Would it work to protect the environment and reduce our carbon footprint, if we get given a set amount of electric and gas units based on the size of your house and family?

Would this force families and people in general to be more energy efficient?

everyone would have an allocated amount of gas and electric per week

I don't think it would work. I live in a state that the weather can fluctuate 30 degrees in a day. So sometimes you run the heat alot and sometimes you don't. That alone is enough to say it won't work.

We get people around here who complain enough already because instead of just dumping everything into one bin, they now have to go to the trouble of putting bottles into one, paper into another and everything else into a third

Can just imagine the takers, who would recklessly use up everything in a couple of days because they couldn't be bothered turning lights off or whatever, then they'd be screaming from the hilltops. Fraid society is too "me me me" for that sort of thing.

Would this be rationing???

What if the more that you used over the average the more it would cost. Would that motivate conservation.

Far too draconian and unworkable. The far more sensible solution is to tax the electricity based on its negative externalities that way every unit of electricity consumed is paying to offset its emissions and other negative effects.

How would a tax benefit the environment then? ( no sarchasm intended )

I see so many problems with this. Everyone uses different amounts of electricity and gas, even if family sizes are the same. People who work from home will use more, so they might be penalised by having to pay extra. And then what about people who have to stay at home through no fault of their own (disabled, unemployed, etc)?

And, obviously, you'd have to set different limits for different seasons. The whole infrastructure would probably have to be changed to allow for these differences. Is it even economically viable? What kind of fees would be involved in going over your limit? So many questions!

And I don't see it working for where I'm currently living. I live with my landlady and her daughter and we both cook almost everyday. So you're talking 4-6 meals being cooked on a almost daily basis, definitely more than the average family! (In fact, what would happen with students in private housing, in general?) We just about manage to pay the bills - you're talking 2 students and a supply teacher who doesn't get much work. And we're very energy efficient anyway. We recycle EVERYTHING, have energy lightbulbs through the house and my landlady grows her own stuff.