5.2

• 1 kWh

  The size of 1 kilowatt-hour, the unit of electrical energy
• The energy bill states how much electrical energy has been used
• You pay approximately 0.34 cents per kWh
• What can you do with 1 kWh of energy?

  It can be converted into heating, lighting, and moving
• An average Dutch family uses around 3500 kWh of electrical energy at home per year
• An electrical car also uses about 3500 kWh per year
• If you used 3500 kWh to just use the internet, you could use the internet for 35,000 hours, which is 3.4 years
• Lamps

  • Provide about 14% of the energy consumption of an average family
• How to save energy at home

  1. Use more efficient appliances

  2. Use better appliances

  3. Cut back on the use of appliances
• More efficient devices

  • LED lamps
• More economical devices often last even longer
• Reducing the use of appliances results in significant savings of up to 200 kWh per year
• Counteracting standby consumption can save 5-10%
• Energy labels


  Stickers that show how energy-efficient a device is compared to others
• There are three types of energy labels: for homes, appliances, and cars
• Power


  The unit kW, which is calculated by dividing energy in kWh by time in hours
• The European Union made energy labels to motivate companies to improve energy efficiency
• The rules were made stricter, causing most devices to go from A+++ to C, which motivated companies to improve again