Farinata:Electricity consumption per capita
US 13477 kWh
Japan 7523 kWh
France 6966 kWh
UK 5525 kWh
Russia 5397 kWh
(Source: CIA)
: Note: I'm not saying that the US is inferior, or bad, or anything; I'm just puzzled by this vast gulf in levels of energy consumption.
Blower:
Easy... they leave their air conditioning units on all day and these consume an awful amount of power. Also they have electric everything - I mean massage beds ?? sums them up really.
Morris:
According to my last electric bill, I pay 3.2 cents per kilowatthour, which is among the lowest rates in the US, bringing my monthly bill to about US$30. Since January 1999, I have used just over 5000 kilowatthours, which is not even 40 percent of my share alotted by the CIA. I'd better get cracking if I'm going to hit the goal of 13477; after all, it's cheap! I suspect that number was reached by dividing the total output of every power plant in the US (which is easily tracked, since these are regulated at the federal level) by the total population, according to the most recent census.
My bill only covers my alottment of electricity used at home, which was built long before anyone figured out how to insulate walls or build windows that don't leak. The biggest energy draw is the refrigerator, since a small, window mounted air conditioner is only run occasionally at night during the summer. That, and the massage bed, if I had one, is powered by an induction motor with a weight on one side of its shaft, and run only intermittently. However, nearly every public building in the U.S. is air conditioned, which sometimes startles visitors. On top of that, every grocery store, fast feeder, school, or anyplace associated with food has massive refrigeration units in addition to the air conditioner. Add up all the refrigeration I encounter every day, and it amounts to a lot of "cold air!"
Hugh Morris
None.
