Urban Residential Building Energy Consumption by End-Use in Malawi

Abstract

Buildings account for about 40% of the global energy consumption and this energy demand is projected to continue growing over the next few decades. Residential buildings are responsible for over 60% of this consumption pattern with commercial buildings being responsible for the remainder. While residential building energy consumption constitutes about 20% of the total consumption in the developed world, it constitutes up to more than 50% in the sub-Sahara African region. The growing consumption of energy has raised concerns over the impacts on the environment, supply difficulties, and depletion of resources. In efforts toward addressing these concerns, the need for effective management of energy resources and adequate planning for energy infrastructure cannot be overemphasized within the building industry in general and the residential building sector in particular. Toward this end, it is necessary to ensure that high quality and high-resolution information on the consumption of energy in buildings is made available. Unfortunately, in many countries within the sub-Sahara African region, building energy consumption information is hardly ever readily available. This study seeks to make a contribution toward this facet of the literature at the greater regional level in general and particularly, in Malawi, a country located in the southern part of Africa. With a grounding in the context of urban residential buildings, the study identifies the key energy end-uses, investigates the proportional mixes of the end-uses and the energy sources and, finally, establishes the periodical per capita energy consumption amounts for the end-uses and the typical residential building unit.