A record breaking electricity consumption in France

The current temperatures in France are six degrees below average and this led to a record-breaking electricity consumption.

Last night the level of energy consumption rose to 88 960 MW, compared to the previous record of 86 280 MW in January 2006.

It is estimated by the Réseau de transport d’électricité that when temperature decreases by 1°C, the electricity consumption increases by 1 700 MW.

France generally exports important quantities of electricity but last night it had to import power from Switzerland and Germany.

According to the French daily le Monde, Spain also witnessed a record in electricity consumption at almost the same moment and because of the cold wave.

Decreasing our electricity consumption would be a very good idea and insulating housings would be a very good way to protect people from such events.

I have been an advocate of insulation since the writing of my Master’s thesis and previously wrote several articles on how insulating could be a good idea.

Here are some of them :

• A global response to cut the energy use of buildings on May 23rd 2007 ;
• Cutting the energy consumption of collective housing on October 3rd 2007 ;
• The low-carbon revolution starts at home on December 4th 2007.

In the very next days I will propose you an article on the surge of consumption due to Christmas as all cities and most villages have garlands and other decorations.

I had a creative and yet ecological idea for a Christmas gift. I plan to offer energy efficient light bulbs to my grand-parents in order to enable them to save electricity and thus money.

I calculated that this 20 € gift (2 light bulbs costing roughly 10€ apiece) will make them save 30 € per year during 10 years (300€, that’s something!) as these bulbs are on four to five hours per day.

What to do you think about this ? I found it a good idea as it is cheap, ecological and enables my loved ones to save money and contribute to climate change mitigation.

Via the articles of Le Figaro [Fr] and Le Monde [Fr].