Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
orientation, surface area and shading of the main facade, what percentage of it was
made up of glass, the type of glass used and the type of window frames.
The survey was initially conducted on 1,507 households. To minimise the effect
of outliers, actual annual spending on each fuel was compared to an approximate
xed term
plus VAT tax. This enabled those households in which the difference between the 2
measures of spending lay below percentile 10 and above percentile 90 to be
eliminated from the sample. Any household which failed to provide part of the
information required for the study was also eliminated. This resulted in a
gure for annual expenditure calculated on the basis of unit costs and a
nal
sample comprising 820 households.
Table
1
shows the main sources of energy used for heating and domestic hot
water in the sample households. Households are grouped into 3 geographical areas:
the northern area comprises Bilbao and Vitoria, the central area comprises Madrid
and the southern area comprises Malaga and Seville.
The data show that the fuel most widely used for heating in the northern and
central areas is natural gas, followed by electricity. In the northern area the third
most widely used fuel is domestic fuel oil, while in the central area it is LPG (gas
canisters). The area with most heating systems installed is the northern area, where
97.7 % of households have heating.
In the southern area the number one fuel is electricity, which is used by 77.2 %
of households. In fact, no other fuel accounts for more than 3 % of households. It is
noteworthy that 17.6 % of the households in the southern area state that they use no
heating system.
All the households in the survey indicate that they have domestic hot water
systems. Once again, natural gas and electricity are the main fuels used in the
northern and central areas, while in the south the main fuels are LPG, electricity and
natural gas. Other energy sources such as coal and bio-fuels have no signi
cant
presence as residential fuels anywhere in the sample.
Table 1 Residential fuel use by region
Proportion of
homes by fuel
North (215 households)
Centre
(259 households)
South
(346 households)
Domestic
hot water
Heating
Domestic
hot water
Heating
Domestic
hot water
Heating
Natural Gas
60.0
62.3
47.1
52.1
0.9
15.0
Fuel-oil
15.8
13.5
7.3
5.8
0.0
0.0
Electricity
19.1
20.9
27.0
25.9
77.2
24.9
LPG
2.3
3.3
9.3
15.1
2.9
59.2
Other sources
0.5
0.0
1.2
1.2
1.4
0.9
No service
2.3
0.0
8.1
0.0
17.6
0.0
LPG = Lique
ed petroleum gas.
“
Other sources
”
= bio-fuel, biomass/renewables and coal
Source
Own work
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