Energy use in EU households down in 2022, while continuing to rise in Cyprus

The use of energy by EU households in 2022 dropped to its lowest amount since 2016, also significantly dropping compared to 2021, while energy use in Cyprus returned to its 2019 levels, according to data released by Eurostat.

In 2022, EU households used 10.1 million terajoules of energy, the lowest amount recorded since 2016 (10.4 million), and a decrease of 7.7% from the 11 million terajoules recorded in 2021.

Household energy consumption in Cyprus in 2022 reached 15.1 thousand terajoules of energy, which was an increase compared to 2021 (14.9 thousand). Since the first recorded data for Cyprus in 2018 (14.0 thousand), usage had increased in 2019 (15.1 thousand), with the increase slowing down in 2020 (15.2 thousand) and reversing in 2021.

Households, or the residential sector in the EU, represented 25.8% of final energy consumption or 18.1% of gross inland energy consumption in 2022.

Most of the EU’s final energy consumption in households was covered by natural gas (30.9%), electricity (25.1%) and renewables and biofuels (22.6%).

The main use of energy by households in the EU in 2022 was for heating homes (63.5% of the final energy consumption in the residential sector), followed by water heating (14.9%). The heating of space and water consequently represented 78.4% of the final energy consumed by households in 2022.

Lighting and most electrical appliances represent 13.9% (this excludes the use of electricity for powering the main heating, cooling, or cooking systems). Other end use (0.9%) and space cooling (0.6%) had the lowest share.  

In Cyprus, out of a total of 15.1 thousand terajoules in 2022, about 5.6 thousand went to heating homes, 3.5 thousand went to water heating and 3.0 thousand went to lighting and most electrical appliances. Space cooling used up 1.6 thousand terajoules, cooking took 1.2 thousand and other uses consumed a mere 287 terajoules.

(Source: CNA)