BEHAVIOUR IS THIS THE LARGEST ENERGY USER IN THE HOME?

摘要

It is well known that behaviour can have a significant impact on energy use in the home, but how much? This paper attempts to partly address the question using data collected from a 1997 – 1999 Australian Bureau of Statistics “Residential Energy Use Survey” that was the foundation for work used, 1. to determine a baseline for residential energy use in South Australia and 2. to develop a model that could be used to determine which variables are a significant predictor of household energy use. In the latter case, 30 variables were tested for inclusion in the model ranging from, number of people in the home, income, presence of wall and ceiling insulation, ownership of various appliances, including a solar water heater etc. The final model produced included 15 variables and had an Rˉ2 fit of 0.55. Though not high the value still indicates that the model is a reasonable predictor for total household energy use, but that other factors not included in the model also influence the consumption value, which if known could be included and improve its predictive powers. In line with work done by AKF in Denmark in the early 90’s it is suggested that behaviour could be a major factor that if accounted for could improve model accuracy. An example from an actual monitored project is also given to demonstrate the impact of behaviour on energy use.