IMPACT OF CLIMATE ON SUMMER RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN HONG KONG

The influence of climatic variables and cooling degree days (CDD) on summer residential electricity consumption for the period 1980 through 1994 in Hong Kong was investigated. The association between Clo, a measure of amount of Clothing insulation to maintain comfort, and residential electricity consumption was also examined. Utilizing monthly data and multiple regression analyses, it is discovered vapor pressure was not significantly related to electricity consumption while Cloud cover was negatively associated with electricity use. Climatic variables, CDD and Clo provided highly comparable results in modeling summer residential electricity consumption. Mean temperature and Cloud gave the best result. Clo yielded a slightly higher R2 value (0.867) than that of CDD (0.865) in the models. These results indicated that Clo could replace the weather variables and CDD to model electricity consumption.