The first of three versions of this document was published in May 2018. The second version of the document was published in July 2018 and included additional reference notes for the end-use modeling process. The third version was published in December 2018 and included an additional section on estimating wood consumption.
Introduction
The Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) is a periodic study conducted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) that provides detailed information about energy usage in U.S. homes. RECS is conducted in two phases: phase one is a multi-stage sampled Household Survey that collects energy-related characteristics and usage patterns from a nationally representative sample of housing units. Phase two is the Energy Supplier Survey (ESS), which collects billing data for responding households from their utility suppliers to allow EIA to estimate energy consumption and expenditures. Taken together, the housing characteristics data and the billing data are the basis for individual energy end-use consumption and expenditures estimates.
This document provides the methodological descriptions for:
- Energy Supplier Survey (ESS): provides details on billing data collection, supplier response rates, and billing data editing and quality
- Consumption and Expenditures Annualization and Imputation: provides details on the consumption and expenditures estimation for calendar year 2015 using the ESS billing and delivery data
- End-use Estimation Modeling and Calibration: provides details on the consumption estimation of household end uses and method changes from previous years
The methodology for the RECS Household Survey and household energy-related characteristics, including sampling and weighting, is provided in a separate document called Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2015 Household Characteristics Technical Documentation Summary.
Specific questions on this product may be directed to Chip Berry.