Earth Notes: On Micro-survey Results

Auto-updated 2023-11-07.
By Damon Hart-Davis.
Archived results from some small surveys/polls taken on this site (and elsewhere)...
data
Micro-polls taken on or for this site (or otherwise of interest) and shown here are totally non-scientific straw polls of a self-selected motivated sub-set of readers, etc, etc... (Which means that the tabloid press may pick these numbers up and run with them as unvarnished truths! Hint: please don't!)
vote/survey

2020-12-11: Thermal Imaging?

2020-12-11: @EarthOrgUK asked (1 day poll, opened afternoon of the 11th): Who has done a thermal imaging survey of their UK home?

  • Yes (33%)
  • No (50%)
  • Other (in thread) (16.7%)

Final vote count was 6.

2017-04: Heating Off in April and On in November?

UK Twitter followers' heating status was surveyed periodically from April 2017.

The poll question has changed slightly over time, but here is a summary of apparent intent.

It seems that ~10% of respondents leave their heating on year round!

Summary of polls

UK Twitterati central heating state snapshots.
Start / LinkOn %Off %What's Off? %Other %Total VotesDuration (d)
2017-04-0316.775.08.312
2017-10-0333.366.70.06
2018-04-0958.022.316.13.6112
2018-06-215.378.915.80.019
2019-10-3187.512.50.016
2020-04-0175.716.28.1372
2020-10-1975.013.311.7602
2020-12-0188.51.99.6522
2021-03-2467.525.07.5402
2021-05-0569.226.93.8262
2021-08-0526.867.65.6712
2021-09-179.185.55.5552
2021-11-1365.728.65.7352
2022-01-1880.614.54.8622
2022-02-1575.016.78.3242
2022-07-0614.082.83.21572

A by-month view of definitely-off UK central heating...

UK Twitterati central heating percent off by month.
% Off
  • 15
  • 17
  • 25
  • 25
  • 27
  • 79
  • 83
  • 68
  • 85
  • 17
  • 29
15172525277983688517292
Votes62244016126191577155823552
Polls111311111311
Month123456789101112
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

See more detail: On UK Central Heating On/Off Date Micro-survey Results.

2009-09: What Topic Next?

Closing in September 2009, I had asked: "What topics would you most like me to write up here next?":

Electric cars, bikes and scooters 11% (3)
Wind turbines at home 11% (3)
Installing solar PV (for electricity) at home 14% (4)
Installing solar thermal (for hot water) at home 11% (3)
Efficient dishwashing 18% (5)
Train travel: is it 'green'? 7% (2)
Supermarket home delivery vs using your own car 11% (3)
Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) and saving energy 7% (2)
Is bulk buying of food a good idea? 7% (2)
Re-use: library vs buying books 4% (1)

(Total votes: 28)

2008-09: How do you feel about Electric Cars?

Closing in September 2008, Solar John took a poll: "Because of rapidly rising gasoline prices it's likely that we'll soon be driving electric cars. As a result of battery issues some car companies plan to lease batteries instead of selling them with the car. How do you feel about that?" The results were:

I prefer to lease the car and lease the batteries. 0% (0)
I prefer to buy the car and lease the batteries. 38% (8)
I prefer to buy the car and buy the batteries. 61% (13)

2008-08: Spending on Insulation?

Starting at the end of August 2008 I asked: "How much are you spending or have you spent on conservation/insulation for this winter (in the Northern Hemisphere)?" and received the initial 15 responses in the first day, mainly from people already very interested in generating their own power, etc, and then an equal and maybe more typical response over the next fortnight:

Answer Initial Wave (15, first 24h) Full (31, after 2 weeks)
Nothing: I can't be bothered. 0% (0) 3% (1)
Nothing: I have no money. 0% (0) 3% (1)
Nothing: I rent and/or don't pay bills. 13% (2) 10% (3)
Less than my annual electricity+heating bills. 27% (4) 45% (14)
As much or more than my annual electricity+heating bills. 53% (8) 39% (12)

2008-04: Are You Reducing CO2 Now?

Over April 2008 I asked "Are you reducing GHG/CO2 emissions for your home and/or business this year?" and received the following (30) responses:

Yes, I intend to reduce. 13% (4)
Yes, I have already reduced. 70% (21)
I'd like to do more but I'm short of cash. 3% (1)
I'd like to do more but I don't know what. 3% (1)
No, I think that I can't make a difference. 0% (0)
No, I think global warming and GHG-worry is a waste of time. 7% (2)
Other 3% (1)

2008-03: Green Spend at Home?

Early 2008 research from the Co-op Bank suggested that the UK public plans to spend more than £13b to make their homes greener in 2008 (an average of £550 per house per year). Two-thirds claimed that they had reduced their carbon footprint in the past year.

2008-02: Electricity Use at Home?

An informal on-line poll of usage per month, in a blog read by a worldwide audience including the UK and US, indicated as of 2008-02-04 that the modal monthly kWh (mains) electricity use is around 500 to 600:

How much electricity do you use each month?
Less than 300kWh18
300 to 600kWh26
600 to 900kWh18
900 to 1200kWh8
1200 to 1500kWh12
1500 to 1800kWh2
More than 1800kWh11

Dataset

name
EOU Micro-survey Results
description
Micro-survey results from Earth.Org.UK and @EarthOrgUK Twitter account
version
1
keywords
survey, micro, straw poll, on-line, self-reporting
variable measured
sentiment
date created
2008-05-08T13:36:46Z
date published
date modified
2023-11-07T08:55:23Z
temporal coverage
2008/..
canonical URL
this descriptive text with markup
distribution
data content of HTML article
licence
this dataset is licensed under CC0, ie it is effectively public domain; if you make use of this data, attribution is welcome but not obligatory
is accessible for free
true

Sources/Links

  • Free on-line poll service MicroPoll that I have used: thanks!
~887 words.