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The American Energy Consumer
Table 3-1.Percentage Distribution of
Personal Energy, by Use, 1968
| Use |
Percent |
| All personal energy |
100 |
| Energy in the home |
56 |
| Space heating |
32 |
| Water heating |
8 |
| Appliances and other |
15 |
| Cooking |
3 |
| Refrigerating |
3 |
| All other |
9 |
| Transportation |
44 |
| Source: Prepared by
the Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies from the following:
Transportation: Eric Hirst, Energy Intensiveness of Passenger
and Freight Transportation Modes, 1950-1970, Oak Ridge, Tenn.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, April 1973, Table 10, p. 24. Other:
Stanford Research Institute, Patterns of Energy Consumption in
the United States, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1972, Table 13, p. 36. |
HOME
HEATING
Energy use in
home heating is influenced by the design of the dwelling, the
climate, and the ways people use their homes.
Structure of the Home
A whole array
of housing characteristics affect energy use, although some
features are more important than others. An important principle of
energy conservation is that the more a dwelling is protected from
the weather, the less energy it needs for heating. Thus—all
other factors being equal—an apartment uses less energy than
a row house (town house) of the same size, a row house less than a
semidetached house, and a semidetached house less than a free
standing single family home.
Insulation
also serves to keep heat in and cold out. For example, an
1,800-square-foot house, located in the New York area and insulated
according to current Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
standards, could use as much as one-quarter less energy than it
would have used if it were insulated according to FHA's earlier
standards.
A dwelling's
foundation protects it from the chill that rises from the ground. A
basement protects a dwelling most, a concrete slab less, and
crawl