Appliance daily energy use in new residential buildings: Use profiles and variation in time-of-use

Abstract

One of the largest user of electricity in the average U.S. household is appliances, which when aggregated, account for approximately 30% of electricity used in the residential building sector. As influencing the time-of-use of energy becomes increasingly important to control the stress on today's electrical grid infrastructure, understanding when appliances use energy and what causes variation in their use are of great importance. However, there is limited appliance-specific data available to understand their use patterns. This study provides daily energy use profiles of four major household appliances: refrigerator, clothes washer, clothes dryer, and dishwasher, through analyzing disaggregated energy use data collected for 40 single family homes in Austin, TX. The results show that when compared to those assumed in current energy simulation software for residential buildings, the averaged appliance load profiles have similar daily distributions. Refrigerators showed the most constant and consistent use. However, the three user-dependent appliances, appliances which depend on users to initiate use, varied more greatly between houses and by time-of-day. During peak use times, on weekends, and in homes with household members working at home, the daily use profiles of appliances were less consistent.