2000 Watt Society

I dunno if anyone has mentioned this here, if so please delete this or add a link to that one.

The 2000 Watt Society is an international educational non-profit. Probably organized some years ago in Europe.  Has a US branch in Minneapolis. I joined, thinking they were going to help me decrease my average energy use to that amount (somewhat more than your usual 1500 Watt room heater, but not very much). What they are really after, I believe, is educating people in larger areas (cities, e.g.) about energy issues, and promoting large-scale energy down-sizing. As far as I know, they don't certify individuals' efforts. But in an area (a city, perhaps) they encourage energy conservation of many kinds, and _measure_ the results, on a city-wide scale. And eventually hope to certify that area/city when its total average energy use, including transport, decreases to 2000 watts per person.

As a side comment, Paul or someone could make an estimate of how much a person's average energy needs would be, who had instituted in her/his own life the conservation plans Paul espouses in _Building a Better World..._.

...Jerry Brown

Jerry, thanks for sharing.

You mentioned wanting to lower your electrical use.  

Here are some threads that you might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/62284/ways-save-winter-heating

https://permies.com/t/56757/permie

https://permies.com/t/led

https://permies.com/t/4017/ways-reduce-summer-utility-bills

https://permies.com/t/8388/cut-electric-heat-bill

https://permies.com/t/4906/making-electric-heat

https://permies.com/t/132111/techniques-reduce-heating-costs

Sounds like an interesting organization.

The name is quite catchy and 2000 watts isn't so many. I wonder if I could keep my own electrical usage down to 2000 watts.

I'm a bit confused...  I thought electricity usage was normally measured in KWhrs or Watt Hours or something like that.  For instance 100 Watts of consumption for 10 hours would be 1000 watthours or 1 KWH.  

So what is the 2000 watts they're talking about?  Is it 2000 watts continuously?  So you can have a small room heater going plus some lights, year round?  Which is 48 kwh per day which is rather excessive.

Maybe I just have my units wrong or I misread their website.

Mike Haasl wrote:I'm a bit confused...  I thought electricity usage was normally measured in KWhrs or Watt Hours or something like that.  For instance 100 Watts of consumption for 10 hours would be 1000 watthours or 1 KWH.  

So what is the 2000 watts they're talking about?  Is it 2000 watts continuously?  So you can have a small room heater going plus some lights, year round?  Which is 48 kwh per day which is rather excessive.

Maybe I just have my units wrong or I misread their website.

This reminds me I should watch some youtube primer videos on electric power. I'm totally lost every time I look at the solar forum.

There's this quote " (i.e. 2 kWh per hour or 48 kWh per day) " So I guess you're reading is right. Maybe you're already way below the US average Mike!

At first I would have interpreted as 2000W per day, but then I saw this sentence in the original post.

And eventually hope to certify that area/city when its total average energy use, including transport, decreases to 2000 watts per person.

At my own cabin, without any serious conservation, I'm looking at consuming about 3000-3500Wh per day, or 3.5kWh.  So, 2000W seemed attainable?  But, add in transportation, and you throw another 30-40kWh of power, even with an electric car.

Then again, my 3.5kWh does not account for the wood heat, or the propane I use on the cook-stove.  Factor in those two, and I really don't see how anyone could exist on 2000W per day.

I calculate 2000W to be approximately 17500kWh over a year but that is supposed to include all energy uses - i.e. transport, heating, electricity and embedded energy (like infrastructure improvements and purchased goods). According to their website 2000W  is what the average global citizen uses (so some people survive on considerably less!). The US citizen uses 11000kWh a year just on electricity bills (source).

It seem a pity that they don't give more concrete advice on reducing fuel bills. Energy surveys don't take long and can give lots of pointers for simple changes like curtains and draught proofing. I'm getting quite fit, and saving wear and tear on the vehicles by walking to our shop (just 1 mile away takes about 20 mins). Saves money too....

Jerry Brown wrote:I dunno if anyone has mentioned this here, if so please delete this or add a link to that one.

The 2000 Watt Society is an international educational non-profit. Probably organized some years ago in Europe.  Has a US branch in Minneapolis. I joined, thinking they were going to help me decrease my average energy use to that amount (somewhat more than your usual 1500 Watt room heater, but not very much). What they are really after, I believe, is educating people in larger areas (cities, e.g.) about energy issues, and promoting large-scale energy down-sizing. As far as I know, they don't certify individuals' efforts. But in an area (a city, perhaps) they encourage energy conservation of many kinds, and _measure_ the results, on a city-wide scale. And eventually hope to certify that area/city when its total average energy use, including transport, decreases to 2000 watts per person.

As a side comment, Paul or someone could make an estimate of how much a person's average energy needs would be, who had instituted in her/his own life the conservation plans Paul espouses in _Building a Better World..._.

...Jerry Brown

My understanding was the 2000 watt society was 2000 watts per hour not per day but included everything including food transport roads housing embedded energy as well. So 48 kwhrs per day...

Going back to the real source
I found this; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000-watt_society
And https://www.2000-watt-society.org/
"The 2000-watt society is an environmental vision, first introduced in 1998 by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zurich), which pictures the average First World citizen reducing their overall average primary energy usage rate to no more than 2,000 watts (i.e. 2 kWh per hour or 48 kWh per day) by the year 2050, without lowering their standard of living.
The concept addresses not only personal or household energy use, but the total for the whole society, including embodied energy, divided by the population."

Thanks John, that makes sense.  It also makes it really hard to asses one's wattage.  I would think...

Mike Haasl wrote:Thanks John, that makes sense.  It also makes it really hard to asses one's wattage.  I would think...

33.7 kWh in a gallon of gasoline
29.3 kWh in a therm (100,000 BTU) of natural gas

In particularly cold winters, looks like I burn about 3 therms a day of natural gas (obviously much, much lower in the summer). So yeah, just on heating costs alone, I'm out of the club...

Just pondering here. My vw 1.9 liter gets 49-50 mpg.  It has 90 hp or 67113 watts.  2000 watts is equal to 2.68 hp.  Im glad we have a 3 kw solar system. Today it made 12.2 kw and the windmills made 14.4 kw.  One 125 watt lightbulb for 25 peeps is equal to 3000 watts per day.  Am I thinking right?  I definitely would want to move closer to the equator.