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SummaryBringing about more sustainable consumption patterns is an important challenge for society and science. In this article the concept of household metabolism is applied to analyzing consumption patterns and to identifying possibilities for the development of sustainable household consumption patterns. Household metabolism is determined in terms of total energy requirements, including both direct and indirect energy requirements, using a hybrid method. This method enables us to evaluate various determinants of the environmental load of consumption consistently at several levels-the national level, the local level, and the household level.The average annual energy requirement of households varies considerably between the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden, as well as within these countries. The average expenditure level per household explains a large part of the observed variations. Differences between these countries are also related to the efficiency of the production sectors and to the energy supply system. The consumption categories of food, transport, and recreation show the largest contributions to the environmental load. A comparison of consumer groups with different household characteristics shows remarkable differences in the division of spending over the consumption categories.Thus, analyses of different types of households are important for providing a basis for options to induce decreases of the environmental load of household consumption. At the city level, options for change are provided by an analysis of the city infrastructure, which determines a large part of the direct energy use by households (for transport and heating). At the national level, energy efficiency in production and in electricity generation is an important trigger for decreasing household energy requirements.

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Summary The objective of this article is to explore the potential for lowering household energy use given existing local support systems, in this case in the Stockholm inner city with the aid of the Dutch energy analysis program (EAP) that was adapted to Swedish conditions and that portrays total energy use for 300 consumption categories. Previously such modeling for Sweden was carried out using only Dutch databases. Our case‐study area is well equipped with food stores, local markets, public transportation, and entertainment, facilitating some energy‐efficient consumption choices. With maintained expenditure levels but changed consumption patterns, current reduction potentials are on the order of 10–20%. Options concerning diet can lower food indirect energy use by up to 30%, whereas options in other areas have a lower potential. Further reductions will require enhanced local support systems, external as well as internal. The results indicate that it is risky not to use nationally adapted figures for energy efficiency in the production sectors when modeling household energy use, because potential for change may be overlooked. Future work should include foreign energy intensities when modeling imported goods; otherwise, results may be less reliable. The Swedish EAP needs further work before it can be put to use as a modeling tool for everyday behavior, but it is already generating important possibilities for producing reliable data that can be used by local energy counselors.

The system nickel-tellurium is a fairly complicated one and it had not yet been fully elucidated. We have, therefore, undertaken an investigation of this system. Samples were prepared from the elements and studied by X-ray diffraction methods. Some single-crystal diagrams were taken with a Weissenberg camera (Nonius); powder diagrams at room temperature with a powder diffractometer (Philips) and a Guinier-De Wolff camera (Nonius), at higher temperatures (20-950 ") with a Guinier-Lennk camera (Nonius); Cu K a radiation was used in all cases.The phase richest in tellurium is NiTez which has a layer structure of the Cd(0H)z type. Additional metal atoms can be accommodated in the octahedral interstices between the TeNiTe slabs, giving rise to compositions Nil+,,Tezl. For p = 1 a structure of the NiAs type would result. We found, however, that p does not reach this limiting value. The maximum value of p is of the order of 0.8 to 0.9, depending on temperature, as has also been found by Westrum et aL2Stoichiometric NiTe is a mixture of Nil+pTez (NiAs type) and an orthorhombic phase of approximate composition NiTeo.9. The unit-cell dimensions of the latter phase are: a = 6.863 A, b = 3.914 A, c = 12.36 A; the tellurium atoms are in a hexagonal close packing (as in Nil+,Tez), but the arrangement of the nickel atoms has not yet been found.In samples still richer in metal, a tetragonal phase N i~*~T e z is found (a = 3.782 A, c = 6.062 A for Niz.ssTez); this phase is stable above 140" -250". The homogeneity range of the Nis*,Tez phase is fairly broad;on the tellurium-rich side the phase is in equilibrium with NiTeo.9, on the nickel-rich side with metallic nickel. At about 700" nickel-rich Ni3*qTes is ~~ S.