If you’ve ever wondered how much your personal energy savings matter, nationally speaking, then a look at the Digest of UK Energy Statistics will (familiarly known as DUKES) will show just how important it is. Domestic use now accounts for 28.1% of the UK’s total energy consumption:
Even more importantly, the Transport sector accounted for 39.9% of the total – and this includes the journeys we make by car, bus, train and plane.
If you are wondering how big the total pie is, it’s about the equivalent of 200 Million tonnes of oil per annum.
So if all the UK’s residents make a saving of 10% of their energy usage domestically we could save some 5.6 Million tonnes of oil every year. And if we hazard a guess that a quarter of the Transport energy usage is down to individuals (rather than industry) then a 10% reduction would save another 2 Million tonnes of oil per annum.
We’ve used the figure of 10% because this is achievable for most households, simply by changing our behaviour: In the house, then switch off anything not in use or on standby, do full loads of washing (rather than part) etc. In the car then cut out unnecessary trips and try to drive more smoothly.