2019 California Residential Appliance Saturation Study (RASS)

From 2018 to 2020, the California Energy Commission funded and administered a Residential Appliance Saturation Study that updates the 2009 Residential Appliance Saturation Study, with the following utilities participating: Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Gas Company, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. DNV GL Energy Insights (formerly KEMA, Inc.) was the prime consultant for this study as well as the 2009 and 2003 studies.

The research team implemented the study as online and mailed paper surveys. The surveys requested households to provide information on appliances, equipment, and general consumption patterns, including electric vehicle charging and the presence of renewable energy technology such as a solar photovoltaic system. The research team completed data collection in early 2020, just before the full impact of COVID-19 events.

The study yielded energy consumption estimates for 28 electric and 9 natural gas residential end uses and appliance saturations for households. The project team developed these consumption estimates using a conditional demand analysis, an approach that applied statistical methods to combine survey data, household energy consumption data, and weather information to calculate average annual consumption estimates per appliance. The 2019 Residential Appliance Saturation Study resulted in end-use saturations for 39,682 individually metered and 303 master-metered households. The team weighted survey and conditional demand analysis results to provide population-level estimates, representative of the participating utilities that allow comparison across utility service territories, forecasting climate zones, and other variables of interest including dwelling type, dwelling age group, and income.