Factors Affecting Residential End-Use Energy: Multiple Regression Analysis Based on Buildings, Households, Lifestyles, and Equipment

Abstract

Building characteristics, household compositions, lifestyles, and home equipment are recognized as the main factors influencing residential energy consumption, which has been a subject of extensive exploration for many years now. However, the quantitative correlation models between the above factors and residential end-use energy have not been fully studied. This paper aims to explore the determinants of residential end-use energy consumption by a comprehensive analysis based on the factors of building characteristics, household compositions, lifestyles, and home equipment. For this purpose, we investigated and collected the building information of 66 households and obtained the data through an installed measurement system of the annual residential end-use energy from July 2019 to June 2020. Subsequently, six multiple regression models were used to quantitatively analyze the valid determinants of each end-use energy. The main results were as follows: for cooling energy consumption, the greatest effective variable was FM_no (22–59, number of family members aged 22 to 59); the most influential variable was found to be FM_no (number of family members) for DHW and appliances energy consumption; for lighting and cooking energy consumption, the most effective variables were AREA (floor area) and Cooking (average daily cooking hours), respectively. Moreover, the order of influence of building characteristics, household compositions, lifestyles, and home equipment over each end-use energy consumption is as follows: households > equipment > lifestyles for cooling and DHW, households > buildings > equipment for lighting, equipment > lifestyles for appliances and cooking.