HELSINKI: Electricity used in housing amounted to 61 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2015, according to Statistics Finland’s data on energy consumption in households. The consumption decreased by four per cent from the previous year. The record warm weather diminished the consumption of heating energy for spaces by five per cent. The energy consumption of household appliances went down by six per cent due to, for example, the decreased need to heat car interiors, the statistics show. Sixty-seven per cent of energy consumption in households concerned heating of residential buildings, 16 per cent heating of domestic water, and five per cent heating of saunas.
In domestic appliances the share of lighting was three per cent, in cooking one per cent, and in other electrical appliances eight per cent of households’ energy consumption. In 2015, electricity used on housing amounted to 21 TWh. Electricity consumption went down by three per cent from 2015. Forty-six per cent of electricity was used to heat indoor areas and 36 per cent to household appliances.
The remaining share of electricity was used to heat domestic water and saunas. District heat and wood were the next most used energy sources in households. The energy consumption of households has decreased by 13 per cent in the first half of the decade. Housing accounted, on average, for 20 per cent of the final energy consumption. Heating of residential buildings consumed 41 TWh of energy in 2015. The consumption decreased by five per cent from the previous year. The most common sources of energy for heating indoor spaces were district heat, wood and electricity, the share of which was 83 per cent of the energy consumption for heating indoor spaces.
The next most common energy source was ambient energy, whose consumption is estimated to have grown by over 50 per cent since 2010. The consumption of other energy sources has declined simultaneously. Three TWh of wood and electricity was consumed to heat saunas in 2015. The energy consumption of heating domestic water was 10 TWh. The energy consumption of household appliances, that is, cooking, lighting and other electrical equipment, was eight TWh in 2015 as per the data. One per cent less energy was used on cooking, that is, using cookers and ovens, and two per cent less on lighting than in the year before. Use of energy-efficient lamps becoming more common is estimated to have decreased the electricity use of lighting by as much as 31 per cent since 2010.
