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 substitution 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 efficiency reduces the overall end-use energy consumption in the residential sector. However, the magnitude of savings as a result of improving only appliance efficiencies is quite small. For example, by replacing appliances in 10% of residences by highly efficient appliances (reflecting the technology of the next decade), the savings in end-use energy consumption would be about 1%. Significantly larger savings, in the order of 5–10%, can be obtained by improving house envelopes and heating/cooling systems in addition to improving appliance efficiencies (also assuming a 10% market penetration of energy efficiency improvement measures). Fuel substitution for space and domestic hot water heating can also have a significant potential for reducing residential energy consumption depending on the fuel substitution scenario adopted.