Energy Practices In Residential Buildings: A Global Look
- Conference
- Location
-
Louisville, Kentucky
- Publication Date
-
June 20, 2010
- Start Date
-
June 20, 2010
- End Date
-
June 23, 2010
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Construction
- Page Count
-
9
- Page Numbers
-
15.463.1 - 15.463.9
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--15750
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/15750
- Download Count
-
494
Paper Authors
Daphene Koch Purdue University
Daphene Koch, PhD is an assistant professor at Purdue University in the Building Construction
Management Department. Daphene has over 10 years of college teaching experience and over 10
years of construction industry experience. Her construction experience included mechanical
construction and industrial petrochemical projects in Indiana , Texas and East Malaysia.
Rajeswari Sundararajan Purdue University
Raji Sundararajan is an Associate Professor at Purdue University in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology. She currently serves at president of t he Electrostatics Society of America (ESA). ESA is a nonprofit professional society devoted to the advancement and improved understanding of electrostatics.
Greg Lasker Purdue University
Greg Lasker is an Assistant Professor in the Building Construction Management Department at Purdue University. He is the coordinator of the Healthcare concentration in the department and is formed the first American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) student chapter.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Energy in Residential Buildings: A Global Study
Abstract
The impact of energy use in U.S. residential construction is huge, this sector alone accounts for about 22% of the primary energy use. Within residential buildings, space heating, and water heating are the biggest opportunities for energy savings. The electricity used for lighting, cooling, and refrigeration should be targeted next. Despite the opportunities for energy and financial savings, many homeowners forgo necessary improvements due to initial cost concerns or a simple lack of information. This paper will explore global practices that exist to increase energy efficiency in residential construction and disseminate this information as a beginning of the best practice.
Background:
In today’s fast-pace technology-driven society the United States along with many other industrialized countries are producing enormous amount of energy to meet the demands of their rising populations. Figure 1 shows the trends over the past six decades1. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States consumed 101,554 trillion Btu (British Thermal Unit) of energy in 2007; an increase of 1.7 percent from 2006 and 6.7 percent from a decade prior2.
Figure 1. Total consumption by end user sector, 1949-20061
In particular, the residential building sector accounted for 21,619 trillion Btu or 21.3 percent of the total energy consumed that year3. But to gain a better understanding of the distribution of energy consumption within the residential sector, the EIA has broken down the primary energy consumption into three categories: fossil fuels, renewable energies, and electricity. Fossil fuels
Koch, D., & Sundararajan, R., & Lasker, G. (2010, June), Energy Practices In Residential Buildings: A Global Look Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--15750
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2010 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015