By Yue Zhang, China
A few nights ago I was invited to a party which was held by a Danish family. After the nice party people shared information and exchanged opinions on climate change and new eco-friendly technologies. The host showed me around in his house and I found something that really surprised me. They have some printed paper with some chart on it. The charts show the electricity consumption. The host tells me that they have a record every 15 minutes of their electricity on the computer, so they printed them out to see their electricity consumption. With these charts, they can find out which month, or which day, or even which hour, they consume more electricity than ordinary.
The host showed me that this month how much electricity his house used and he noticed that yesterday the electricity consumption was higher than other days. He looked at another chart which showed the electricity consumption each hour. He found that at 7:00 am they used a large amount of electricity because that’s the time for his family to prepare breakfast. And at 6:00 pm, there was a much higher consumption of electricity because they had a party in their house.
I was really attracted by this record of electricity consumption. In my home, I can only know the electricity consumption once a month - no more specific details. Though I want to control my electricity consumption, I have no way to find out which day, or which hour I use more electricity. But in Denmark, people can use this amazing record to get a clear idea of their electricity consumption and control their energy consumption. I wonder if all people are taking advantage of the control they have over their electricity consumption, as much as the Danish family I met.