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Title: 120 years of U.S. residential housing stock and floor space

Abstract

Residential buildings are a key driver of energy consumption and also impact transportation and land-use. Energy consumption in the residential sector accounts for one-fifth of total U.S. energy consumption and energy-related CO₂ emissions, with floor space a major driver of building energy demands. In this work a consistent, vintage-disaggregated, annual long-term series of U.S. housing stock and residential floor space for 1891–2010 is presented. An attempt was made to minimize the effects of the incompleteness and inconsistencies present in the national housing survey data. Over the 1891–2010 period, floor space increased almost tenfold, from approximately 24,700 to 235,150 million square feet, corresponding to a doubling of floor space per capita from approximately 400 to 800 square feet. While population increased five times over the period, a 50% decrease in household size contributed towards a tenfold increase in the number of housing units and floor space, while average floor space per unit remains surprisingly constant, as a result of housing retirement dynamics. In the last 30 years, however, these trends appear to be changing, as household size shows signs of leveling off, or even increasing again, while average floor space per unit has been increasing. GDP and total floor space showmore » a remarkably constant growth trend over the period and total residential sector primary energy consumption and floor space show a similar growth trend over the last 60 years, decoupling only within the last decade.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Joint Global Change Research Institute.
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Joint Global Change Research Institute; University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science.
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  4. East China Univ. of Science and Technology, Shanghai (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1212316
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
PLoS ONE
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of Science
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; housing; census; surveys; alternative energy; demography; transportation; carbon dioxide; population dynamics

Citation Formats

Moura, Maria Cecilia P., Smith, Steven J., Belzer, David B., and Zhou, Wei -Xing. 120 years of U.S. residential housing stock and floor space. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134135.
Moura, Maria Cecilia P., Smith, Steven J., Belzer, David B., & Zhou, Wei -Xing. 120 years of U.S. residential housing stock and floor space. United States. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134135
Moura, Maria Cecilia P., Smith, Steven J., Belzer, David B., and Zhou, Wei -Xing. 2015. "120 years of U.S. residential housing stock and floor space". United States. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134135. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1212316.
@article{osti_1212316,
title = {120 years of U.S. residential housing stock and floor space},
author = {Moura, Maria Cecilia P. and Smith, Steven J. and Belzer, David B. and Zhou, Wei -Xing},
abstractNote = {Residential buildings are a key driver of energy consumption and also impact transportation and land-use. Energy consumption in the residential sector accounts for one-fifth of total U.S. energy consumption and energy-related CO₂ emissions, with floor space a major driver of building energy demands. In this work a consistent, vintage-disaggregated, annual long-term series of U.S. housing stock and residential floor space for 1891–2010 is presented. An attempt was made to minimize the effects of the incompleteness and inconsistencies present in the national housing survey data. Over the 1891–2010 period, floor space increased almost tenfold, from approximately 24,700 to 235,150 million square feet, corresponding to a doubling of floor space per capita from approximately 400 to 800 square feet. While population increased five times over the period, a 50% decrease in household size contributed towards a tenfold increase in the number of housing units and floor space, while average floor space per unit remains surprisingly constant, as a result of housing retirement dynamics. In the last 30 years, however, these trends appear to be changing, as household size shows signs of leveling off, or even increasing again, while average floor space per unit has been increasing. GDP and total floor space show a remarkably constant growth trend over the period and total residential sector primary energy consumption and floor space show a similar growth trend over the last 60 years, decoupling only within the last decade.},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0134135},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1212316}, journal = {PLoS ONE},
issn = {1932-6203},
number = 8,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

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Cited by: 37 works
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Works referenced in this record:

Modelling intervention options to reduce GHG emissions in housing stock — A diffusion approach
journal, May 2011


Modeling of end-use energy consumption in the residential sector: A review of modeling techniques
journal, October 2009


A review on buildings energy consumption information
journal, January 2008


The impact of urban form on U.S. residential energy use
journal, January 2008


Construction of a global disaggregated dataset of building energy use and floor area in 2010
journal, June 2014


Modeling of end-use energy consumption in the residential sector: A review of modeling techniques
journal, October 2009


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