Natural Resources Canada
Symbol of the Government of Canada

Office of Energy Efficiency Links

 

Personal: Residential

Menu

Energy Use Inside and Outside the Dwelling – 2007 Survey of Household Energy Use – Supplemental Report

PDF Version | Contents | Next Page

Executive summary

Inside the dwelling

  • Household energy consumption inside the dwelling depends on the interaction of many factors, which are difficult to isolate and study individually. However, the results of SHEU-2007 indicate that the main heating equipment efficiency and the age of the majority of windows have a noticeable impact on energy consumption.
  • During the winter, households with a programmed thermostat tended to keep their dwelling temperature higher when home and awake and lower when asleep than the rest of the households with a thermostat.
  • More than half of the households had at least one light bulb that was used with a dimmer control. These lighting controls can save energy and extend light-bulb life.
  • The use of home electronics by households has increased, and as a consequence the standby power electricity consumption used by these devices has also increased.
  • In 2007, more households used cold water in their clothes washers than in previous years.
  • More than 40 percent of Canadian households reported that their dwelling had a fireplace. However, the penetration rate for fireplaces and the types of fireplaces used by households varied greatly by region.

Outside the dwelling

  • More than half of Canadian households had at least one household member who used a motor vehicle as his or her principal method to travel to work. The majority of these individuals travelled alone in their vehicle.
  • In 2007, 87 percent of households owned or leased at least one motor vehicle. More than half of these households had multiple motor vehicles.
  • Lawn mowers were used by nearly 90 percent of households that did not live in an apartment and that had a lawn. Gasoline-powered lawn mowers were by far the most used type of lawn mower, followed by electric and manual push models.
  • Sport recreation vehicles, such as all-terrain vehicles and motorboats, were more common with households in rural centres than those in urban centres.
  • Only 36 percent of households in Canada were aware that at least one air quality advisory had been issued in their area in 2007. The majority of these households were in Ontario.

Previous Page | Contents| Next Page