Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens
High energy burdens challenge nearly a quarter of U.S. households, a fraction which could increase under climate change due to its impacts on space heating and cooling usage. Using detailed building models, physics-based building simulations, and downscaled meteorological data, we quantify seasonal...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research: Energy |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/addac7 |
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| _version_ | 1849471661053575168 |
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| author | Camilo Toruno Andrew Schallwig Ritvik Jain Claire McKenna Parth Vaishnav Seth Guikema Michael T Craig |
| author_facet | Camilo Toruno Andrew Schallwig Ritvik Jain Claire McKenna Parth Vaishnav Seth Guikema Michael T Craig |
| author_sort | Camilo Toruno |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | High energy burdens challenge nearly a quarter of U.S. households, a fraction which could increase under climate change due to its impacts on space heating and cooling usage. Using detailed building models, physics-based building simulations, and downscaled meteorological data, we quantify seasonal and annual household energy costs for nearly 6600 low-income households across 25 U.S. cities under historic and future climates. Climate change will, on average, reduce households’ median annual energy costs in heating-dominated cities by 4%–7%, and increase them 1%–6% in hot–humid cities. But climate change will increase summer energy costs for most households and cities, with average households’ total energy costs in each city seeing summer increases of 2%–10%. Furthermore, buildings with characteristics commonly associated with low-income households (e.g. high air infiltration rates) are particularly vulnerable to rising summer energy costs under climate change. Absent increasing household wages or support, our results suggest climate change will exacerbate annual energy burdens across the southern U.S., and increase summer energy burdens while alleviating winter energy burdens in most U.S. cities. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d727a1a515ad490a81402e83b39e2dd8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2753-3751 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research: Energy |
| spelling | doaj-art-d727a1a515ad490a81402e83b39e2dd82025-08-20T03:24:44ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Energy2753-37512025-01-012202501210.1088/2753-3751/addac7Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdensCamilo Toruno0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0286-4385Andrew Schallwig1https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2175-0999Ritvik Jain2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1147-5637Claire McKenna3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7714-7105Parth Vaishnav4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1582-4523Seth Guikema5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6024-0303Michael T Craig6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3031-5041Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaDepartment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaSchool for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaSchool for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaSchool for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaDepartment of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaDepartment of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America; School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, United States of AmericaHigh energy burdens challenge nearly a quarter of U.S. households, a fraction which could increase under climate change due to its impacts on space heating and cooling usage. Using detailed building models, physics-based building simulations, and downscaled meteorological data, we quantify seasonal and annual household energy costs for nearly 6600 low-income households across 25 U.S. cities under historic and future climates. Climate change will, on average, reduce households’ median annual energy costs in heating-dominated cities by 4%–7%, and increase them 1%–6% in hot–humid cities. But climate change will increase summer energy costs for most households and cities, with average households’ total energy costs in each city seeing summer increases of 2%–10%. Furthermore, buildings with characteristics commonly associated with low-income households (e.g. high air infiltration rates) are particularly vulnerable to rising summer energy costs under climate change. Absent increasing household wages or support, our results suggest climate change will exacerbate annual energy burdens across the southern U.S., and increase summer energy burdens while alleviating winter energy burdens in most U.S. cities.https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/addac7energy burdenclimate changelow-income householdshousehold energy costsheating and cooling demandResStock |
| spellingShingle | Camilo Toruno Andrew Schallwig Ritvik Jain Claire McKenna Parth Vaishnav Seth Guikema Michael T Craig Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens Environmental Research: Energy energy burden climate change low-income households household energy costs heating and cooling demand ResStock |
| title | Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens |
| title_full | Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens |
| title_fullStr | Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens |
| title_short | Climate change will trade-off summer and winter energy burdens |
| title_sort | climate change will trade off summer and winter energy burdens |
| topic | energy burden climate change low-income households household energy costs heating and cooling demand ResStock |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/addac7 |
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