Power usage & leadership

While we were at dinner tonight, my husband told me something very interesting. Apparently the 'average' household in New Zealand consumes 8000 kWh/year.

Extrapolating our past six month's use out to a year, the two of us consume about 2,600 kWh/year, including running a business from home.

This equates to about 30% of an average household. 30% is not too bad.

We don't pay for the 30% we do consume, at present, as we have photovoltaic cells and solar hot water heating, generating more than we can use, so we gain monthly credits from our power supplier. That includes offsetting our daily supply charges.

But it makes me wonder quite what other people do with all their energy though - and why councils don't demand that people put in solar hot water systems on new houses, and all government departments (including schools) don't cover their roofs in PV cells, as they do in Germany.

It is nice to see Hubbards Foods Ltd taking a leadership position on this, at least.

Reference:TopNews (23/07/2010) Vector, Hubbard Foods Fund the Biggest Solar Panel Project. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from http://topnews.net.nz/content/26432-vector-hubbard-foods-fund-biggest-solar-panel-project


Sam