Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Consumption of Electric and Electronic Equipment by Norwegian Households

The number of electric and electronic equipment (EEE) owned by households has multiplied in the recent decade. We investigate the climate implications of the purchase, use and disposal of EEE by Norwegian households in 2008. While traditionally, large electric appliances such as washing machines, dryers, refrigerators and freezers have been responsible for most of the electricity use in households apart from heating and hot water, our results indicate that computers, TV sets and other electronic equipment are of comparable importance in terms of life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this electronic equipment, the GHG emissions caused by manufacturing are equal to or larger than those caused by their electricity use in operation. The production of EEE purchased in 2008 caused on average 1.2 t CO(2)e ((divided by) (x) 2) per household. The electricity consumption for the use of EEE in 2008 caused between 0.15 and 1.7 t per household, assuming a Norwegian and an EU electricity mix, respectively. Telecoms networks and TV content caused between 0.13 and 0.3 t per household. The purchase rate of electronic products indicates that these products are replaced or down-cycled much more frequently than necessary based on their technical life span. To reduce the carbon footprint of EEE in Norwegian households, the rate of acquisition of new TVs and PCs needs to be reduced and the energy consumption in the production of these products needs to be addressed.