Energy Use and Cost Residential SF
Understand the major components of energy use and cost in residential buildings in order to prioritize opportunities to reduce use and costs.
RATIONALE
Residential building energy use comprises approximately 22% of total energy consumed in the United States, making it the third largest sector. There are opportunities to reduce energy use up to 30% in a relatively cost effective manner.
EFFORT REQUIRED
Easy to Moderate
Residential energy use and cost has been well analyzed and a variety of resources exist to support the identification of energy reduction measures. Greater effort is required to analyze the energy use of specific buildings, depending on the ease of access to relevant information such as utility bills.
BENEFIT
Understanding the major sources of energy use and cost in residential buildings enables builders, homeowners, multifamily unit operators, tenants or communities to design effective programs to reduce residential energy use. This saves energy and money, supports local jobs, and allows residents to dedicate financial resources to other needs.
RISKS
Addressing residential energy efficiency can be challenging, due the large number of residential units, the relatively decentralized organization of homeowners, and the variety of building stock in the community.
ACTION AGENT(S)
Home builders and homeowners are the two most effectively targeted audiences for information about residential energy use and cost as they exert the greatest influence on these issues. Effective efforts to address residential energy use and cost should also include a broad variety of stakeholders, including the real estate industry, retailers, utilities, home energy auditors, building code officials and others.
COST
Understanding residential energy use and cost and devising a strategy to lower them is a low cost activity. General information is readily available thorough a variety of resources (listed below). Information on particular buildings can be determined through an energy audit or consumption analysis (reviewing utility bills), which may or may not be associated with additional costs depending on homeowner capabilities and other resources (for example, utility programs).
Any party with an interest in an initiative.Identifies how much energy a building uses and the purposes for which it is used, and identifies efficiency and cost-reduction opportunities. Energy efficiency is the process of using less energy to produce the same or increased functions. Often used mistakenly as a synonym for ENERGY CONSERVATION. The ability or potential of a physical body to do work. The most common forms of energy are heat, light, mechanical (moving parts), and electrical.
