The US loves their air conditioners. May hits that lull between people turning down their heaters and cranking up their air conditioners.
Re:For a Bit of Colored Ribbon
by curiousdannii on Monday November 26, 2012 @06:40AM
(#4831571)
The biggest proportion of household energy goes towards temperature management -- heaters, air conditioners, or in some climates, both!
Re:For a Bit of Colored Ribbon
by j-g-faustus on Monday November 26, 2012 @07:12AM
(#4831637)
Space heating, water heating, refrigeration and air conditioning add up to 75% of the energy used by households in USA:
http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_...
Although I was slightly surprised that "lighting and other appliances" is as much as 25% of the home energy use.
Yes, a lot of homes in the US use natural gas for all heating (forced air, water, cooking, clothes drying). The usage is minimal in the summer months (just cooking and hot water and some clothes), but can spike to very high amounts when the temperature drops to below freezing.
Usually a home will be built with all gas appliances or all electric, a mixture of the two is not as common.
There are cultural differences too. Americans love to air condition their entire homes with central systems and run them a lot in the summer months. They also dry their clothes with automatic dryers and rarely use clothes lines anymore.
Also, do you guys use natural gas for heating too?