Mosques in the Kingdom consumed some 0.35 billion watts/hour in 2013 alone which is only rivaled by the public lighting system consumption at 2.94 billion watts/hour in the same year, local media said.

Meanwhile, the volume of power consumption by the private educational and health sector and government-run hospitals stood at 1.85 billion and 2.17 billion watts/hour, respectively, for the same period, Al-Eqtisadiya daily reported.

“There is clearly a waste of electricity in mosques in general, and in big ones where Friday prayers are held in particular,” Fahad Al-Hussaini, an expert in thermal insulation said while commenting on the huge amount of electricity consumption.

He said that Friday prayer mosques are normally spacious to accommodate the large gatherings of worshippers. “However, during normal days, there are only a few people but all of the air-conditioning systems remain on,” he said adding that some measures need to be taken to curb the excessive consumption of electricity in the mosques.

The expert suggested that a certain section of the mosque be cooled during normal days to cater to the limited number of worshippers. He also recommended the removal of the heavy electric chandeliers and replacing them with energy-saving lamps.

The number of mosques in the Kingdom has grown by 4 percent from 58,000 in 2012 to 60,500 in 2013.

The Central Region captured the highest number of mosques at 21,800, or 36 percent of the Kingdom’s total, followed by the Western Region at 16,800 (28 percent), the Southern Region at 16,500 (27 percent), whereas the Eastern Region had the least number of mosques at 5,400, or 9 percent, according to the daily.

The average power consumption of each mosque stands at 34,000 watts per year, the daily said.