Optimizing Homes with Highest Air Conditioning Energy Usage Could Save 8% of all US Residential Electricity

A new study using detailed home energy data quantifies the extent, and financial and carbon costs, of air conditioning usage. Using anonymized data from approximately 15,000 homes, the study showed that a disproportionate amount of air conditioning use came from a small number of the most inefficient homes. The data was gathered by the Sense Home Energy Monitor, a consumer product that tracks real-time electricity usage in homes and uses machine learning and device disaggregation to identify individual devices by their energy signatures. The study quantified that:

• Optimizing the 20% of homes with highest air conditioning energy usage to match the 20% of homes
  with lowest air conditioning energy use could save 8% of all US residential electricity;
• Customers in the most inefficient homes spend almost four times as much to cool their homes than
  customers with the most efficient homes, leading to an average of $882 extra spent on cooling per
  year;
• Potential savings to U.S. consumers is $15.3 billion annually;
• 115 billion kilowatt hours could be saved annually;
• 52M tons of carbon emissions could be avoided annually if the HVAC inefficiency were addressed and;
• The twenty percent of homes with highest cooling use have a disproportionate impact, accounting for 45% of all cooling consumption nationwide.

Download: Using Home Energy Monitoring Technology to Assess Residential Air Conditioning