by  a record  11.1  per  cent  fall  in total  non-domestic  electricity  consumption  and  a  5.6 per  cent  increase in  domestic  consumption;  the  COVID-19  pandemic  was  probably  a key factor  driving  the changes  in  the  electricity  consumption between 2019 and  2020.

...

 

But this surprised me ....

Quote

...

For Great Britain as a whole, mean domestic electricity consumption per meter was 18.6 per cent lower in 2020 than in 2005. The reductions for individual countries/regions varied from 15.6 per cent (in the South East) to 24.0 per cent (in Scotland).

....

 

Both documents available here (Downloaded 20th Feb 2022)

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sub-national-electricity-and-gas-consumption-summary-report-2020

 

Apologies for asking on BH  rather than doing my own legwork first.?

[oldkettle]

3 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

But this surprised me ....

 

Why? Lightning has become massively more efficient and some appliances are way better as well. 

[ProDave]

9 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

For Great Britain as a whole, mean domestic electricity consumption per meter was 18.6 per cent lower in 2020 than in 2005. The reductions for individual countries/regions varied from 15.6 per cent (in the South East) to 24.0 per cent (in Scotland).

Given that most houses heat with gas, so this is mostly not a measure of reduced heating requirements, I would say the 2 big changes since 2005 has been the almost universal replacement of CRT televisions and computer monitors and the not quite so universal replacement of filament lamps with CCFL and now LED.

 

As someone said, that is the low hanging fruit for electricity saving taken care of.

 

9 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

The 4.8  per  cent  fall  in total  electricity  consumption  was driven by  a record  11.1  per  cent  fall  in total  non-domestic  electricity  consumption  and  a  5.6 per  cent  increase in  domestic  consumption;  the  COVID-19  pandemic  was  probably  a key factor  driving  the changes  in  the  electricity  consumption between 2019 and  2020.

That would be our continuing decline in making things?  and would there be a significant reduction in electric train travel due to work from home, so fewer trains running?

 

I could be cynical here (what me?)  We are constantly told how green electric train travel is, but reduce it during the pandemic and we are STILL burning fossil fuel to power the country.  So working that the other way, each new electric train put into service is burning FOSSIL FUEL to power it as there is simply not enough renewable power going spare to power them.  The pollution has just moved from the engine to the distant power station.

[ToughButterCup]

35 minutes ago, oldkettle said:

 

Why? Lightning has become massively more efficient and some appliances are way better as well. 

18%

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

That would be our continuing decline in making things

That is quite far from the complete picture.

 

Oil,_a_beginner's_guide.pdf

[oldkettle]

2 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

18%

 

Did you expect a higher or a lower number? 

 

If lighting was 20% of overall spend and shrunk to 2...

Actually, here 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/how-much-electricity-does-a-home-use

Lighting (lamps and lights)

15%

 

This seems to be the current split, hence there was a much higher potential saving. Won't be surprised if say overall cooking appliances consumption has actually grown in the last 15 years with people replacing gas hobs with modern electric ones. This offset some of the savings elsewhere. 

[MikeSharp01]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

That is quite far from the complete picture.

217 Pages though! From a quick scan a good read but does not answer @ToughButterCup 's question. Essentially the mix has changed and it would be good to know if that has had a positive impact or negative impact. I guess looking back at the history of generation output would tell you all you wanted to know. Looks like the peak was 2004 and trending down from there.

Source: Wikipedia - Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0, OPL 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114303524

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

but does not answer @ToughButterCup 's question

It was a rhetorical retort to @ProDave's reply.

 

Book is OK, even if 14 years old now.

[Radian]

In 2005 the gadget to have was a plasma TV. Our 55" Panasonic can pull over 700W and still manage to look dimmer than a 70W LCD equivalent.