ELECTRICITY
Practically all dwellings (99.9%) in Australia use electricity (table 3.4). In March 2008, electricity was the primary energy source throughout Australia for household cooking (75% for ovens and 56% for cooktops) and hot water systems (46%). This is a 5% fall in the use of electricity for hot water systems, from 51% of all households in 2005. This fall in the use of electricity for hot water was even more pronounced between 2002 and 2008 - from 61% to 46%.
The use of electricity for hot water systems was more pronounced outside capital cities (62% of households) than within capital cities (37%) (table 3.10).
Electricity was used by 79% of households to boost solar water heaters in Australia, falling from 90% in 2005. An increase in the use of mains gas to boost solar water heaters made up most of the fall, increasing from 3% of households in 2005 to 9% in 2008 (table 3.12).
Most households used electricity as their main source of energy for space heating (35%), followed by gas (31%, mains gas and LPG/bottled gas combined) and wood (10%) (table 3.8). Households relied most heavily on electricity for space heating in Tasmania (65%), South Australia (47%) and New South Wales (43%).
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