Annualizing Energy Consumption in Residential Households in the 2015 RECS

• Activity Number: 238 - SPEED: Environment and Health, Governmental Policies and Population Surveys, Part 1
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, July 29, 2019 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Jay Olsen*
• Companies: U.S. Department of Energy

Abstract

The Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) is a survey of households, their characteristics, and their energy use conducted periodically by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The 2015 RECS collected energy consumption information in the form of monthly utility bills. This presented a challenge, because gaps in the reported data for the calendar year needed to be imputed. A complicated algorithm was developed, which used reported consumption, engineering estimates of energy use, heating- and cooling-degree days, and estimates of periods of vacancy to fill in the missing utility bills.