Fri, 01 May 2026 21:23:00 +0100 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.0.3 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207008#Comment_207008 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207008#Comment_207008 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:27:38 +0100 jamesingram "In the short term we should be reducing energy usage (but no one has every taken me up on my 48 kWh/day challenge, ever) as it is a fast and effective way to reduce CO2e, improve air quality, reduce dependency etc, but it is not a cheap option, and probably never will be. "

Would you like to expand on this,
does it include all aspect of life ?
cheers]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207010#Comment_207010 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207010#Comment_207010 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:31:51 +0100 fostertom http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum114/comments.php?DiscussionID=12434&page=1#Item_12 :

ST's 48kWh/day sounds a super-virtuous challenge, and it is - but it's still a stupendous amount of energy - it's the work output of 2.3 carthorses working continuously solely for the benefit of just one household. Or 13 super-fit Enduro cyclists pedaling away continuously 24/7. Or 20 or 30 slaves or serfs working long days, which is a fraction of what it took till recently, for an elite family to live 'civilised'.

If only to avoid the inevitable return to that last, is good enough reason for humanity to use technology now to learn to live 'comfortably' in the future with zero need for imported, bought in, commodity energy; instead making do (comfortably) with the free energy, principally solar, that is available to every dwelling.]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207012#Comment_207012 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207012#Comment_207012 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:38:32 +0100 Nick Parsons https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207015#Comment_207015 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207015#Comment_207015 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:44:08 +0100 jamesingram utilising free energy. A good first step as many suggest.
my family of 5, last year (june to june) used
2.1kwh/day each person for our home energy consumption (gas+electric+wood-PV)
so then we add
transport
food
consumer good
holidays
etc.
what are these other values ?]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207016#Comment_207016 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207016#Comment_207016 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:44:53 +0100 jamesingram Posted By: Nick ParsonsSlight typo in the title! 48Wh/day really *would* be challenging!!
edited ]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207023#Comment_207023 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207023#Comment_207023 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 22:35:21 +0100 SteamyTea We pay to run hospitals, roads and schools regardless of whether we use them or not.

Food is the tricky one, we need about 2.25 kWh/day of it, but processing it can be very energy intensive (my neighbour thinks that pasta takes 25 minutes to cook). So I would not count the basic food joules, but I would count the transport and processing (just in case a windfall vegan comes alone).

I can easily run my house on less than half, or about 14 kWh/day on average, and that was for two people, just me currently so be interesting to see what I use alone (not been very good recently). My car takes more than my house, a lot more, easily uses 50 kWh just popping out for a coffee. Now that coffee is going to use a lot as I will have a 'stake' in the coffee machine and the premise (one place I used to go to constantly had outside lights on). This is hard to gauge, but I could say that a mug is a 1/3rd of a kg, the water was almost boiled, and that for every 10 mugs I have, there is one mugs worth of waste.

But even taking my individual usage, or wastage if you prefer, I have little or no control over what the state uses on my behalf.
I want roads, buses, trains, airports, harbours, 24/7 stores (there is a song about this), hospitals, schools, colleges, my rubbish collected, my water clean, this list can go on for a long time, but you get the picture.

I am not sure how much we can reduce our personal and our national usage, but I think we should think harder about it.
It is worth remembering that I am talking about usage, not offsetting, CO2e, generation, just what we, as a nation, use, and how we can get it down to nearer the world average.]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207171#Comment_207171 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207171#Comment_207171 Fri, 15 Aug 2014 11:44:32 +0100 Shah https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207173#Comment_207173 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207173#Comment_207173 Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:01:34 +0100 ted https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_per_capita

UK average is 4332.5 * 8.766 / 365 = 104.05 kWh per day per capita

Calculating it on an individual basis is just going to ignore all, or most of, the externalities. Even at a country level it will exclude imports/exports.

So we, as a country, need to cut our energy use in half to get near 48 kWh/day.]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207174#Comment_207174 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207174#Comment_207174 Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:21:50 +0100 Shah ]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207180#Comment_207180 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207180#Comment_207180 Fri, 15 Aug 2014 13:46:14 +0100 SteamyTea I think when I last looked at the figures in detail for every kWh I used at home, 7 where used elsewhere on my behalf. If I add in personal transport though, that changes drastically to every kWh I use the state uses 0.3 kWh. I use 5 times as much energy moving than sitting at home.
One of the reasons that I think that if we could reduce transport energy usage (and we already buy a lot of new cars), we could reduce energy usage more rapidly.
But of course we need to do both.]]> https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207464#Comment_207464 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=12441&Focus=207464#Comment_207464 Thu, 21 Aug 2014 18:42:41 +0100 haplessDiyer