There are several statistics, trends, and implications related to energy consumption and conservation that can be quite eye-opening.*
Economic impact
- annual national energy bill for buildings is more than $415 billion;
- average household spends $1900 a year on energy;
- improving energy efficiency by 50 percent has an annual value of $950 for the average household; and
- during the nominal 75-year lifespan of a typical home, $950 a year in energy savings has a ‘present worth’ value of $18,500.
Resource impact
- commercial and residential buildings account for 41 percent of U.S. energy consumption—a number higher than for industry or transportation;
- most energy consumed in buildings is produced by fossil fuels (i.e. non-renewables like coal, oil, and natural gas), which can compete with a national security interest to conserve these resources and reduce dependency on foreign sources; and
- if all U.S. households were to apply even a modest R-3 of continuous insulation (ci) to walls, the estimated energy savings is equivalent to 70 large oil tankers per year, the total energy produced at five large nuclear power plants per year, or removing 7 million vehicles from use (which equates to 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline not consumed each year).
Environmental impacts
- burning of fuels to produce energy releases air pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and particulates having consequences including smog, acid rain, respiratory disease, and many other negative human health and ecological effects;
- energy consumption or losses from buildings generate 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas [GHG]) into the atmosphere; and
- if all U.S. households were to apply the aforementioned R-3 of ci, air pollutants could be reduced by 30 million tons per year (or 2.5 percent of the total).
* This information comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) 2009 annual energy review, a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) report, Comparison of Current and Future Technologies,” and a 2000 Franklin Associates paper, “Plastics Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings Using Rigid Foam Sheathing Applied to Walls of Single Family Residential Housing in the U.S. and Canada.”
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