Buildings account for about 40% of the global energy consumption and this energy demand is projected to continue growing over the next few decades. Residential buildings are responsible for over 60% of this consumption pattern with commercial buildings being responsible for the remainder. While residential building energy consumption constitutes about 20% of the total consumption in the developed world, it constitutes up to more than 50% in the sub-Sahara African region. The growing consumption of energy has raised concerns over the impacts on the environment, supply difficulties, and depletion of resources. In efforts toward addressing these concerns, the need for effective management of energy resources and adequate planning for energy infrastructure cannot be overemphasized within the building industry in general and the residential building sector in particular. Toward this end, it is necessary to ensure that high quality and high-resolution information on the consumption of energy in buildings is made available. Unfortunately, in many countries within the sub-Sahara African region, building energy consumption information is hardly ever readily available. This study seeks to make a contribution toward this facet of the literature at the greater regional level in general and particularly, in Malawi, a country located in the southern part of Africa. With a grounding in the context of urban residential buildings, the study identifies the key energy end-uses, investigates the proportional mixes of the end-uses and the energy sources and, finally, establishes the periodical per capita energy consumption amounts for the end-uses and the typical residential building unit.
BackgroundBuildings account for about 40% of the global energy consumption, a thing that accords them prominence in the energy market [1]. The demand for energy in buildings is projected to continue growing over the next few decades [2,3]. The International Energy Agency (IEA) [4] suggests that by 2050, the energy consumption in buildings will have exceeded 4400 Mtoe, up from 2759 Mtoe recorded in 2007, a 37% increase. Previously, this demand has grown by about 2% annually [5]. According to the IEA [6], residential buildings are responsible for over 60% of this building consumption pattern with commercial buildings on the other hand responsible for the remainder. While residential building energy consumption constitutes about 20% of the total consumption in the developed world, it constitutes up to more than 50% in sub Saharan Africa [7].The growing consumption of energy has raised concerns over the impacts on the environment, supply difficulties and depletion of energy resources [8].The energy-related impacts on the environment come through the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), the most important of which is carbon dioxide, CO 2 [9]. This is particularly the case when power production involves the burning of fossil fuels and biomass sources of energy. It is reported that
