"AC accounts for approximately 20% of year-round electricity consumption
by American households, and 15% of total electricity use. [1] The widespread
use of AC explains in large part why Americans use so much more electricity
than Europeans: AC electricity use by an American household equals 60% of
all electricity used by the average European household. [2]"
American Household : [XXXXXX------------------------]
European Household : [----------]
Where the X's are electricity usage by American households on air conditioning (20% of total electricity use), which is equal to 60% of all electricity used by a European household.
Europe is also much cooler then most of the USA in the summer. You all are welcome to come and hangout in the south any summer you want, then you will have a better understanding of the AC usage here. If I lived in Europe I probably wouldn't need AC either.
And you are welcome to try and stay in any of the southern countries of EU in summer and survive without AC - Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece are all unbearable without AC.
I did say most of the USA. I also am quite confident that the average temperature in the south is much higher then even those countries.
A quick search shows that in Texas the average is 36 degrees while Greece is 28 degrees and 28 degrees in Barcelona. Also that doesn't even include our lovely humidity!
Agreed. I lived in the Pacific Northwest for about 7 years and I used AC maybe twice. Now, living back in the Southeastern US, it stays on for months at a time.
It does actually. I think I see where you think it does not work but European homes are also smaller and in general more energy efficient. So consumption overall is a small fraction of what an equivalent household in the US would spend.
A large factor in that is that energy prices here are substantially higher per unit than in the US.
To break that statement down:
- AC acounts for approximately 20% of year-round electricity consumption by American households
So when looking at the average household electricity bill 20% of that consumption will be on account of AC
- and 15% of total electricity use.
That's if you factor in all other uses besides household (so including offices and factories, and offices also use AC so that's why the percentage didn't drop that much).
- The widespread use of AC explains in large part why Americans use so much more electricity than Europeans: AC electricity use by an American household equals 60% of all electricity used by the average European household.
Taking the total consumption of the average European household and comparing that to the US electricity bill the AC consumption portion of the American household is already equal to 60% of the EU total household consumption.
So if the EU household consumes 100KWh (just a number) the US household will expend 60KWh on AC, for a total consumption of about 300KWh. So three times as much total consumption. Just by cutting the AC component out that would drop to 2.4 times as much. The remainder can be explained by differences in area, more energy efficient appliances, less electric heat (very rare in the EU, baseboard heating is very normal in the US) and in general a more energy consumption conscious lifestyle because of the higher energy prices.
