Going green can earn you your neighbor's wrath

[Modified]

Indeed they are. California, the most populous state in the country, uses considerably more electricity than all other states -- except Texas, which uses considerably more than California.

California's per capita use of electricity (6,721 kWh per) is the lowest in the nation -- and less than half of what Texans use (14,179 kWh per). Is the climate in Texas more than twice as harsh as California?

Is that per capita residential use? How about per capita residential energy use (not just electricity)?


When we lived in Santa Rosa (north of SF), our electricity usage was less than 1/3 of what it is here in SW Florida in a similarly sized and insulated home. In Santa Rosa we had no AC and used only a moderate amount of heating. Almost 2/3 of our electricity usage here is for heating and cooling (I know because we use no heat or AC for four to six months of the year). If we had a gas water heater, stove, and drier, and didn't have a pool, then pretty much all of our electricity usage would be for heating and cooling.

Not all of California has as moderate a climate as Santa Rosa, but most of Texas probably has a harsher climate than SW Florida. Twice the electricity usage due to climate alone doesn't seem out of the question.

 

[Arisia]

Texas "Deregulated" utility companies--still the same number of power plants--they just sell to the "Energy Companies" who compete for the lowest rates/most customers. ONCOR is the delivery company, taking care of all power-line maintenance. They'll do an energy audit, but its not free. Since Texas has no income tax, you don't get a break for upgrading, except what the Feds offer

Oh, Massachusetts is similar. We can pick which generation company, but the delivery company is NSTAR for my area. There are still some towns that have their own Municipal Light/Electric Departments, some of those have their own wind turbines to provide power.

 

[Dymanic]

Is that per capita residential use?

No, that's across all sectors. In 2005, per capita consumption of electricity in California homes was 2,379 kWh (rank: 51st place). There's a pretty fun interactive tool here that allows you to compare graphs for up to three states of your choosing:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/states/residential.cfm/state=CA#elec

Looks like California, New York, and Hawaii were in a three-way tie for lowest rates of residential electricity consumption back in about '95 or '96, but California held the prize in 2005, the last year plotted (interesting to see how steady California's numbers have remained over the 25 years covered).

The data point probably most relevant here is the Residential Consumption of Electricity per Capita per Cooling Degree Day. That site has California ranked 44, but California jumps all over the place on that graph compared to Texas. Not quite sure what the heck is going on there.

How about per capita residential energy use (not just electricity)?

That's a tougher question (surprisingly; you'd thing it would be easy). Since I couldn't find it broken down that way, I did the math myself (no guarantees):

CA - 1527.3 trillion btu residential /population (37,593,222) = 40,627,004 Btu per person
TX - 1611.5 trillion btu residential /population (25,145,561) = 64,086,858 Btu per person
http://www.eia.gov/state/seds/sep_sum/html/pdf/sum_btu_res.pdf

It would be nice to see a graph like the one here with more recent data (and better resolution; and covering all the states rather than just the 19 most populous ones), but I haven't had any luck.

 

[rwguinn]

Interesting--Ca uses more electricity per capita per cooling degree day than Texas...
And Texas leads the nation in "Electrical system energy loss". Does that mean we're better at stealing electricity, I wonder?

 

[leftysergeant]

And Texas leads the nation in "Electrical system energy loss". Does that mean we're better at stealing electricity, I wonder?

I think it means that your electric grid is crap.

 

[C_Felix]

Any developments?

Did she point out that law to the HOA?