What do the calculations include?
In addition to things related to office automation and telecommunications, in our homes there are many other devices that we use in our day to day life. An average household in Spain has an approximate annual electricity consumption of 3,790 kWh (IDAE, 2017), which is equivalent to the emission of almost one ton of GHG per year (exactly 940 kgCO2e).
It is worth remembering the so-called “phantom consumption” of the devices that are left idle (without being completely disconnected). Depending on the type of device, this consumption, in addition to the economic expense, translates throughout the year into totally unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions, namely: TV (12-35 kg), DVD (23 kg), Decoders TV (29-40 kg), Game console (23 kg), Cordless telephone (22.8 kg), Clock radio (39.9 kg), Music system (34.2 kg) (OCU, 2019).
However, in the total emissions of a home, more sources should be considered, such as energy consumption for heating and other non-electrical ones, which in our country supposes an annual average per household of 5,828 kWh added to the previous one (IDAE, 2017). Or, what is equivalent to, 1,445 kgCO2e más, more, which gives us a total per household of about 2.5 tons of GHG.
In the following data, it is assumed that large appliances (refrigerators, washing machines ...) have an average of 11 years of use, small appliances (microwaves, vacuum cleaners ...) around 8 years (OCU, 2019), LED / LCD TVs of 6 years (Kalmykova et al., 2015); for photo cameras and game consoles, 5 and 4 years are assumed respectively. Emissions per use will depend on the energy mix available in each country. For Spain, we have applied the REE electricity mix for 2018: 0.246 kgCO2/kWh. In the case of having a renewable energy supplier in the home, the emissions per consumption would be practically 0.
(values in kgCO2e /product unit)
| DEVICE | TOTAL EMISSIONS IN MANUFACTURING | EMISSIONS IN USE (SPANISH ELECTRICITY MIX) | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | 318,25 | 161,13 | 479,38 |
| Dishwasher | 253,00 | 60,27 | 313,27 |
| Microwave | 98,40 | 54,33 | 152,73 |
| Washer / Washing machine | 323,50 | 62,48 | 385,98 |
| Oven | 217,00 | 56,33 | 273,33 |
| Stove / Cuisine | 163,00 | 808,11 | 971,11 |
| Vacuum cleaner | 49,85 | 11,99 | 61,84 |
| 30-40 inches tv | 340,00 | 29,27 | 369,27 |
| 40-49 inches tv | 371,00 | 82,64 | 453,64 |
| 49 inches tv | 500,00 | 112,76 | 612,76 |
| Game console | 52,25 | 23,37 | 75,62 |