Household Metabolism in the Five Cities.

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800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 GJ motor fuel electricity heating other consumption transport recreation education hygiene clothing and footwear household effects house food 0 Average Stockholm City Average Sweden Urban rich Young and poor Single with car Squeezed with children Figure 6.4: Total energy use per year of six different households, 1996 (primary energy). 9 Discussion and conclusion 9.1 Discussion Uncertainties There are three levels at which uncertainities can be discussed; the general EAP level (1), the level of analysis of consumption items (2) and at the level of budget surveys (3). We highlight some of the most important observations from our study with respect to these three levels. At the general EAP level, it is important to investigate to what extent the Dutch data that we used for the energy intensities of the trade and service sectors are relevant for Sweden. The contribution to the total from these sectors is significant in many analyses. Validating these energy intensities, or finding suitable Swedish information, is a priority for further research. Likewise, further use of EAP should include an update of the statistics and figures from 1995/1996 that was used in this study. It is also important to discuss the significance of conversion losses during power production for the outcome of results. When primary energy is used to portraye household consumption, as done here, it is not only the consumption pattern that is described but also the power production pattern of the specific country the household is living in. The consequence is that household energy use could change, perhaps substantially, should the household move to a different country while spending their money in the same way as before. Another uncertanity when it comes to comparing results about Swedish households with those from other countries is that many services commonly payed for directly by households are payed by taxes in Sweden. Examples are school lunches and schoolfees. The energy intensity of taxes was not included in our study. 37
At the level of analysing consumption items we particularly feel that the uncertainities about consumer prices should be further investigated as reliable statistics were partly missing and we had to estbalish several prices based on rather ad-hoc methods. Also, the default data about the composition of products should be validated if possible. At the level of budget surveys it is important to remember that the expenditure profiles for the individual households are based on recordings from one month only. Thus, the energy profiles for these households are even more uncertain than for the two average ones. This was particularly striking for the household called Urban and Rich where energy use for food purchases was clearly overstimated. Despite these uncertainities, it seems that our results resemble those that can be derived from the national accounts concerning direct energy. SCB (2002 d) reports that the direct energy use per person and year during 1993 to 1997 was 50 GJ. Transposed to the average Swedish household, of 2.2 persons, it means a direct energy use of 110 GJ per year, which comes close to our estimate of 129 GJ per year. We have not been able to validate the indirect energy use in the same way but the partitioning between direct and indirect energy that we found is similar to what was found by others. In summary, the absolute numbers about total household energy consumption presented in this report are more uncertain than relative comparisions between households. The results can therefore mainly be used for evaluating effects of change in variables such as spended amounts or spending patterns. Total energy use versus spending intensity EAP analyses can be used to discuss the potential for decoupling energy use from income growth and for identifying energy efficient ways to spend money (e.g. Alfredsson, 2002). Clearly, such a discussion is much needed, with a continued growth in household incomes while meeting needs for energy efficiency. However, absolute numbers of energy use must also figure in such discussions as they otherwise risk becoming partial and incomplete. The comparision of households in our study showed that the average household in Stockholm City spent more money (2029 Euro 7 ) than the average Swedish (2085 Euro) but used less energy. The Stockholm City household used a total 237 GJ 8 per year and the Swedish one 263 GJ. This means that the energy intensity of spending in the Stockholm City household is lower, at 11.36 MJ per Euro, than the intensity for the Swedish one, at 12.94 MJ per Euro. If the comparision stops there, it may appear that the Stockholm City household is the most environmentally friendly because they spend their money in a more energy efficient way. The same can be said for the Urban and Rich household with an energy intensity in their spendings of 10.34 MJ per Euro when compared to the Young and Poor household with a spending intensity of 12.98 MJ per Euro. Figure 7.1 shows the energy intensity of the households spendings in MJ per Euro. The lowest intensity was found for the household Squeezed with Children, at 8.79 MJ per Euro. 7 1 Euro = 9.67 SEK 8 1 GJ = 1000 MJ 38
Page 1 and 2: Household Metabolism in the Five Ci
Page 3 and 4: ISSN 1404-6520 Fms homepage: www.fm
Page 5 and 6: 2 Summary The study present results
Page 7 and 8: 3 Introducing the household metabol
Page 9 and 10: level implies the design of metabol
Page 11 and 12: 3.6 Household metabolism: focus on
Page 13 and 14: Economic I-O data Energy Statistics
Page 15 and 16: included in the EAP analyses, as me
Page 17 and 18: 4.3 Non-Eap analyses Most energy in
Page 19 and 20: Basic goods The table Basic Goods i
Page 21 and 22: years old, and 54 % of them partici
Page 23 and 24: From this information, we estimated
Page 25 and 26: well as stakeholders’ opinions ab
Page 27 and 28: 3 1000 Euro 2.5 2 1.5 1 motor fuel
Page 29 and 30: household used 4700 kWh in their ap
Page 31 and 32: 7.2 How many items do the household
Page 33 and 34: The absolute figures for indirect e
Page 35 and 36: Table 6.1: Total expenditures durin
Page 37: 6% 8% 19% food house household effe
Page 41 and 42: primary GJ 800 700 600 500 400 tota
Page 43 and 44: The energy profiles for different h
Page 45 and 46: IVL, 2001: Jessica Granath, persona
Page 47 and 48: Appendix 1: Input output sectors se
Page 49 and 50: Appendix 3: Packaging materials Ene
Page 51 and 52: Appendix 5: Energy use for differen
Page 53 and 54: Appendix 6 continued Code of Energy
Page 59 and 60: Appendix 7: Taxes Bread and grains
Page 61 and 62: Appendix 8 continued Item ship lorr

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