Abstract
The present research analyzes the impact of nine factors related to household demographics, building equipment, and building characteristics towards a home’s total energy consumption while controlling for climate. To do this, we have surveyed single-family owned houses from the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) dataset and controlled the analysis by Building America climate zones. Our findings are based on descriptive statistics and multiple regression models, and show that for a median-sized home in three of the five climate zones, heating equipment is still the main contributor to a household’s total energy consumed, followed by home size. Social-economic factors and building age were found relevant for some regions, but often contributed less than size and heating equipment towards total energy consumption. Water heater and education were not found to be statistically relevant in any of the regions. Finally, solar power was only found to be a significant factor in one of the regions, positively contributing to a home’s total energy consumed. These findings are helpful for policymakers to evaluate the specificities of climate regions in their jurisdiction, especially guiding homeowners towards more energy-efficient heating equipment and home configurations, such as reduced size.
Highlights
In 2020, energy consumption in buildings, that is commercial and residential usage combined, accounted for approximately 40% of the total energy consumed in the United States [1]
Descriptive statistics focus on the factors included in our proposed conceptual framework, as well as fuel type for heating and cooling equipment and water heater fuel type
We have originally analyzed the impact of nine factors: total home size, year built, respondent’s education, annual household gross income, number of household members, type of heating equipment, type of air conditioning equipment, type of water heater equipment, and the existence of on-site solar power generation
Summary
In 2020, energy consumption in buildings, that is commercial and residential usage combined, accounted for approximately 40% of the total energy consumed in the United States [1]. Despite many Americans having to work and study from home due to workplace restrictions and local lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic, total residential energy consumption including energy system losses presented a 4% reduction compared to that of 2019 Part of this result can be linked to warmer weather during winter, which helped to reduce the use of heating in homes [2]. Even though there are several factors to be included in the analysis, they can generally be summarized into four main categories: physical characteristics of the home, household characteristics and behavior, home appliances, and exterior factors These categories are adapted from Estiri [4] and we have combined energy market and climate into exterior factors
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