Journal of Energy & Technology (JET)

Impact of COVID-19 on the Utility Usage in Residential Buildings Throughout the Midwest

Eva McLaughlin — 2022-04-18

The global pandemic impacted all areas of life throughout the world. Everyone, except essential workers, were restricted to their homes for months. Stay at home orders were put into effect, which enforced closures or limitations to all public spaces such as restaurants, libraries, stores, and schools. With these restrictions put in place, the amount of time individuals stayed at home significantly increased. The more time people spent in their homes it is expected that there would be a direct correlation to the utility usage increasing as well. This paper explores the relationship between the utility usage in residential homes and the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of twenty-four students attending the University of Dayton were asked to collect the natural gas, electricity, and water usage from their residential buildings and document them from March of 2019 to March of 2021. These students were living all across the United States, but of the twenty-four households, eighteen were in the Midwest. The Midwest was then focused on since the weather is about the same throughout the region and there were a higher number of test subjects, so the usage was more accurate. This data was then used to determine a correlation, if any, between the restrictions put in place to control the spread of COVID-19 and the natural gas, electricity, and water usage in residential buildings throughout the United States. Through this data, some correlations were found between the pandemic and utilities in these residential buildings. The largest direct correlation found was with electricity usage, while minimal were found with natural gas, and no direct correlations were found between the pandemic and water usage.

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

Salahaldin Alshatshati — 2022-04-18

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.

The Effect of COVID-19 on Household Utilities Consumption

Jonathan Birdsong — 2022-04-18

The purpose of this project is to determine the difference between the utilities consumption in various homes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggest causes for such differences, and present these data and findings to potentially predict utilities consumption after the pandemic. Data collection of electricity, gas, and water consumption for about 30 different college students’ homes was utilized to compare pre-pandemic and in-pandemic utilities consumption and to observe any changes. Understanding how the utilities consumption between the two time periods differs will illustrate different reasons as to how energy usage compares year over year and how subsequent knowledge can mediate the potential effects of increased consumption and cost of utilities. Lessening the utility loads for many homeowners is a crucial step closer to becoming net zero as a community, state, and country; the possibilities of renewable energy are endless, but informing the general public and adopting improved energy solutions will further prepare homeowners in unexpected events like COVID-19. In short, this study aims to distinguish major causes of higher utility consumption before and during the pandemic and convey these findings in ways that can reduce the consumption and cost of utilities in the near future.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on American Utilities Usage

Paul Mossing — 2022-04-18

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ways many Americans live their daily lives, including the amount of time spent at home. This study seeks to address how much the assumed extra time spent at home has affected energy, gas, and water consumption. Preliminary research suggests that due to increased time indoors, utilities consumption increased between 2019 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic (henceforth simply “pandemic”) began. This study intends to look at a relatively new phenomena and show how the recent pandemic has changed the lives of average Americans. Because the pandemic is ongoing, this research could provide the baseline for future examinations of the effects of the pandemic in years to come. For this study, the University of Dayton MEE 420/RCL 569 class of Spring 2021 provided their last three years of utilities usage and graphed their 2019, 2020, and 2021 data against each other. From there, the data was analyzed in MATLAB using the energy consumption data as well as weather to determine if a significant change in usage occurred between 2019 and 2021 that was not caused by unusual temperatures. From MATLAB, the mean difference values and p-values for each energy source consumption was recorded along with the plots of pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 utility consumption. With the mean difference values being mostly positive, they suggest that the energy usage during the pandemic was greater than before the pandemic. Although this is true, the p-values indicate there is not enough evidence to suggest that the energy usage was greater during the pandemic than before it. This implicates that our study does not have enough information to definitively conclude that energy consumption increased during the pandemic.