Energy savings enhance comfort and budgets of low-income households

ECOS ◽  
2013 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Vieira ◽  
E. Ghisi

The objective of this paper is to assess the potential for energy savings in water and sewerage services by means of on-site integrated water and sewage management strategies in low-income households in Florianópolis, Brazil. The on-site water efficiency measures include reclamation of gray water and rainwater use. The water and energy saving potential of both strategies were studied, and their energy intensities were compared to centralized water and sewerage services. Furthermore, the water consumption pattern for 10 low-income households was empirically determined using smart meters; the rainwater supply was estimated by using the computer program Netuno 4.0; and the water supply and sewage reduction potential of gray water systems were determined using a theoretical method. On average, the gray water and rainwater supply capacities were equivalent to 24% and 43% of the total water consumption of households, respectively. In regard to energy savings, rainwater harvesting was the most energy intensive strategy (0.86 kWh/m³), followed by centralized systems (0.84 kWh/m³); whereas, gray water was the most energy efficient strategy (0.54 kWh/m³). The findings suggest that alternative water and sewerage services may promote energy savings in comparison with centralized ones only when a concomitant reduction in sewage production is achieved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2774
Author(s):  
Joowook Kim ◽  
Jemin Myoung ◽  
Hyunwoo Lim ◽  
Doosam Song

Energy efficiency policies are made to reduce the energy necessary to achieve a given level of indoor heating and to decrease the greenhouse gas emission worldwide. National and state regulators routinely tighten the energy efficiency building code appliance standards. In particular, for low-income households, the government has been implementing an energy efficiency program, and the most common measures include furnace replacement, attic and wall insulation, and infiltration reduction. The belief that the energy efficiency programs are beneficial and lead to energy reductions often fails, which is known as the ‘efficiency gap.’ This paper analyzed the effect of input data in calculating the energy savings of the energy efficiency program for low-income households as a cause of the energy efficiency gap in energy efficiency treatments for low-income households. According to the retrofit of the low-income household, the energy saving effect predicted through the input data of detailed measurement was 65%, which was higher than 41% of the conventional prediction method (walk-through audit). The resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction effect was also the same as the energy savings, and the results predicted by the existing prediction methods were less predicted than the detailed measurement results.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viverita . ◽  
Ririen Setiati Rianti ◽  
Abdurrahman Sunanta ◽  
Ida Ayu Agung Faradynawati

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