Regional Energy Profile
NEW
ENGLAND
HOUSEHOLD
ELECTRICITY
REPORT
Release date: October 11, 2005
Electricity Consumption
| Efficiency Standards
| Table D1-1
| Figures
| Sources
New England, located in the northeastern United States, consists of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In 2001, the 5.4 million New England households consumed 39 billion kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity (Table D1-1), 3.4 percent of the U.S. total. An average New England household consumed about two-thirds as much electricity as an average U.S. household.
The lower per-household electricity use in New England is explained by cooler summer weather, which decreases electricity demand for air-conditioning and other cooling, and by cold winters and a relatively greater reliance on fuel oil (instead of electricity) for space heating and water heating. In New England, heating, ventilation, cooling, and water heating accounted for 26 percent of all residential electricity consumption (Figure D1-1), whereas, in the United States as a whole, those end uses accounted for 40 percent.
New Englanders were more likely to live in older buildings and in apartments than householders nationwide. Housing in New England was older than the national average in 2001 -- 4.4 million households (81 percent) occupied buildings built before 1980, whereas, across the United States, 73 million households (69 percent) did. Although newer homes tend to be larger than older homes, their energy use per square foot is typically lower.
About 32 percent of New Englanders lived in apartments in 2001, compared with 25 percent nationwide. (Of the nine Census Divisions, only the Middle Atlantic and Pacific had higher shares of residents living in apartments.) Apartments differ from single-family homes in ways that could affect electricity consumption per household. For example, households in apartments are more likely to share space heating equipment, water heaters, and laundry appliances. However, quantifying the effects of shared equipment and appliances on end-use electricity consumption will require additional investigation.
NEW
ENGLAND
HOUSEHOLD
ELECTRICITY
CONSUMPTION IN
2001
HVAC and Water Heating
In the New England home heating sector, fuel oil and, to a lesser extent, natural gas continued to dominate the market. About 2.7 million households relied on fuel oil as their main space heating fuel. Natural gas was more prevalent in 2001 (1.9 million households) than in earlier years (1.3 million households in 1990). Similarly, the majority of New England households (3.7 million) relied on fuel oil or natural gas as their main water heating fuel. In 2001, 54 percent of households reported having access to natural gas, and new gas pipeline capacity is being steadily added to the Northeast region’s pipeline grid. In 2003, for example, two natural gas pipeline projects were added in Massachusetts.
Electricity was the main space heating source in only 0.5 million households -- 9.3 percent of all households, similar to shares in the northern United States, but significantly smaller than in the South and West. New Englanders consumed 2.5 billion kWh of electricity for space heating (Figure D1-2). A larger number of households, 1.4 million, used electricity as their main source of energy for water heating, consuming 3.1 billion kWh for that end use. Together, space heating and water heating accounted for 15 percent of electricity consumption in New England, compared with 19 percent nationwide.
In general, cool New England summers result in relatively lower demand for air-conditioning. In the summer of 2001, air-conditioning electricity consumption in New England was, as usual, very low compared to the national average. A smaller share of households in New England had central air-conditioning or room units, and per-household consumption of electricity for air-conditioning also was lower. Only 59 percent of households in New England had air-conditioning equipment, whereas 76 percent of U.S. households had it. New England households with central air-conditioning consumed 1,595 kWh per household, compared with 2,796 kWh nationwide. For households with individual room units, electricity consumption for air-conditioning averaged 552 kWh in New England, compared with 950 per household nationwide.
The relatively low share of electricity consumption devoted to space heating, water heating, and air-conditioning inflates the shares of the other end uses.
Kitchen and Laundry Appliances
In New England, kitchen appliances consumed 12.6 billion kWh in 2001 (Figure D1-3), one third of total household electricity consumption. Of total residential electricity consumption, kitchen appliances accounted for the largest share of consumption (as they did in the Midwest, the Middle Atlantic and Pacific Census Divisions, and New York and California, all areas where air-conditioning is less common).
Refrigerators were found in almost every household in the United States and, on average, 17 percent of households had two or more refrigerators. In New England, 16 percent of households had multiple refrigerators. A greater share of refrigerators in New England was old (older than 9 years), than in most other parts of the country. Thirty-six percent of primary refrigerators in New England were old, compared with 32 percent nationwide.
Despite their stock of older and presumably less efficient refrigerators and freezers, New Englanders reported average electricity consumption per refrigerator of less than 1,000 kWh in 2001, while the average refrigerator in the United States as a whole consumed 1,239 kWh. Similarly, New Englanders reported average consumption per freezer of 842 kWh, well below the U.S. average of 1,039 kWh. Possible reasons for the lower per-unit consumption in New England include the cooler summer weather and the smaller size, on average, of the refrigerators.
In New England and the Middle Atlantic and Pacific regions, where apartments were more common than in the United States as a whole and where appliances are more likely to be shared, fewer households have clothes dryers. In those households that do have their own clothes dryers, electric dryers are much more common than natural gas dryers. Per-household consumption of electricity in 2001 was 903 kWh in New England, compared to 1,079 kWh nationwide. Clothes dryers accounted for 7.3 percent of total household electricity consumption; clothes washers accounted for 1.3 percent.
Lighting and Home Electronics
Lighting accounted for 13 percent of household electricity consumption in New England, and home electronics accounted for an additional 11 percent. In the home electronics category, color TVs and peripherals (VCRs/DVDs, cable boxes, and satellite dishes) were the dominant users of electricity, consuming 2.6 billion kWh in 2001 (Figure D1-4). Personal computers were more common in New England than in the rest of the country; PCs and printers consumed 1.3 billion kWh.
The Outlook for Electricity Consumption
In the short term (from 2004 to 2006), retail sales of electricity to the residential sector in New England are projected to increase 4.5 percent, lower than the projected U.S. average increase of 6.6 percent. The price of electricity sold to the residential sector in New England is projected to rise to 13.3 cents per kWh, compared with a projected national average of 9.4 cents per kWh. Over the long term (from 2003 to 2025), retail sales of electricity in New England are projected to grow by 1.1 percent per year, more slowly than in most other regions of the country. By comparison, retail sales to the U.S. residential sector are projected to grow at 1.6 percent per year.
EFFICIENCY
STANDARDS IN
NEW
ENGLAND
New England, despite its relatively low electricity consumption, has shown an interest in appliance and equipment efficiency standards for more than 20 years. Massachusetts was one of a handful of States across the country, and the only New England State, to have developed State efficiency standards prior to the enactment of the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act in 1987. (The act established Federal standards for furnaces, central air-conditioners, room air-conditioners, water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, ranges and ovens, clothes washers and dryers, and pool heaters.)
Currently, all six New England States belong to the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to promote regional energy efficiency. Its Minimum Efficiency Standards Project was established in 2001 to look for ways to use minimum efficiency standards to increase energy efficiency; it now also advocates for enactment of standards.
The Standards Project has focused on 19 products, including several products that are used primarily in households: residential furnaces/boilers, furnace fans, torchiere lighting fixtures, ceiling fan lights, television adaptor boxes, and external power supplies (such as those that charge cell phones). The standards in the New England legislation come from three sources:
- American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (residential furnaces/boilers and furnace fans)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (torchieres and ceiling fan lights)
- California Energy Commission (television adaptor boxes and external power supplies)
In May 2004, Connecticut established minimum energy efficiency standards for 8 products, including torchieres. This year, Rhode Island established standards for 13 products, including torchieres, and Vermont established standards for 19 products.
ABOUT
THIS
SERIES
The Household Electricity Reports series (the newest Regional Energy Profiles series) is designed to consist of a U.S. report and thirteen regional reports on each of the nine U.S. Census Divisions and on the four most populous States (California, Florida, New York, and Texas). The reports are based on data from the most recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey, conducted in 2001. They will be updated in 2007, when data from the 2005 survey become available.
LINKS TO
RELATED
EIA DATA
PRODUCTS
New England Data Abstract
New England Appliance Report
Residential Energy Map
Renewable Potential Map
Household Electricity Data Sources
Regional Energy Data Sources
Residential Energy Consumption Survey
U.S. Census Regions and Divisions Map
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