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Electricity
Use in the Home in London
What Does This Mean?
Why
Is This Important?
How Are We Doing?
Taking Responsibility
- What You Can Do
We Must All Be Accountable
- Improving Air Quality and Reducing Climate
Change - Find Out More
What
Does This Mean?
Tracking the amount
of electricity used in homes within London provides
us with an indication of how energy-efficient
Londoners are. This captures how many electricity-using
appliances and consumer products they use, how
efficient these are, and how often they use
them.
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Why
Is This Important?
Given
that Ontario relies on fossil fuels such as
coal and natural gas to generate over a quarter
of the electricity we demand , every 1,000
kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in
Ontario produces on average 110 kilograms of carbon dioxide
over the year.
In Ontario,
electricity use also contributes to smog. During
peak demand periods, such as hot summer days,
every extra 1,000 kilowatt-hours consumed requires
more coal and other fossil fuels to be burned,
releasing 3.7 kilograms of sulphur dioxide, and
1.1 kilograms of nitrogen oxides into the air.
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How
Are We Doing?
â
Staying The Same
Performance
Trend (Compared to Baseline Year - 1990)
Compared to 1990,
Londoners are using 2% less electricity in
the home in 2007. Previous years (2002 to 2004)
had actually shown a slight decrease of around
1% to 3% as well. However, 2005 was an unusually hot
summer in London, which resulted in a spike in
electricity demand for that year. Air conditioning is typically
the biggest component of your electricity bill
during the summer.
Appliances and
home electronics
-
Run your dishwasher and other electrical
appliances on "off-peak" hours late at
night. This "load-shifting" reduces the
amount of coal burned to meet peak
electricity demands during the day.
-
Unplug your
second refrigerator or freezer if it not
being used - these can use $150 per year of
electricity to keep running. Check out
London Hydro's
Great Refrigerator Round-up Program for
incentives.
-
Replace old
appliances (15 years old or older), such as
refrigerators, clothes washers, freezers,
and air conditioners - a new model of the
same size can use 50% to 75% less
electricity.
- Check
your home electronics for "phantom load" -
products such as VCRs, DVD players, and TVs
can still draw power even when turned off.
Plugging these into a power bar can be used
to ensure that the power is turned off.
Invest in your
home
- Upgrade your home
and receive grants and rebates from the
governments of Canada and Ontario. See
the
London's EnerGuide Partnership website
for more information.
- Plant
deciduous (leaf-bearing) trees on the south
and west side of your home. Once fully
grown, they will provide shade for your home
in the summer, but will allow the sun to
warm your home in the winter.
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Taking
Responsibility - What You Can Do
Heating and cooling
- Set
your thermostat at 25°C during the summer
- Ceiling fans and
portable fans can help you feel cooler during
the summer
- Use programmable
thermostats to reduce heating and cooling
when you are asleep or away from home. Every
degree difference moves energy costs around
5%.
- During the summer,
close curtains on sunny days & open them
at night.
- Insulate hot water
pipes in your basement.
- Use aluminum tape
to seal the joints in your duct work in your
basement.
- Install a
low-flow showerhead - over the year, the amount
of hot water you will save could fill a
backyard swimming pool.
Lighting
-
Use
compact fluorescent light bulbs in the busiest
rooms in your home - these bulbs use 75% less
electricity than incandescent light bulbs,
and last longer too.
- Use timers or
motion sensors to control exterior lighting.
- Use light-emitting
diode (LED) lights for holiday lighting -
these use 75% less electricity than mini-lights
and 98% less electricity than 5 watt incandescent
bulbs.
- Install a
grid-tied solar photovoltaic system to
offset greenhouse gas emissions from
traditional electricity generation and
sell power back to the province through the
Micro-Fit Program.
Solar
Power
- Install a
grid-tied solar photovoltaic system to
offset greenhouse gas emissions from
traditional electricity generation and sell
power back to the province through the
Micro-Fit Program.
We Must
All Be Accountable - Improving Air Quality and
Reducing Climate Change - Find
Out More
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