IMPACT OF APPLIANCE EFFICIENCY AND FUEL SUBSTITUTION ON RESIDENTIAL END-USE ENERGY-CONSUMPTION IN CANADA

In this paper, the effect of appliance efficiency and fuel substitutio n on residential end-use energy consumption in Canada is studied based on simulation studies conducted on the Expanded STAR database, which consists of detailed descriptions of 937 houses from different regions of Canada, using an hour-by-hour building energy simulation program. The findings of this study clearly indicate that improving appliance e fficiency reduces the overall end-use energy consumption in the reside ntial sector. However, the magnitude of savings as a result of improvi ng only appliance efficiencies is quite small. For example, by replaci ng appliances in 10% of residences by highly efficient appliances (ref lecting the technology of the next decade), the savings in end-use ene rgy consumption would be about 1%. Significantly larger savings, in th e order of 5-10%, can be obtained by improving house envelopes and hea ting/cooling systems in addition to improving appliance efficiencies ( also assuming a 10% market penetration of energy efficiency improvemen t measures). Fuel substitution for space and domestic hot water heatin g can also have a significant potential for reducing residential energ y consumption depending on the fuel substitution scenario adopted.