Why is it important to use substitute energy?

What is the distribution of energy use by households in the US?

• Getting the average Joe to reduce energy consumption by 50% would probably not reduce household energy consumption by 50% in the US. The reason is that there a few households that use an egregious amount of energy, and if they don't cut back, energy consumption won't drop as much. The size of this effect depends on the distribution of energy use by household. If the distribution is fairly flat, then we should advocate general energy conservation. If the distribution is very lopsided, we should focus mainly on high-end users when trying to get people to reduce energy consumption, since that's where the most waste is. So, what's the distribution? This is a follow-up to

• Answer:

  I'm not sure what type of data you're looking for (in particular, what's on the x-axis?  Income?), but I'd recommend the US EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey.  It was last performed in 2009 but it gives a decent idea of what's going on.   Your best bet is here: http://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/data/2009/index.cfm?view=consumption You'll be able to find tabulated data on household consumption based on all kinds of categories.