Energy report examines air conditioning use
An EIA Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) found air-conditioning equipment is used in 87 percent of American homes, representing 12 percent of total home energy expenditures.
The report noted air-conditioning costs ranged from an average of $525 in the hot-humid region in the Southeast to about $60 in the temperate marine region along the West Coast while the more moderate mixed-humid region, where home air-conditioning costs averaged $262, was closest to the national average.
The survey revealed about 60 percent of households only used central air-conditioning systems in 2015 while 23 percent only used individual air-conditioning units and just slightly less than 5 percent of households used both equipment types.
The average household spent $1,856 on home energy bills in 2015, according to the survey. Although air conditioning accounted for 12 percent of total household energy costs at the national level, some regions use much more air conditioning.
Within hot-humid regions, where air conditioning was used by 94 percent of households, air conditioning made up 27 percent of home energy expenditures.
Conversely, officials said that in the marine region, where nearly half of households did not use air conditioning at all, air conditioning made up just 2 percent of home energy expenditures.
The 1980 and 1993 RECS initiatives showed half of the homes built in the 1970s had central air-conditioning equipment, but by 2015 that share had increased to 67 percent.
