scholarly journals A Comparison of Energy Consumption in American Homes by Climate Region

Buildings ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Luciana Debs ◽  
Jamie Metzinger
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Heating Equipment ◽  
Residential Energy ◽  
Water Heater ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Residential Energy Consumption Survey ◽  
The Impact

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.

scholarly journals Non-Renewable Energy and Macroeconomic Efficiency of Seven Major Oil Producing Economies in Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olabanji Benjamin Awodumi ◽  
Adebowale Musefiu Adeleke
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Primary Energy ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Macroeconomic Efficiency ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study adopted two-stage DEA to estimate the technical efficiency scores and assess the impact of the two most important components of fossil fuel associated with oil production on macroeconomic efficiency of Seven oil producing African countries during 2005-2012. Our results showed that increasing the consumption of natural gas would improve technical efficiency. Furthermore, increasing the share of fossil fuel in total energy consumption has negative effect on the efficiency of the economies of the top African oil producers. Also, we found that increasing the consumption of primary energy improves efficiency in these economies. We therefore, recommend that governments and other stakeholders in the energy industry should adopt inclusive strategies that will promote the use of natural gas in the short term. However, in the long-run, efforts should be geared towards increasing the use of primary energy, thereby reducing the percentage share of fossil fuel in total energy consumption.

scholarly journals Energy saving and reduction of emissions in heating residential buildings in Poland – potential and selected activities

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 00044
Author(s):  
Piotr Lis
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Reduction Of Emissions

The communal and living sector, to the extent that it is the sub-sector of buildings with a majority share of residential buildings, on average, account for approximately 41% of total energy consumption in the European Union. Due to a large share in the total energy consumption, the buildings sector has a significant potential to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings and thus significantly reduce emission of air pollutants. One way is through thermal modernization. The article presents the expected energy and environmental effects of measures which adjust the existing residential buildings to the requirements in force in Poland since 2021. It has been assumed that the energy demand for heating buildings will be limited to the level of 55 kWh/(m2year) for multi-family residential buildings and 60 kWh/(m2year) for single-family residential buildings. The calculations show that it is possible to reduce energy consumption for heating of residential buildings by over 70%, which will result in a reduction of the total air pollutant emissions from housing heating, in relation to the situation in 2011. The article indicates existing reserves in thermal modernization activities and related problems based on the analysis of selected parameters of residential buildings.

The year-round thermal performance of a new ventilated Trombe wall integrated with phase change materials in the hot summer and cold winter region of China

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuekuan Zhou ◽  
Chuck Wah Yu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Test Room ◽  
Double Phase ◽  
Trombe Wall ◽  
Heating Load ◽  
The Impact

A new ventilated Trombe wall (VTW) constituted with double Phase Change Material (PCM) wallboards (PCMs-VTW) has been developed. The year-round thermal performance of the system was evaluated via an experimentally validated model. The impact of the transition temperature of PCMs and air change rate on cooling and heating load were determined. Also, the total energy and the electric energy consumption of the fan were evaluated. The new PCMs-VTW can contribute to a reduction in the cooling load (14.8%) and heating load (12.7%) when fusion temperatures of PCMs in exterior and interior PCM wallboards were 26°C and 22°C, respectively. As a result, the total energy consumption was reduced, relative to the use of a shading device, by 5.83 kWh in summer and 23.54 kWh in winter. The proposed system is beneficial to indoor thermal comfort during summer and winter. The test room fitted with the PCMs-VTW has an average predicted mean vote (PMV) of 0.97 and a predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) of 12.5% in summer; and a PMV of –0.32 and 9.6% PPD in winter. By contrast, the test room fitted with a split-type air conditioner has a PMV of 2.71 and a PPD of 23.9% in summer and a PMV of –1.71 and 29.8% PPD in winter.

scholarly journals Effect of climate change on the energy performance and thermal comfort of high-rise residential buildings in cold climates

2019 ◽  
Vol 282 ◽  
pp. 02066
Author(s):  
Fuad Mutasim Baba ◽  
Hua Ge
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
High Rise

Buildings now produce more than a third of global greenhouse gases, making them more than any other sector contributing to climate change. This paper investigates the effect of climate change on the energy performance and thermal comfort of a high-rise residential building with different energy characteristic levels, i.e. bylaw to meet current National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings (NECB), and passive house (PH) under two climate zones in British Columbia, Canada. SRES A2, RCP-4.5 and RCP-8.5 emission scenarios are used to generate future horizon weather data for 2020, 2050, and 2080. The simulation results show that for both bylaw and PH cases, the heating energy consumption would be reduced while cooling energy consumption would be increased. As a result, for the bylaw case, the total energy consumption would be decreased for two climate zones, while for PH case, the total energy consumption would be increased for zone 4 and decreased for zone 7. In addition, the number of hours with overheating risks would be increased under future climates, e.g. doubled in 2080, compared to the historical weather data. Therefore, efforts should be made in building design to take into account the impact of climate change to ensure buildings built today would perform as intended under changing climate.

scholarly journals Comparison of Environmental Impacts of Two Alternative Stabilization Techniques on Expansive Soil Slopes

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Mingxu Long ◽  
Jianlong Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Expansive Soil ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Lime Content ◽  
Soil Slopes ◽  
Embankment Height ◽  
The Impact

Two alternative techniques, the lime stabilization technique (LST) and the geogrid reinforcement technique (GRT), are both useful to stabilize expansive soil slopes, but their impacts on the environment need be further evaluated. Based on a case study, two techniques as well as their construction processes were introduced. The energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were investigated by the life cycle assessment (LCA). The sensitivity analyses were carried out, including the lime content for LST, the reinforcement spacing for GRT, the embankment height, delivery distance, and treatment width for both techniques. From the LCA results, with the GRT, the energy consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced by 7.52% and 57.09%, respectively. The main sources of two techniques are raw material production, soil transportation, and paving stage while the CO2 emissions of lime production are about 11.68 times of those of geogrid production. From the sensitivity analysis results, as the lime content of LST increases by 1%, the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions increase by 8.27% and 13.16%, respectively; as the reinforcement spacing of GRT increases by 0.05 m, the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions increase by 1.63% and 0.69%, respectively; as the embankment height increases by 1 m, the increase rates of energy consumption and CO2 emissions of LST are 1.68 and 1.61 times of those of GRT, respectively. In this project, when the embankment height is less than 10 m, the geogrid technique has the advantages of energy-saving and emission-reduction. It was found that the GRT is not sensitive to the change of delivery distance and treatment width and significantly reduces the environmental impacts, especially in reducing the impact of global warming.

Energy savings potential of new aeration system: Full scale trials

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lazić ◽  
V. Larsson ◽  
Å. Nordenborg
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Aeration System ◽  
Fine Bubble ◽  
Aeration Control

The objective of this work is to decrease energy consumption of the aeration system at a mid-size conventional wastewater treatment plant in the south of Sweden where aeration consumes 44% of the total energy consumption of the plant. By designing an energy optimised aeration system (with aeration grids, blowers, controlling valves) and then operating it with a new aeration control system (dissolved oxygen cascade control and most open valve logic) one can save energy. The concept has been tested in full scale by comparing two treatment lines: a reference line (consisting of old fine bubble tube diffusers, old lobe blowers, simple DO control) with a test line (consisting of new Sanitaire Silver Series Low Pressure fine bubble diffusers, a new screw blower and the Flygt aeration control system). Energy savings with the new aeration system measured as Aeration Efficiency was 65%. Furthermore, 13% of the total energy consumption of the whole plant, or 21 000 €/year, could be saved when the tested line was operated with the new aeration system.

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