The Impact of COVID-19 on the Energy Consumption of the Residential Buildings

Abstract

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governments were shutting down cities and setting them under strict lockdowns. These unpredictable lockdowns caused a major shift in the energy consumption demand structure. This paper will shine the light on the electricity, gas, and water consumptions of residential buildings from different locations in the United States, and determine if the consumptions at these residential buildings have or have not seen a clear increase or decrease. Next, the paper will compare percent changes in electricity, gas, and water consumptions with other residential buildings at three different climate zones and find out if the climate zone really has an effect on the intensity of the percent change of the electricity, gas, and water consumptions of a building during COVID-19. The consumption data that are used in this paper were acquired from the monthly bills of a number of students studying at the University of Dayton in the state of Ohio in the United States. These 24 months of data were divided into a Pre COVID-19 and during COVID-19 Year. Then, these were compared using percent change to determine how much more or less energy is used. An average residential building for each climate zone was selected and was compared in a similar fashion. From the analysis we did on the collected data, we observed that the climate zone indeed has an effect on the intensity of energy consumption during COVID-19, even if it is insignificant.