Evaluating the Age-Energy Consumption Profile in Residential Buildings

Age is an important proxy for many life course trajectories. The relationship between energy consumption and age is complex and understudied. We evaluated the existence and determinants of an age-energy consumption profile in the U.S. residential sector, using microdata from four waves of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) in 1987, 1990, 2005, and 2009. We constructed pseudo cohorts from Bayesian generalized linear model estimates to draw micro-profiles for energy consumption across the life course. Overall, we found that residential energy consumption increases over the life course. Much of the increase in energy consumption is due to housing size. Variations in the age-energy consumption micro-profiles can be described by concave and convex functions. In contrast to previous research that suggested that population aging would reduce energy demand, our results indicate that changing population age structure could amplify residential energy demand.