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RWI Projektberichte

2011

Manuel Frondel, Peter Grösche, Nolan Ritter, Harald Tauchmann, Colin Vance Ph.D., Peter Matuschek, Ute Müller

The German Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2006-2008

Extended Abstract for Research Project No. 54/09 commissioned by Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
October 2011

The aim of this study is to estimate the energy consumption of German private households in the years 2006 to 2008. A nation-wide survey among more than 6700 households serves as starting point to determine the consumption of various fuels for residential purposes and due to private car-usage. The households were interviewed with respect to their housing conditions, the characteristics of the respective dwelling, and the equipment with electric appliances. The sample estimates were extrapolated for the corresponding years to derive consumption figures for the entire population of private households in Germany. Renewables gain increasingly importance in the residential sector. In order to gauge the consumption of renewables in the household sector, a telephone survey among some 80000 households was conducted in 2006. For the present study, the usage of renewables was updated using a smaller sample of households. The task of this study was enhances with a deeper analysis of the energy consumption behavior of the interviewed households. A new survey called “Energy Diary” was designed in order to record the equipment and usage of electric appliances on a regular basis. The first wave of the obtained information was used to estimate the electricity consumption for several purposes, such as water heating, lighting, and usage of appliances.