Urban Residential Buildings' Energy Consumption Pattern and Efficiency

The increase in buildings' energy usage has raised concerns regarding environmental impact, supply shortages, and resource depletion. To identify and improve the energy efficiency of residential buildings, it is important to determine residential buildings' specifications and the proportions of their energy usage. This work identifies the energy patterns and efficiency of housing in urban Afghanistan. The data were collected through a survey approach in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, and analysed through descriptive statistics, regression, and correlation analysis. The results revealed that reinforced cement concrete (RCC) structures have a high correlation with electricity bills in comparison to masonry and mud structures. These findings provide clear evidence that the majority of current urban housing, which is constructed with RCC, requires more energy for heating and cooling to maintain thermal comfort. The study also identified that, while more than 50% of the people utilise desert coolers for cooling purposes, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was found to be the major fuel used in urban Afghanistan for heating purposes, followed by coal and firewood. Due to extensive load-shedding problems, many households use expensive fuels such as diesels and kerosene to generate electricity. The results of this study have the potential to aid policymakers in the formulation of strategies capable of identifying energy conservation opportunities, promoting energy-efficiency measures in buildings, and evaluating the effectiveness of energy policies in Afghanistan.