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Texas Uses More Energy Than Any Other State
- wahern 9y agoCalifornia, whose population is 12 million higher than ours, uses only 60 percent of the energy we do This is sometimes called the Rosenfeld Effect for the long-time member of the California Energy Commission who pioneered energy efficiency standards, Dr. Arthur Rosenfeld. Here's a great interview with Rosenfeld upon his retirement from the commission, "Art Rosenfeld, the 'godfather' of energy efficiency", http://www.mercurynews.com/2009/12/23/art-rosenfeld-the-godfather-of-energy-efficiency/ There's also a Wikipedia article for Rosenfeld Effect, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenfeld_Effect There are disputes about how effective California's strict energy efficiency standards have been. But the Mercury News article is a great read simply because Rosenfeld seemed to have been a great scientist who left lasting impressions with all the people he worked with, not to mention on our laws and standards. He passed away at the beginning of this year.
- stevenwoo 9y agoThere is something else going on, Texas home energy usage only accounts for about 1/8 of their total so even eliminating home usage (and commercial, too) would still leave a large difference. Maybe the cheaper gas probably insulates drivers from the costs of poor fuel efficiency and this lets people choose long commutes in spite of the driving time, and the laxer industrial standards encourages a concentration of some processes like the chemical plants in East Texas.
- unit91 9y agoPlus we Texans "all" own V-8 pickup trucks.
- msisk6 9y agoNah, only the city folks. Us country bumpkins have straight 6 diesels.
- dublinclontarf 9y agoWhats wrong with a V-6?
- ouid 9y agopoor city planning and urban sprawl contribute far more to fuel consumption than low gas prices. See Los Angeles.
- singlow 9y agoBut low gas prices are a cause of sprawl. If gas was more expensive it would change the economics of commuting.
- dublinclontarf 9y agoNo it wouldn't. Gas is about 2x as expensive in the UK. I work in London but commute (by motorcycle) from the next county. Plenty of people commute by car even though it's considerably more expensive.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- tomjakubowski 9y ago> See Los Angeles. See what? Los Angeles -- whether you slice by city, county, metropolitan statistical area, or combined statistical area -- ranks nowhere near the top of per capita household vehicle miles in the United States. In fact, the Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area has the second-lowest household fuel consumption in the country, just behind New York-Newark (at least according to a poorly-sourced Forbes article [1]). Unfortunately, publicly available fuel consumption data split by city/county/Census area is much harder to find. But what I have found suggests that Forbes's ranking of Los Angeles relative to other US metro areas is probably accurate. The National Household Travel Survey [2] is likely the best source of raw data for investigating this question. [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/05/10/americas-biggest-and-least-gas-guzzling-cities/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/05/10/am... [2]: https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/subject_areas/national_household_travel_survey/index.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/su...
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- digi_owl 9y agoDunno if it is just Firefox, but at least for me having the urls in block quotes makes them unclickable.
- the8472 9y agodouble or tripleclick, rightclick, open works in firefox
- nfriedly 9y agoClickable links: http://www.mercurynews.com/2009/12/23/art-rosenfeld-the-godfather-of-energy-efficiency/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2009/12/23/art-rosenfeld-the-godf... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenfeld_Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenfeld_Effect
- keebEz 9y agoThe main divergence between California and the rest of the US is around the time of Rosenfeld's work... but also the same time as mass adoption of AC. Since half of California has a cooler coastal climate (such as the Bay Area) AC is not nearly as prevalent as almost any other state that experiences a typical hot summer. Estimates of the impact of this climate seem to claim the majority of the 'energy efficiency' gains claimed by Rosenfeld. He still did great work, just lets ensure we have the right features in our mental models.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- roenxi 9y agoI always wonder how these sort of things square away with Jeveron's Paradox [1]. To me, a stable energy/capita isn't prima-facie evidence that they are more efficient! It suggests prices are higher than they should be. I dunno, maybe I've misunderstood what energy efficiency is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox EDIT: http://www.electricitylocal.com/states/california/ http://www.electricitylocal.com/states/california/ & using electricity price as an energy price proxy - average residential use is ~30% reduced vs national average, and rate is ~30% higher. I'd believe the "Rosenfeld Effect" is the key to per-capita use if it is the factor keeping these costs relatively high.
- wutbrodo 9y ago> To me, a stable energy/capita isn't prima-facie evidence that they are more efficient! It suggests prices are higher than they should be. TL;DR: If I'm understanding you correctly, you're holding up Jevon's paradox as something that we should _aim_ for? Why? It's not clear to me how you came to this conclusion. Jevon's paradox isn't prescriptive: how do you conclude what energy usage growth (and thus prices) _should_ be? If anything, most policy experts are defining the goal as decreasing the rate of growth of energy growth (ceterus paribus), which means that stable energy/capita is a good thing, not that usage growth is lower than it should be.
- gkanapathy 9y agoI would think climate would make some difference compared to California. I wonder how much though.
- joshuaheard 9y agoTexas is HOT, and humid in parts, with barely a breeze. California in the Northern parts is not that hot, and all of coastal California has a nice ocean breeze keeping things cool.
- tyingq 9y agoI think you're right. Average annual high temp in Dallas is 77 degrees F. It's 64 for San Francisco. Obviously would need more analysis, but there's certainly much difference between the two northernmost significant cities. Though the article cites mostly industrial use as the difference.
- positr0n 9y agoIs average annual high a useful measure here? When the high is around 77° during those amazing couple of weeks in March and October in I never have to turn on the heat or AC. The AC is running all day in July and August though; especially the 50% of days hotter than the average high of 95°.
- tyingq 9y agoThe 13 degree spread was the interesting part, but only as a quick indicator, not real comparison or analysis.
- invincibles 9y agoI imagine it has something to do with the very large population, relatively cheap electricity, and strong need for air conditioning most of the year.
- gozur88 9y agotl;dr: Texas uses more energy per capita because they've included industrial use and it has a lot of energy intensive industry.
- dhd415 9y agoYep, furthermore, Texas is in the bottom 20% of states in terms of residential energy use per capita (which is pretty remarkable given how ubiquitous and essential AC is there). It's all about industrial use.
- Retric 9y agoLow humidity + minimal need for winter heating makes a huge difference.
- tomsthumb 9y agoLow humidity in Texas? Maybe El Paso, but the rest of the state is pretty humid unless you compare it to Florida or Georgia et al.
- jdmichal 9y agoEl Paso is definitely dry -- no doubt about that. When my nieces visited from El Paso, they complained about how hot it was here in Florida. They didn't believe that it was technically 10°F cooler here until we pulled up the weather page. But yes, I generally think that people forget that most of the Texas population lives within the effects of the Gulf of Mexico. It's fun watching the transition from green to brown when flying.
- vmarsy 9y agoLow humidity compared to where? Average yearly relative humidity[1] : Houston: 75% daily 90% morning 55% afternoon In the summer, the heat is much more unbearable in Texas than let's say Arizona due to the high humidity rates. Every year, 97 days in Houston with Apparent temperature above 95°F due to humidity (vs. only 16 days per year where Actual temperature is above 95°F)[2] [1] https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/humidity-annual.php https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/humidity-annual... [2] https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/hot-humid-days-apparent-temperature.php https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Texas/hot-humid-days-...
- sloreti 9y agoWhat's Louisana and Wyoming's problem?
- njharman 9y agoRespectively, AC and (maybe) low population so static stuff like street lights have higher impact.
- njharman 9y agoRespectively, AC and (maybe) low population so static stuff like street lights have higher impact.
- francisofascii 9y agoWyoming leads the nation in coal production, accounting for two-fifths of all coal mined in the United States. (According to EIA) So you have high industrial consumption and low population.
- pklausler 9y agoIs the coal consumed in WY?
- DiabloD3 9y agoAs a side note, there may actually be more datacenter space in Texas than there is in California. I wish I could find accurate statistics on this to prove it either way, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. Disclaimer: It's rare my day job actually intersects with HN even though I'm in the Internet industry.
- sremani 9y agoTo my knowledge DFW has multiple data centers, Facebook @ Ft.Worth being most famous among them. Not sure, if Toyota already built their Datacenter in Plano.
- brightball 9y agoI've always thought the Rackspace data center there was more well known.
- ericabiz 9y agoRackspace HQ is is in a former shopping mall outside of San Antonio. Definitely a cool place to tour if you ever get the chance. You can still see where the "stores" were (they're now employee workspaces.)
- msisk6 9y agoLess cool place to work. Very, very noisy. Steps were taken to reduce the noise level but it wasn't enough.
- blunte 9y agoRackspace may be "the original" datacenter for Texas. At least, they're the original data center for the internet age.
- DiabloD3 9y agoDigital Realty and Equinix both have multiple huge datacenters, the Informart[1] houses several gigantic datacenters inside of one building (it's mind boggling how utterly big it is), Internap has an absolutely gigantic facility there, Rackspace has I think their biggest facility here, and then there's a smattering of smaller datacenters (in and out of the Infomart) owned by every major player. There's so much space here that most companies have only recently started chasing after highly dense stuff (like 60+ drive arrays in 4U, hyper-dense blades, etc) because there just is no need to. And as a side note, Texas now operates the largest number of wind turbines (by MW) and I think per capita as well. Texas now generates so much power that they regularly sell it to nearby states because the whole "long term storage" problem hasn't been solved at the scale Texas needs it to be... Which means not only is datacenter space plentiful, the power is often less expensive than it is in other markets. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infomart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infomart
- hueving 9y agoKey line: >More than half of the energy consumed in Texas is for industrial use, according to the EIA, while residential use—which in terms of sheer BTUs is the most in the nation, even as our per capita usage is relatively low—accounts for just over 13 percent.
- blunte 9y agoTexas has 29 million people. Texas is big, and is very dependent (unfortunately) on private transportation. Lots of cars, lots of roads, lots of lanes. Texas is freaking hot for 5 months of the year. Texas can get surprisingly damned cold for 4 months of the year in some heavily populated parts (Dallas/Fort Worth for example). Texas uses heating and air conditioning because it can. Texas pumps a lot of oil and gas. Texas has a lot of windy areas, some of which now have large wind farms. Texas could have a lot of solar, but I'm not sure how that's developing. Point is, it's about as reasonable a metric as the frequently (stupidly) promoted articles talking about "the most stolen car". Per capita, and per capita per day per degree of climate outside comfort range, and on top of that, per mile of distance between homes and offices, I imagine Texas is not out of line.
- colbyh 9y agothey even make note of Texas fairing pretty middle of the pack on a per capita basis. if they normalized for some sort of temperature metric I'm sure Texas is very average - weather in the state is brutal at both ends of the year.
- JadeNB 9y ago> weather in the state is brutal at both ends of the year. It should be mentioned, though, that the remedy to the brutal summers can be just as brutal. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who expects summer colds because of constant transitions from the sweltering-hot outdoors to the icy-cold air-conditioned tundras that every business maintains. (Also, I'm sure parts of Texas get severe winters, but I've never seen one in Fort Worth. (Or did you mean something different by 'both ends'?) The main thing that I see here is that houses are built with no effective insulation, so that, during the winter, a perfectly manageable temperature outside can render the inside frigid.) EDIT: I'm sorry for downvote whining, but, just to be clear, this isn't just a "the weather, amirite?" post; while I agree that living in Texas without AC is probably unbearable, I also think that there's no need to crank ACs to the levels at which businesses (and buses!) set them, and I can't imagine that this aggressive cooling doesn't have a significant energy impact.
- clavalle 9y agoHere in Texas we have playgrounds with stretched tarps over them. I wonder how much it would help a home energy use to have similar tarps inches above the roof giving the whole structure shade throughout the day.
- zeveb 9y agoIsn't that basically what an attic is for? It's semi-open to the elements, with lots of ventilation, providing a thermal buffer for the home.
- clavalle 9y agoI don't know about anyone else's attic but ours is a holding tank for incredibly hot air during the summer.
- edwhitesell 9y agoMy wife and I have seriously considered this. It could also be an interesting way to combat hail damage. Unfortunately the HOA would never allow it.
- wavefunction 9y agoEasier to just plant more trees imo. If our governor will allow such a thing to occur...
- conductr 9y agoOr because of time some sort of trellis of fast growing vines. Maybe Mr Burns sun blocker machine
- tacticus 9y agoWhere i grew up i knew someone who built a safari roof over their house. (the name comes from the vented double top that was an option on land rovers) They stuck whirlybird vents at the apex with a controllable iris. Adjustable Louvres with seals were placed around the edges of the second roof. These allowed the venting air to be shut off in winter and opened in summer. giving you great insulation or ventilation. Combined with the many other things they did (vines in front of walls for summer heat blockages, A well populated garden of low water plants, good insulation everywhere, a white painted roof and double glazed windows) meant that for most of the year no active cooling or heating was required. And this was a place that commonly sees winters with lows of -10 and summers with periods of +35 as the nightly low (daily maxes are +40 for 2 to 3 weeks at a time (Air drying clothes in summer generally took less time than hanging them out. :| )) Much nicer than the typical house in central Australia.
- gandarojin 9y agoWow, Texas is using more energy than the state of China?
- johngalt 9y agoThey included industrial energy consumption and Texas is home to more oil refining than any other state.
- tmnvix 9y agoLike others here are saying, a lot of this seems to be commercial rather than residential use so an immediate presumption of profligacy might not be appropriate. Having said that, I remember years ago being shocked when someone told me that some service stations in Texas actually use airconditioning on their forecourts. Can anyone here confirm whether or not this is just an urban legend?
- rjeli 9y agoTexan here, I had to look up "service station" and "forecourt." Been all around the state and never saw A/C at a gas station pump.
- conductr 9y agoAgree. I've never seen this. We pump gas with our cars running... so we can sit in AC until we hear the click. We also love drive thru anything for same reason.
- johngalt 9y agoI am betting somone saw a boxed evap cooler and assumed it was an AC unit when they felt the cool air.
- wsxcde 9y agoI don't buy the climate explanation. Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and much of the north east including New York and New Jersey are all much colder in the winter and have somewhat comparably hot but shorter summers. And yet the per capita numbers for the Texas are much worse than each of these states. The per capita consumption map clearly shows that red states consume more energy than blue and purple states --- for example, there's a stark difference between Illinois and Indiana. This is clearly a policy problem caused by the Republican party's intentional ignorance of climate change.
- sid-kap 9y agoWhich requires more energy—lowering the temperature by one degree using an AC or increasing the temperature by one degree using a heater?
- erikb 9y agoI bet Guangdong uses more energy. Maybe the title should be changed to "any other state in the US"?
- am1988 9y agoThat makes sense. Loads of people, lots of area, gets really hot.