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Increased energy consumption from other sources offsets the savings from heating and cooling
Over the past few years we can see a considerable decrease in heating and cooling household energy consumption rates. Research and estimates revealed by the US Energy Information Administration REC’s (Residential Energy Consumption) Survey shows that the US energy consumption has now decreased to 48% from 58 % energy consumption in !993. The reduction over the years has been achieved due to adoption of energy efficient equipments, proper insulation and installation of tightly sealed windows. A steady decline of energy consumption is what the US government is working to achieve in the near future.
On the downside the electric consumption from other appliances are increasing. So the savings made from space conditioning is counter balanced by the losses from other appliances. Most of the energy is now wasted on water heating and lighting. Some ways should be found to regulate such energy waste only then the US will be able to contribute to a greener and energy efficient nation. It is estimated that on an average US households consumed about 11320 kilowatt of energy and about 60 % of the energy consumption is from appliances, lighting and other electronic devices. Moreover there are lots of old houses in the US that consumes more energy because of its outdated appliances and lighting systems. The REC has based its research from personal interviews of household owners in various parts of the US. Their data are also based from energy suppliers. In short the US has made some savings over the last ten years from space heating but the increase in the energy consumption from other sources like water heating, lighting and appliances has made the savings negligible.
The following link contains a pictorial representation of energy consumption data: http://www.homeenergy.org/show/blog/nav/blog/id/393