Tim Worstall

Information Bleg

I’ve got a little project I need to do and for it I need some information.

I can find the formal listings of CO2 (and CO2 e) emissions globally and for the UK. Stern, IPCC and DoE (Defra now I think).

However, what I’m looking for in more detail is what are the emissions from the things that are being obsessed about? Standby….I think someone’s said we could power 22,000 houses from that (or whatever it was). So that’s 0.1% of domestic power consumption….or about 0.025% or so of total emissions for the UK.

That’s the sort of thing. Anyone know of a resource out there like this? Or even of people who have calculated parts of it?

Then, a much more technical question. What’s the elasticity of demand (with respect to price) of domestic energy consumption? Alternatively, what’s the reduction in enregy use (and thus emissions) of removing the subsidy upon such consumption? You know, taking the 5% VAT rate and putting it back to 17.5%? 

In

7 responses

  1. Ian Bennett Avatar
    Ian Bennett

    Naughty Timmy! Domestic energy gets a subsidy because it’s taxed at 5% when it could be taxed at 17.5%? That’s NuLab-speak.

    Reply
  2. Mr Eugenides Avatar
    Mr Eugenides

    Indeed. Polly would be proud…

    Reply
  3. llamas Avatar
    llamas

    As regards the pricing questions, suggest you contact Steve Verdon
    steve-at-steveverdon-dot-com
    What he doesn’t know about electricity pricing & economics, isn’t worth knowing.
    llater,
    llamas

    Reply
  4. Luís Bonifácio Avatar
    Luís Bonifácio

    For the UK (2004)
    CO2 – 265,625,000.00 t
    For Portugal (2004)
    CO2 – 31,311,000.00 t
    Just for big facilities
    http://www.eper.cec.eu.int/eper/

    Reply
  5. Dodgy Geezer Avatar
    Dodgy Geezer

    Remember this request for figures is being made in a climate which is far more political than technical.
    So many of the figures you will obtain from apparently unimpeachable sources are likely to be suspect. Global Warming is the grand-daddy of this. Check out Climate Audit.

    Reply
  6. Dodgy Geezer Avatar
    Dodgy Geezer

    Actually, for the stand-by question, you would be much better off doing your own measurements. Put an ammeter on your TV, and then make an educated guess about how many are left on standby – I suspect that’s all the government does!
    I suspect that worse culprits are the many small transformer power units which power consumer items. A typical house may have half a dozen of these, constantly on, and they can get quite warm when idle – I would guess about 0.01A is wasted in one? And worse, they are inductive loads without power factor correction.
    There are easy technical answers to all of these issues, but I do not think that either our current government or Greenpeace are able to absorb technical advice.

    Reply
  7. Mark Wadsworth Avatar
    Mark Wadsworth

    What’s the elasticity of demand (with respect to price) of domestic energy consumption?
    Pretty damn’ price-inelastic AFAICS, energy prices doubled over the past couple of years and it’s not like we all turned the thermostat by ten degrees and only took a shower or bath every second day, is it?

    Reply

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