This creates a gentle, warming heat without many of the drawbacks of traditional heating. Hydronic heating (also referred to as “radiant floor heating” or “in slab heating”) is an energy-efficient way to increase a building’s ambient temperature with the distribution of hot, circulating water. If you find yourself nodding your head, hydronic heating could be the answer you’ve been looking for. The dust, dry air, and sound of forced air systems can be annoying. Sometimes the front of you bakes while the back of you freezes. However, average annual site energy use per home has declined.We’ve all experienced the limitations of traditional heating systems. household now uses more air conditioning, appliances, and consumer electronics than ever before. 1 The number of homes with small-scale solar photovoltaic systems has increased substantially in recent years. Approximately 10% of households in 2015 used a heat pump as their main heating equipment. Wood is used as a main heating fuel mostly in rural areas but many homes throughout the country use it for supplemental heating. LPG use for grilling food outdoors is common throughout the country, while many homes in rural areas use LPG to meet the majority of heating and cooking needs. Heating oil use is most common in the Northeast. homes use two or more energy sources, but mobile homes in all regions of the country and homes in the South are most likely to only use electricity to meet all of their household energy needs. wood (cord wood and wood pellets)-space and water heating, cooking.solar energy-space and water heating, electricity generation.geothermal energy-space cooling, and space and water heating.LPG/propane-space and water heating, clothes drying, cooking.heating oil-space and water heating, clothes drying.natural gas-space and water heating, clothes drying, cooking.electricity-all types of energy end uses.The types and major end uses of energy by the U.S. Renewable energy sources-geothermal energy, solar energy, and wood fuels-accounted for about 7% of residential sector energy end use in 2021.
Petroleum includes heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is mostly propane. Petroleum was the next most-consumed energy source in the residential sector in 2021, accounting for 8% of total residential sector energy end use. Natural gas, which was used in 58% of homes in 2015, accounted for 42% of residential sector end-use energy consumption in 2021. 1 Electricity and natural gas are the most-used energy sources in homesĮlectricity is used in almost all homes, and retail electricity purchases accounted for 43% of total residential sector end-use energy consumption in 2021. In 2015, the average household living in a single-family detached home consumed nearly three times more energy than a household living in an apartment building that has five or more apartments. Apartments are generally smaller than single-family homes, and they are often partially insulated from weather by adjacent apartments. Space heating and air conditioning account for a much smaller share of household energy use in apartments than in detached single-family homes. Larger homes and larger households tend to use more energy overall than smaller homes and smaller households. Number, type, and efficiency of energy-consuming devices in the home and the amount of time they are usedīecause of higher space-heating demand, households in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States consume more energy on average than households in the South and West regions.Type of home and its physical characteristics.Click to enlarge Many factors affect the amount of energy a household usesĪ number of factors affect the amount of energy an individual household uses, including: