ABSTRACT
Heating the home, examined in the previous chapter, accounts for the majority ofa household’s gas consumption. The other two uses are the production of hotwater and cooking. This chapter looks at both of these less significant activities. WATER HEATING
Water heating uses 4000-4500kWh/year in the typical home with mains gas. This is about one third of the gas used for space heating. Nevertheless, in terms of kilowatt hours water heating is more important than the entire electricity consumption of the home. However, the cost of water heating will be lower because heat is generally provided by gas, and not by the more expensive electricity. And because a kilowatt hour of gas produces less than half the emissions of a power station generating a similar amount of electricity, the emissions from using gas are far lower. This chapter assumes that both cooking and water heating use mains gas.
