Development of energy conservation programs for residential and small commercial buildings in Thailand

This study examines various scenarios of the energy consumption trends of the residential and small commercial buildings in Thailand. It is expected that without implementing any energy conservation measures, the consumption of these sectors will increase about two folds from the present (2010) in next twenty years (2030). Although the consumptions by the main activities i.e. lighting, cooking, entertainment reach saturation, the increase of units of air-conditioners and electric water heaters in the buildings results in dramatic electricity consumption. This study also examines particular situations of the shift of energy sources by the groups. For one case, it was assumed that electricity was totally used for cooking. The situation would lead to a crisis of the affordability of electricity of the country. Another case assumed fuel wood and charcoal for cooking were substituted by LPG. This would again leads to the serious scarcity of LPG. However, the shift of fuel wood to charcoal offers an opportunity of energy efficiency improvement. The scenarios mentioned above warrant an importance of energy efficiency in the residential and small commercial buildings in Thailand. This study demonstrates that implementing various energy conservation plans can saved the energy consumption of these groups by 23% of both electricity and LPG from its BAU scenario.