Appliances, Lighting, Electronics, and Miscellaneous EquipmentElectricity Use in New Homes
The "Other" end-uses (appliances, lighting, electronics, andmiscellaneous equipment) continue to grow. This is particularly true innew homes, where increasing floor area and amenities are leading tohigher saturation of these types of devices. This paper combines thefindings of several field studies to assess the current state ofknowledge about the "Other" end-uses in new homes. The field studiesinclude sub-metered measurements of occupied houses in Arizona, Florida,and Colorado, as well as device-level surveys and power measurements inunoccupied new homes. We find that appliances, lighting, electronics, andmiscellaneous equipment can consume from 46 percent to 88 percent ofwhole-house electricity use in current low-energy homes. Moreover, theannual consumption for the "Other" end-uses is not significantly lower innew homes (even those designed for low energy use) compared to existinghomes. The device-level surveys show that builder-installed equipment isa significant contributor to annual electricity consumption, and certaindevices that are becoming more common in new homes, such as structuredwiring systems, contribute significantly to this power consumption. Thesefindings suggest that energy consumption by these "Other" end uses isstill too large to allow cost-effective zero-energy homes.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director, Office of Science; Environmental ProtectionAgency
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231; EPA:DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 922723
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-62440; R&D Project: 43EZ01; TRN: US200804%%892
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2006 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency inBuildings, Monterry, Ca, June 2006
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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