Electricity is most common energy source – survey

MANILA, Philippines - Electricity remains as the most common source of energy used by households in the Philippines, the Department of Energy said citing the results of the 2011 Household Energy Consumption Survey (HECS).

About 87 percent of 21 million households used electricity from March to August 2011, according to the energy department.

At least one-third of the total households used fuel wood, charcoal, LPG and kerosene for cooking.

In 2011, electricity was mostly used for lighting purposes with 74 percent of households reporting the use of electricity for such purpose.

Kerosene for lighting followed, accounting for 30 percent of households.

In the previous survey, conducted in 2004, electricity was used for lighting by about 78 percent of households.

A greater proportion of households used kerosene for lighting in 2004 (43 percent) than in 2011 (30 percent), the survey showed.

 â€œFor cooking, fuel wood was most commonly used by more than half of households in the country (54 percent of the total households in 2011 and 55 percent in 2004,” the latest survey showed.

LPG, meanwhile, was also commonly used by 41 percent of the total households in 2011 while charcoal accounted for 35 percent and biomass residues at 20 percent.

In particular, fuel wood was most commonly used for heating water for bathing (20 percent). About one in 10 of households used charcoal (11 percent) for heating water. Six percent used biomass residues for the same purpose.

“With regard to the types of fuel for the vehicles used by households, gasoline was the most popular. Almost nine in 10 households with vehicles (88 percent) used gasoline in 2011, and eight in 10 households (82 percent) in 2004. Diesel was used by nearly two in 10 households or 16 percent in 2011 and 21 percent in 2004,” the HECS said.

The other uses of electricity were for ironing clothes (46 percent) as well as laundry via washing machines at 29 percent as well as cooking and food preparation at 20 percent.