NYSERDA said the availability of these data greatly increases the amount of information publicly available about the residential building stock. The data include more than 300 categories of energy-related information for each of more than 3,000 new and existing single-family and multifamily residential buildings, such as property characteristics, heating and cooling equipment, water heating equipment, lighting, clothes washing and drying equipment, and energy behaviors of respondents. The data on each building include zip codes, enabling users to examine specific geographic regions of the state.

This data will help municipalities, builders, architects, HVAC contractors, distributors, manufacturers, and others identify opportunities for energy efficiency projects, further driving clean energy business development in the state. Utilities will also benefit from this baseline information to customize programs and estimate energy savings impacts going forward.

Key findings from the Residential Statewide Baseline Study include:

• Almost one-quarter of single-family homes are 75 years old or older, representing opportunities for weatherization (air sealing and insulation) to reduce energy waste. Further, about 42 percent of all homes have no foundation insulation and almost 7 percent have no wall insulation.

• About 20 percent of natural gas heating systems and 29 percent of fuel oil heating systems are more than 20 years old, representing opportunities for more efficient heating systems that reduce energy use.

• More than 80 percent of the central air conditioning systems statewide were not high efficiency.

• There is opportunity for service providers to promote annual tune-ups as a way to provide additional energy savings to their customer base. About 58 percent of homes with furnaces and boilers indicated their heating equipment had been serviced in 2013 and 2014. Only about 40 percent of homes with central air conditioners indicated that their a/c equipment had been serviced in 2013 or 2014.

• About one-quarter of the natural gas central heating systems in multifamily buildings are more than 20 years old and could be replaced with newer more efficient systems.

“Public accessibility to the Residential Statewide Baseline Study data will be valuable for contractors, builders, or anyone working in the construction trades to better understand the current residential landscape and help identify potential energy efficiency opportunities,” said John B. Rhodes, president and CEO, NYSERDA. “By making available these residential energy data on open.ny.gov, we are providing an information resource that has never been available before.”

The complete Residential Statewide Baseline Study Report can be found at nyserda.ny.gov/Residential-Statewide-Baseline-Study.

Publication date: 9/28/2015 

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