Browsing by Subject "Residential"
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Item Open Access Changes in U.S. Residential Monthly Energy Use per Capita: 1990-2017(2019) Yang, XiaoxuanResidential energy consumption represents a large share of total end use energy and shows strong correlation with monthly cooling and heating degree days. This study focuses on quantifying temporal change in the relationship between monthly degree days and monthly U.S. residential use of electricity and natural gas for each of the 48 contiguous states from 1990 to 2017. We introduce a single degree day predicator to characterize the non-linear relationship between degree-day and state-level electricity and natural gas use. By looking at trends in three DD-energy use coordinates and curvature from single quadratic fits on a year-by-year and state-by-state basis, we confirm the non-linear relationship between DD and residential energy use and reveal processes that might influence the relationship. We find that residential electricity energy use has become more sensitive to seasonal fluctuations in temperature in most states. While the lowest electricity use per year has risen, natural gas use has fallen since 1990 in most states. We further group the states into 17 classes for electricity use and 21 classes for natural gas use based on combinations of temporal trends in quadratic curve variables. These large groupings for electricity have shown a similar spatial distribution as that of the climate regions defined by the U.S. Department of Energy, reaffirming temperature and humidity as influential factors in the climate-energy relationship. We also compare our results with the household and end uses information from U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Residential Energy Consumption (REC) Surveys and recognize electricity as a growing heating source in all U.S. regions. We further address economic development, energy efficiency of end uses, and building codes as potential trends that affect the relationship between degree day and residential energy use at national, regional and state levels.
Item Open Access NYC Co-op and Condominium Board Guide to Energy Efficiency Upgrades in Buildings(2012-04-27) Opp, Thomas; Jia, Yuan; Smedick, David; Symonds, Jason; Smykal, AllisonThe purpose of this project is to help Better Buildings New York (BBNY), a non-profit organization focused on increasing energy efficiency and decreasing energy bills of NYC buildings, educate multifamily co-op and condo boards on energy efficiency upgrades and retrofits available for their buildings. The current market for these technologies and opportunities is vast, and at times, overwhelming. Various energy efficiency technologies exist with different costs, energy savings and impacts. Therefore, there was a need to create a medium for which these technologies and benefits could be communicated in a quick, non-technical, and easily understood manner. BBNY’s audience for this project is co-op and condo boards in multifamily apartment buildings. In these types of buildings, they are the decision-makers who are responsible for making renovation/retrofit choices. Therefore, this project focuses around the myriad of energy efficient technologies that are applicable to multifamily building environments, and how to convey this information to this type of audience. The research team used literature review, NYC building data sets, and Department of Energy modeling software (eQUEST) to vet a list of technologies BBNY was interested in presenting to board members. Each technology was researched to find information relating to five areas: capital costs, energy efficiency gains, payback periods, consistency of payback periods, and difficulty of installation. Once this information was collected, the team decided that there would be two main deliverables for the client. The first deliverable is a full academic report that delves into the intricate methodology and technical analysis used to evaluate each technology. This report serves as a reference for understanding the various types of technologies available for multifamily retrofits, and a breakdown of their functionality. However, due to the background of the intended audience, the team wanted to create a way for the technologies to be easily understood and compared to one another. Therefore, a second deliverable was developed with a ranking system to rate each of the technologies within the five previously defined areas. The ranking score used quantitative and qualitative information from the original research, and provided a way to compare the technologies against each other. The first part of the second deliverable is a condensed brochure that takes each technology and evaluates it on a single page, with a chart displaying the ranking score it received when compared to the whole list of technologies covered. The second part of the second deliverable is MS Excel tool that offers a dynamic ranking system to provide a personalized list of technologies related to user preference and building attributes. From these two deliverables, BBNY has the means to provide co-op and condo boards with guidance on energy efficient, retrofit technologies. The decision-makers in thousands of multifamily buildings now have a starting point to learn what technologies may be appropriate for further investigation. It is through these types of grassroots, information campaigns that energy efficiency gains and carbon footprint reductions in multifamily buildings can become a reality in New York City.Item Open Access The Impact of Energy Efficiency Investments on Power System Outcomes(2016-04-29) Lu, Yichen; Cao, YiyanPrevious studies of Energy efficiency (EE) investments at the household level suggest they can be cost effective and contribute to energy security, and reductions of CO2 emissions from the electric power system. This study presents a method to cope with the imprecisions and limitations of available data on the costs and performance of residential EE investments when estimating their combined effects on regional electricity demand. It then explores the economic, reliability and environmental benefits obtained in a power system when the electrical load is reduced through EE investments. This assessment of benefits is based on a simulation of the operations of the Duke Energy Carolina and Duke Energy Progress (DEC & DEP) power system under different scenarios with varying levels of EE penetration and solar PV penetration in 2025.Item Open Access The Negative Effect of Residential Broadband Availability on Educational Attainment in the US(2011-12) Kang, PollyA student’s decision to drop out of high school has repercussions for the individual and society. Broadband availability, which has become ubiquitous in the US since the late 1990s, can dramatically affect a student’s willingness to attend school. This study attempts to understand how broadband availability affects a student’s disengagement from school, which may lead to dropping out. I use data from two sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) regarding school enrollment and educational attainment on an individual level, and Federal Communication Commission (FCC) information on broadband availability. By using an application of difference-in-difference (DID) modeling and fixed effects, I compare trends in dropout behavior between areas that received full service by 2000 and those that acquired it in later years. The introduction of broadband correlates positively with an individual’s dropout choice. However, there are threats to causal interpretation.