Water efficiency key to cutting household emissions, says report

clipped from www.energyefficiencynews.com The UK Government’s efforts to reduce household emissions are overlooking the energy wasted by water heating, says a report from the Energy Saving Trust and the Environment Agency. The report, Quantifying the energy and carbon effects of saving water, reveals that 6% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions are associated with water use – and nearly 90% of those emissions come from water use in the home. However, the Government’s current proposals to improve the energy efficiency of homes will not impact on water heating. In the future, as measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation reduce a household’s overall energy usage, water heating could become the largest source of emissions. Currently, water heating accounts for around 23% of a household’s energy use, but this proportion could rise to over 70% in future.