Energy consumption profile of public housing for lower-mid income families in a fast growing city of Argentina

Abstract

A large variety of construction patterns can be found in public-housing programs for lower-mid income families in Santa Rosa, a fast growing city located in a temperate area of central Argentina. Very little attention has been paid to the energy assessment of different patterns that are needed to prescribe energy-saving guidelines for improving the energy performance of housing plans. The objective of this work was to describe the energy profile and understand the energy behaviour of public housing programs which differ in their construction patterns. The annual and seasonal energy behaviour of public and non-public residential dwellings was compared in terms of electricity and gas consumption. A similar comparison between remodelled and non-remodelled dwellings was performed within the public-dwellings sample. Results showed that public and non-public dwellings did not differ in terms of electricity consumption, but they differed greatly in terms of gas consumption. Non-public dwellings, which are larger and heterogeneous, demand more gas for heating during the winter. No difference in annual energy consumption was found in the comparison of remodelled and non-remodelled public dwellings. However, they differ in electricity consumption patterns during the critical winter season: the lower winter consumption of remodelled dwellings could be partially explained by a construction change aimed at lowering the expensive consumption of electricity. In spite of the fact that the energy behaviour of public dwellings seems to be seasonal, dependent upon more than design factors alone, a significant energy saving can be obtained by introducing well-known design technologies.