Comments on: Energy consumption in Japan: A couple of data points

By: Adamu

Adamu — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:57:12 +0000

I had to deal with the warm toilet seat situation yesterday at a department store. I couldn’t find where to turn off the heater so I just unplugged the entire unit.

By: Jade Oc

Jade Oc — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:41:12 +0000

“Last thing I want is an already warm toilet seat”

Makes me feel as if someone has just vacated the place, too.

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:33:02 +0000

Heated seats are sort of nice in winter, but in summer they make me very uncomfortable. Last thing I want is an already warm toilet seat.

By: Tornadoes28

Tornadoes28 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:38:42 +0000

I agree with you adamu. I was just being funny. I love those heated seats. They are my best friend when I visit my in-law in the winter.

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:22:41 +0000

Speaking of renewable energy use: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/department-of-interior-will-streamline-solar-permits.ars

By: Jade Oc

Jade Oc — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:38:47 +0000

“Wow, New Zeland actually uses about 15% more electricity per capita than Japan.”

According to Stats NZ (I’m not adding links as it takes age for the posts to appear if I do), a not insignificant fraction of NZ’s power use is leakage and stuff from the longer lines needed to get the power from where it is generated to where it is actually used. Also, a good fraction of that 15% would be accounted for by the fact that almost all domestic water heating and stovetop cooking in Japan is gas (especially the former). I wonder if the 240V vs 110V has anything to do with it as well?

Chad doesn’t use a lot of electricity either, mind you….
China is 5 times India too, which is interesting.

By: M-Bone

M-Bone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:46:40 +0000

Wow, New Zeland actually uses about 15% more electricity per capita than Japan.

Wow again, Palestine and Gaza use a fraction of AFRICAN countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption

By: Jade Oc

Jade Oc — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:25:18 +0000

M-Bone: true, I was aware of that, but you would think that Japan, with hundreds of dams, could at least do a bit better. Both countries have lot of mountains and short fast rivers. Wikipedia lists a couple of hundred hydro dams for Japan too.

Although come to think of it, I wonder what hydro is as a proportion of electricity rather than energy.

By: M-Bone

M-Bone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:01:03 +0000

“To take another small island nation with lots of rivers, NZ produces 72% of its power from hydro.”

Since when did NZ become a world-class maufacturer with 125,000,000 people? (Obligatory sheep joke omitted).

By: Adamu

Adamu — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:52:47 +0000

That graph is total energy consumption – what I said was for electricity.