Abstract:
The residential sector in the United states accounts for 22 percent of the total energy consumption according to the reports from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (2013). 31 percent of the house holds are reported facing challenges in paying their energy bills for heating or cooling their homes in 2015 according to the Residential energy consumption survey (RECS). To promote green buildings and to reduce the carbon footprints. The US Green building council has developed LEED certification to evaluate energy performance of a building. To achieve this level of energy efficiency software's such as BEopt, Equest are used. These software's help evaluate building design and identify cost optimal efficiency to save energy. This research project compares results of the software and average energy costs per household to determine housing design adjustments to minimize energy usage for different geographic regions in the Northern US. Data are taken from government website such as EIA and census.gov These results can be used to inform housing design and retrofit and remodeling actives.
