Unravelling home energy use across Australia

摘要

There are many ways of looking at home energy use. Each one provides useful insights, but can also distort our understanding. In this article, we try to begin unravelling this very big ball of string. We start with an overview, then look more closely. Figure 1 shows the average metered energy use per household in each state, excluding 'behind the meter' solar PV consumption. The average is the total energy use estimated for each activity, divided by the number of households in that state (see box for more on how this is calculated). This means that the average household in Victoria, for instance, would have 0.46 of a ducted gas heater, 0.70 of a gas water heater and 0.07 of a gas-boosted solar water heater! Even households with the same appliances may consume very different amounts of energy for many reasons. So, care must be taken in understanding that the average house would not exist in practice, but averages do help illuminate the major contributors to household energy consumption.