4 ms·
From the article: "The amount of energy consumed by an average person in China (averaged over the year) has jumped by a quarter since 2006, to three kilowatts (
by Reason077 8y ago
From the article:
"The amount of energy consumed by an average person in China (averaged over the year) has jumped by a quarter since 2006, to three kilowatts (kW) ... it’s still less than a third as much as the American average, which at 9.2 kW is equivalent to nine toasters, running 24/7."
According to eia.gov[1], average residential electricity usage was 10,399 kWh per year in 2017. That's about 28.4 kWh per day, or an averaged power draw of 1.18 kW. And that's per residential utility customer, not per person!
So the 9.2 kW claim seems extremely high. Is there really another 8 kW being used by business and industry? Or does the author not understand the difference between power (kW) and energy (kWh)?
[1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3
- Arnt 8y agoYes. Wikipedia's number is quite close to that 8: "Primary energy use in the United States was 25,155 TWh or about 81,800 kWh per person in 2009." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States#Primary_energy_consumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States#Pr...
- Reason077 8y agoRight, but that's total energy use rather than electricity use. Energy consumption tends to drop significantly where fossil fuel applications can be converted to electric. An electric vehicle is dramatically more efficient than a fossil-fuel burning one, for example. Likewise, an electric heat pump is much more efficient than a gas boiler.