Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Over-Consuming Cold Appliances, 2015 is a large scale field trial, in which 998 appliances were monitored from 766 properties across England. Electricity consumption and temperature data were collected over a 7 day period and occupant interviews were conducted to understand how appliances were used and maintained. Improving the energy efficiency of Britain’s housing stock forms a major part of the Government’s energy and climate change policy. An important end use of energy in the housing stock is electricity consumed by household appliances, including fridges and freezers. In 2014, it was estimated that 10.5 TWh of electricity in England was consumed by domestic cold appliances, equivalent to 15.6% of the total electricity consumed by household domestic appliances in England. Previous research has suggested that around 9% of domestic cold appliances may be over-consuming (i.e. using significantly more electricity than they were designed to); however these findings were based on a relatively small sample. The present study recorded that of all the appliances monitored, 8% were found to be over-consuming. The average electricity consumption of an over-consuming cold appliance was 730 kWh/year (+/- 69 kWh/year), which was more than double that of all other cold appliances, where the average was 322 kWh/year (+/- 14 kWh/year). Replacing over-consuming appliances with appliances that operate ‘normally’ could represent a saving of approximately 408 kWh per appliance. This equates to £58/year, which is more than 10% of a household’s electricity bill. Scaled up to the English housing stock, the removal of over-consuming appliances from the household stock could result in a saving of 1.4 TWh/year, approximately 0.65 mega tonnes of CO2 and potential savings of over £199 million in electricity costs. Further information about this project can be found on gov.uk Publications webpage. Main...