15 July 2019

Alternate schedules: energy usage of those who live at night

While most people are asleep, a few keep the country running. 8.7% of Spaniards have peak electric power usage during the middle of the night. We introduce you to these anonymous heroes who live on alternate schedules.

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To live is to consume energy, but we don't all live the same way. When you close your eyes, others keep them open so that the world does not stop turning. People who work at night and do not follow established customs or schedules.

Your energy tells us stories that are quite valuable. Find out about them!

This is what alternate schedule workers are like

If we were to fill a bus with randomly chosen people, four of them would work at night. Doctors, police officers, hotel receptionists, journalists… Very diverse profiles with one thing in common: not following the usual schedule of us mortals. When midnight comes they remain awake and their work life has nothing to do with a 9-to-5 routine.

The conclusions of "Your Energy Counts" are not mere speculation. We've analysed the data collected by the meters from over 100,000 homes and we've crossed the studies and the databases of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spanish National Statistics Institute), Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía (Spanish institute for diversification and energy saving) and Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios (Spanish consumers' and users' organisation).

The main findings regarding alternate schedule workers are:

8.7% of households have someone who starts work at night.
Most of them sleep less than average, with reports of 5 or 6 hours per day being common.

Alternate schedule routine

Thanks to Endesa's data, you can closely follow the day-to-day of an alternate schedule worker by looking at the interactive graphics of "Your Energy Counts".

At a glance you can compare your life with that of a "normal" home. In Spain there is a wide variety of schedules and routines, but between the 8.7% on alternate schedules and the remaining 91.3% there is a clear difference in sleep habits:

Waking Up In most normal homes someone is already awake at 7:50 a.m. on a work day. At the same time, 80% of those on alternate schedules are sleeping. You have to wait until 9.20 a.m. for most night workers to have their eyes open.
Going to Bed: most normal homes are asleep by midnight, while only 4% of those on alternate schedules can say the same. 3 a.m. is the time when most of night workers are in bed.

How much do you know about yourself?

If you get to know others, you can get to know yourself. Big data about energy use from all over the country says a lot about you. More than you think. By answering just 4 questions you can see which of these profiles you fit into: