Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control

Blasing, T J; Schroeder, Dana

doi:10.2172/1095715

Title: Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control

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Abstract

Among the easiest approaches to energy, and cost, savings for most people is the adjustment of thermostats to save energy. Here we estimate savings of energy, carbon, and money in the United States of America (USA) that would result from adjusting thermostats in residential and commercial buildings by about half a degree Celsius downward during the heating season and upward during the cooling season. To obtain as small a unit as possible, and therefore the least likely to be noticeable by most people, we selected an adjustment of one degree Fahrenheit (0.56 degree Celsius) which is the gradation used almost exclusively on thermostats in the USA and is the smallest unit of temperature that has been used historically. Heating and/or cooling of interior building space for personal comfort is sometimes referred to as space conditioning, a term we will use for convenience throughout this work without consideration of humidity. Thermostat adjustment, as we use the term here, applies to thermostats that control the indoor temperature, and not to other thermostats such as those on water heaters. We track emissions of carbon only, rather than of carbon dioxide, because carbon atoms change atomic partners as they move through the carbon cycle,more »« less

Authors:

Blasing, T J ^[1]; Schroeder, Dana ^[2]

ORNL
University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Publication Date:: Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI Identifier:: 1095715

Report Number(s):: ORNL/TM-2013/55
KP1704030; ERKP176

DOE Contract Number:: DE-AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Technical Report

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: zero energy house; heating degree days; thermostat; carbon emissions

Citation Formats


                    Blasing, T J, and Schroeder, Dana. Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control.  United States: N. p., 2013. 
        Web.  doi:10.2172/1095715.

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                    Blasing, T J, & Schroeder, Dana. Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2172/1095715

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                    Blasing, T J, and Schroeder, Dana. 2013.  
        "Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2172/1095715.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1095715.

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@article{osti_1095715,

  title        = {Energy, Carbon-emission and Financial Savings from Thermostat Control},

  author       = {Blasing, T J and Schroeder, Dana},

  abstractNote = {Among the easiest approaches to energy, and cost, savings for most people is the adjustment of thermostats to save energy. Here we estimate savings of energy, carbon, and money in the United States of America (USA) that would result from adjusting thermostats in residential and commercial buildings by about half a degree Celsius downward during the heating season and upward during the cooling season. To obtain as small a unit as possible, and therefore the least likely to be noticeable by most people, we selected an adjustment of one degree Fahrenheit (0.56 degree Celsius) which is the gradation used almost exclusively on thermostats in the USA and is the smallest unit of temperature that has been used historically. Heating and/or cooling of interior building space for personal comfort is sometimes referred to as space conditioning, a term we will use for convenience throughout this work without consideration of humidity. Thermostat adjustment, as we use the term here, applies to thermostats that control the indoor temperature, and not to other thermostats such as those on water heaters. We track emissions of carbon only, rather than of carbon dioxide, because carbon atoms change atomic partners as they move through the carbon cycle, from atmosphere to biosphere or ocean and, on longer time scales, through the rock cycle. To convert a mass of carbon to an equivalent mass of carbon dioxide (thereby including the mass of the 2 oxygen atoms in each molecule) simply multiply by 3.67.},

  doi          = {10.2172/1095715},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1095715},
  journal      = {},
number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013},

  month        = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013}

}

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