A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RESIDENTIAL HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN AUSTRALIA AND THE USA

The residential households utilise approximately one-fifth of the total energy consumed in the developed counties especially in the U.S. and Australia. The rate of household energy consumption is growing each year as the number of residential dwellings and expectation of life style has increased. The use of electricity has been rising since long. As the large proportion of the energy consumed by the residential households is electricity which is the most greenhouse gas-intensive form of delivered energy in the U.S. and Australia, the residential household is responsible for enormous greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper was to conduct a comparative analysis of household energy consumption pattern both in the U.S. and Australia for the period of 1990 to 2008. The study revealed that the per capita energy consumption by the residential households in Australia is significantly higher than the households energy use in the U.S. The electricity consumption has increased in both countries however the gas consumption has notably increased in Australia while the U.S. residential household gas consumption is steady