Residential Commercial Energy Use

Unlike many of the other presentation groups, we focused on how energy is used in the residential and commercial sectors (how energy is used, not produced).  In our daily lives, we use energy for temperature control (heating/cooling), lighting, and a variety of other purposes.

According to the Energy Information Administration, we use almost half of our energy in the Residential and Commercial sectors, with Residential energy taking up almost as much as Transportation.

On this blog, you will find:

• a Concept Map of our topic
• our Powerpoint Presentation overview of the subject
• information on current appliance use
• a detailed discussion of sustainable, or green, design

We hope you find this website interesting and informative, and also hope that the information we have provided will help you make the best choices to support the environment.

-Alex and Steve

Our Concept Map

Appliances

Besides heating and air conditioning, appliances are one of the biggest energy draws in the residential sector.  Some examples include refrigerators, ovens, microwave ovens, dishwashers, clothes washers/dryers, water heaters, and freezers.  In other words, these are the things that we use on a daily basis for important functions.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most appliances run on electricity, as opposed to natural gas or propane (in 2005, 7,317 kWh of electricty were used per household to power appliances).

Sustainability in Design

My essay for this project focused on energy use in commercial and residential buildings and mainly sustainable design, which decreases the energy consumed by these buildings.

Sustainability in Design

Sustainable is defined by Merriam Webster’s dictionary as “relating to a lifestyle involving the use of [a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged].”[1] This word is being used increasingly more often. As the supply of fossil fuels diminish in the world, people are looking to other ways to produce energy. These ways may not produce enough energy even combined to support the extravagant lifestyles people live though. So not only does the production of energy have to change, but the way energy is used also must change. The main sectors that consume almost forty percent of the energy produce are the residential and commercial sectors. Commercial and residential buildings consume around seventy percent of the electricity in the United States.[2] Green design has been around for almost fifty years, but recently it has started to become very important. Having energy efficient buildings is now a goal of companies and cities worldwide. Most buildings designed by architects today are considered green and architects have been continuously developing new ways to make buildings environmentally friendly. Sustainable design does not restrict creativity or anything else for buildings, but it forces the designers to be more creative. There are many new ways that green buildings are being designed today and these buildings have positive affects on the environment. There are drawbacks too, and these also need to be looked at when considering sustainable design.

Our Presentation

Here is the powerpoint presentation that we gave for our class.
Presentation