### APPENDIX 7-A. RECS 2005 VARIABLES AND VALUES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

7-A.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 7-A-1 7-A.2 SAMPLE DETERMINATION.............................................................................. 7-A-1 7-A.2.1 Room Air Conditioners........................................................................ 7-A-1 7-A.2.2 Clothes Dryers ..................................................................................... 7-A-3 7-A.3 RECS 2005 DATABASE VARIABLE RESPONSE CODES.............................. 7-A-5

LIST OF TABLES

Table 7-A.2.1 Energy Star Sizing Guidelines for Room Air Conditioners.......................7-A-2 Table 7-A.2.2 Selection of RECS 2005 Records for Room Air Conditioners..................7-A-2 Table 7-A.2.3 RECS 2005 Variables Used for Room Air Conditioners...........................7-A-3 Table 7-A.2.4 Selection of RECS 2005 Records for Clothes Dryers ...............................7-A-4 Table 7-A.2.5 RECS 2005 Variables Used for Clothes Dryers ........................................7-A-5 Table 7-A.3.1 RECS 2005 Variable Response Codes ......................................................7-A-5

7-A-i

### APPENDIX 7-A. RECS 2005 VARIABLES AND VALUES

7-A.1 INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created a database containing a subset of the records and variables from DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA)’s RECS 2005. 1 

### DOE used this RECS subset in the life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis of the Room Air Conditioners and Clothes Dryers Rulemaking. This appendix explains the variable name abbreviations and provides definitions of the variable values. For the entire RECS 2005 dataset, refer to http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recspubuse05/pubuse05.html

.

7-A.2 SAMPLE DETERMINATION

7-A.2.1 Room Air Conditioners

RECS 2005 shows that there are 28.8 million households with 51.3 million room air conditioners in the United States. The subset of RECS 2005 records used for room air conditioners in this analysis met all of the following criteria:

1) Used a room air conditioner as the primary air conditioning equipment a



### , 2) Less than, or equal to, three room air conditioning units b



### , 3) The room air conditioner was used.

To divide the subset of RECS records into the appropriate product classes, DOE used Energy Star sizing guidelines for room air conditioners 2 

### as shown in Table 7-A.2.1 and the cooling square footage area from RECS 2005 for each household. For households with multiple air conditioners, DOE divided the square footage by the number of room air conditioners to derive the average cooling square footage area per room air conditioner. DOE made adjustments to the guidelines for records where more than two people lived in the household. For each of these households this resulted in adding 600 Btu/h to the capacity needed for each additional person. The RECS 2005 variables used to match the selection criteria are listed in Table 7-A.2.2. DOE used the same RECS 2005 subset to characterize 8,000–13,999 Btu/h product classes with louvers and without louvers.

a This excludes 1.5 million households which have both a central air conditioner unit and one or more room air conditioners.

b This excludes 1.8 million households which have more than 3 room air conditioner units. 7-A-1

### Table 7-A.2.1 Energy Star Sizing Guidelines for Room Air Conditioners

Area to be cooled Capacity Needed (BTUs per hour) Room Air Conditioner product class Assignment

100–150 5,000 <6,000 Btu/h with louvers 150–250 6,000

250–350 7,000

8,000

– 13,999 Btu/h with louvers and without louvers 300–350 8,000

350–400 9,000

400–450 10,000

450–550 12,000

550–700 14,000

700–1,000 18,000

≥ 20,000 Btu/h with louvers 1,000–1,200 21,000

1,200–1,400 23,000

1,400–1,500 24,000

1,500–2,0000 30,000

2,000–2,500 34,000



### Table 7-A.2.2 Selection of RECS 2005 Records for Room Air Conditioners

Product Class Selection Criterion # of Records # of US Households Represented

(million) # of Room AC Units Represented

(million)

<6,000 Btu/h with louvers COOLTYPE = 2
USEWWAC ≠ 0
NUMBERAC ≤ 3 TOTCSQFT/NUMBERAC < 250 374 13.3 23.7

8,000–13,999 Btu/h with and without louvers COOLTYPE = 2
USEWWAC ≠ 0
NUMBERAC ≤ 3 TOTCSQFT/NUMBERAC = 250-650 635 24.6 49.8

≥ 20,000 Btu/h

with louvers COOLTYPE = 2
USEWWAC ≠ 0
NUMBERAC ≤ 3 TOTCSQFT/NUMBERAC ≥ 650 or Room Air Conditioner Energy Use per unit >= 10 MMBtu/yr 108 3.7 6.7

7-A-2

### Table 7-A.2.3 RECS 2005 Variables Used for Room Air Conditioners

Variable Description

Location Variables

DIVISION Census division

DIVISION + LRG STATE* Combined large state (LRGSTATE) and census division (DIVISION)

CD65 Cooling degree-days to base 65, 1-04 TO 12-04

Household Characteristics Variables

DOEID DOE 4-digit identification number

NWEIGHT Final weight

TYPEHUQ Type of housing unit

COOLTYPE Type of air conditioning equipment

ACHOUSE Central AC cooling usage

ACROOMS Number of rooms cooled by central AC during the summer

NUMBERAC Number of window or wall air conditioning units

WWACAGE Approximate age of window or wall air conditioning unit

USEWWAC Usage description for most-used window or wall air conditioner

TOTCSQFT Household square footage

BTUELCOL Electricity used for household cooling

LocationID* Not part of RECS, added to link to weather data (See App. 7-E)

* Not part of RECS 2005 variables.



### 7-A.2.2 Clothes Dryers

The subset of RECS households used for clothes dryers met all of the following criteria:

1)	 Household has and uses a clothes washer c



### , 2)	 Used a clothes dryer, 3)	 Clothes dryer used natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or electricity, 4)	 For electric ventless dryers, the housing unit was an apartment building, manufactured home, or a single-family home with less than 1000 square footage and no basement or

garage.

c This criteria is needed in order to determine the clothes washer cycles of the household, which are then used to determine clothes dryer cycles. There are 0.3 million households that have a clothes dryer and no clothes washer. 7-A-3

### The RECS 2005 variables used to match the selection criteria are listed in Table 7-A.2.4.

Table 7-A.2.4 Selection of RECS 2005 Records for Clothes Dryers

Product Class 

### Selection Criterion # of Records # of US Households Represented (million)

Electric WASLOAD ≠ 9 DRYRFUEL = 5 2655 67.0

Gas WASHLOAD ≠ 9 DRYRFUEL = 1 OR 2 756 20.3

Electric Ventless WASHLOAD ≠ 9 DRYRFUEL = 5 

### Type of Housing = Manufactured Home; Multifamily; or single family (<1000 sq. ft. and no garage or basement) 570 14.3

7-A-4

### Table 7-A.2.5 RECS 2005 Variables Used for Clothes Dryers

Variable Description

Location Variables

REGIONC Census region

DIVISION Census division

DIVISION + LRG STATE* Combined large state (LRGSTATE) and census division (DIVISION)

Household Characteristics Variables

DOEID DOE 4-digit identification number

NWEIGHT Final weight

YEARMADE Year residence built

WASHLOAD Average number of wash loads per week in household clothes washer

DRYRUSE Clothes dryer usage frequency

BTUELCDR Electricity used for drying clothes

DRYRFUEL Clothes dryer fuel

BTUNGAPL Natural gas appliance use

BTULPAPL LPG appliance use

TYPEHUQ Type of housing unit

TOTSQFT Household square footage

CELLAR Household has a basement

PRKGPLC1 Household has attached garage

* Not part of RECS 2005 variables.



### 7-A.3 RECS 2005 DATABASE VARIABLE RESPONSE CODES

Table 7-A.3.1 provides the response codes for all RECS 2005 variables used in the Room Air Conditioner and Clothes Dryer samples.

Table 7-A.3.1 RECS 2005 Variable Response Codes

Variable Definition Common Variables (Alphabetical) CD65 Cooling degree-days to base 65, 1-04 TO 12-04

7-A-5DIVISION Census division 1 = New England 2 = Middle Atlantic 3 = East North Central 4 = West North Central 5 = South Atlantic 6 = East South Central 7 = West South Central 8 = Mountain 9 = Pacific DIVISION + LRG STATE* Combined large state (LRGSTATE) and census division (DIVISION) 1 = New England 2 = Middle Atlantic (not including New York) 3 = East North Central 4 = West North Central 5 = South Atlantic (not including Florida) 6 = East South Central 7 = West South Central (not including Texas) 8 = Mountain 9 = Pacific (not including California) 10 = New York 11 = California 13 = Texas 14 = Florida DOEID DOE 4-digit identification number
LRGSTATE Large state designation 0 = Other 1 = New York 2 = California 3 = Texas 4 = Florida
NWEIGHT Final weight REGIONC Census region 1 = Northeast 2 = Midwest 3 = South 4 = West TOTSQFT Household square footage TYPEHUQ Type of housing unit 1 = Mobile Home 2 = Single-family detached 3 = Single-family attached 4 = Apartment building with 2-4 units 5 = Apartment building with 5 or more units

7-A-6YEARMADE Year home built 1 = Before 1940 2 = 1940-49 3 = 1950-59 4 = 1960-69 5 = 1970-79 6 = 1980-84 7 = 1985-89 8 = 1990-94 9 = 1995-99 10 = 2000-2002 11 = 2003 12 = 2004 13 = 2005 Sample Variables (Alphabetical) ACHOUSE Central AC cooling usage 1 = All of the rooms 2 = Only some of the rooms 0 = None of the rooms cooled ACROOMS Number of rooms cooled by central AC during the summer
BTUELCDR Electricity clothes dryer use estimated (thousands of BTU) 9999999=Not Applicable BTUELCOL Electricity cooling use estimated (thousands of BTU) 9999999=Not Applicable
BTULPAPL LPG appliance use estimated (thousands of BTU) 9999999=Not Applicable BTUNGAPL Natural gas appliance use estimated (thousands of BTU) 9999999=Not Applicable CELLAR Household has a basement 1 = Yes 0 = No 9 = Skip COOLTYPE Type of air conditioning equipment 1 = Central system 2 = Individual units in the windows or wall 3 = Both central and individual units
DRYRFUEL Clothes dryer fuel 1 = Natural gas from underground pipes 2 = Bottled Gas (LPG or Propane) 5 = Electricity 99 = No Answer/Not Applicable DRYRUSE Clothes dryer usage frequency 1 = Use it every time you wash clothes 2 = Use it for some, but not all, loads of wash 3 = Use it infrequently LocationID* Not part of RECS, added to link to weather data (See App. 7-E)
NUMBERAC Number of window or wall air conditioning units

7-A-7PRKCPLC1 Household has attached garage 0 = No 1 = Yes USEWWAC Usage description for most-used window or wall air conditioner 0 = Not used at all 1 = Turned on only a few days or nights when really needed 2 = Turned on quite a bit 3 = Turned on just about all summer
WASHLOAD Average number of wash loads per week in household clothes washer 1 = 1 load or less each week 2 = 2 to 4 loads 3 = 5 to 9 loads 4 = 10 to 15 loads 5 = More than 15 loads
WWACAGE Approximate age of window or wall air conditioning unit 1 = Less than 2 years old 2 = 2 to 4 years old 3 = 5 to 9 years old 4 = 10 to 19 years old 5 = 20 years or older 6 = As old as the home (if volunteered)
* Not part of RECS 2005 variables.

7-A-8

### REFERENCES

1. U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey: 2005 Public Use Data Files, 2005.

< http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recspubuse05/pubuse05.html >

2. Energy Star, Properly Sized Room Air Conditioners

. < http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=roomac.pr_properly_sized >

7-A-9