Analyzing energy consumption factors during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak: a case study of residential society

ABSTRACT

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has affected most countries and has impacted every household’s operations. Mandatory stay-at-home lockdowns have forced building residents to use more energy for their daily routine activities, giving rise to higher energy usage. The increased energy use by building residents results in high energy bills and leads to a scarcity in the energy supply. Identifying factors that can control the high energy consumption in buildings can be used to optimize energy consumption and act as energy conservation factors. This proposed research is conducted to identify and explore the most influential energy consumption factors amid COVID-19 pandemic in residential buildings using a case study in India. To analyze the energy consumption factors, a Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodology based Best Worst Method (BWM) and a Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methodology have been integrated. The results show that among 34 comprehensive energy consumption factors, the high priority topmost 50% of the factors were analyzed. The main research outcome indicates that 53% of the factors were in the cause group and the remaining 47% were in the effect group factors. Research results conclude that in response to COVID-19, social distancing, home quarantine, and home transformation were the primary factors for energy consumption in homes. Among the sub-factors, the lockdown of streets, shutdown of public markets, and psychological factors were the top three factors adding to increased energy consumption. Further, Industrial and economic importance of the research is also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• pandemic
• lockdown
• energy consumption
• residential homes
• best worst method

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Syed Shuibul Qarnain

Syed Shuibul Qarnain holds Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from VTU and M.Tech in HVAC from JNTUH. He possesses more than 15 years of experience in Industry, academics and research. A Chartered Engineer from Engineering Council UK and Member of CIBSE, London. He is also a LEED accredited Professional from United states Green Building Council (USGBC) in two disciplines, Building Design and Construction (BD+C) and Operations and Maintenance (O+M), He is Qualified Energy Auditor and has been part of many successful Energy Audits and Green building projects. His Current research interests are in the field of Energy conservation and energy efficiency in buildings. He is a research scholar in KARE.

Muthuvel Sattanathan

Muthuvel Sattanathan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil, Tamilnadu, India. His current area of research includes phase change materials and energy conservation. He has published more than 17 papers in journal of national/international repute and presented a number of papers in various conferences/symposia in India and abroad. He is presently guiding several master/doctoral research scholars.

Bathrinath Sankaranarayanan

Bathrinath Sankaranarayanan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil, Tamilnadu, India. His current area of research includes Industry 4.0, Supply Chain Management, Circular Economy, Risk Assessment, Multi-criteria decision making, scheduling, optimization of process parameters, soft computing and Artificial intelligence. He has obtained his Post-Doctoral fellowship in University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. He has also obtained his Young Scientist Fellowship from Tamilnadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST). He has published more than 30 papers in journal of national/international repute and presented a number of papers in various conferences/symposia in India and abroad. He is presently guiding several master/doctoral research scholars. Dr. S. Bathrinath can be contacted at: [email protected]

Syed Mithun Ali

Syed Mithun Ali is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial and Production Engineering in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He obtained his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in IPE from BUET in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Awarded the MEXT Scholarship from the Government of Japan, he obtained a PhD majoring  in supply chain management from the Nagoya. Institute of Technology in 2016. He has published more than 75 papers in various Journals. His research appears in Journal of Cleaner Production, Computer and Industrial Engineering, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Measurement, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, and so on. His research interests include logistics and supply chain management, supply chain risk and resilience management and trying that to supply chain sustainability and circular economy.