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Urban or rural: Which is more energy-efficient?

Most Americans live in urban areas, forming huge hot spots of energy consumption. But while rural residents use less energy overall, cities are often slicker about it.
By Russell McLendon
Tue, Sep 01 2009 at 8:30 AM EST
Read more: CITY & URBAN, ENERGY EFFICIENCY

 

More than half the U.S. population is packed into three dozen well-lit metro areas, each one home to at least a million power-hungry people. Surely Americans could save money and energy by living somewhere simpler. Right?
 
You'd think so, especially looking at nighttime satellite photos that show dark landscapes illuminated by glowing urban dots. On the surface, these seem like clear evidence of city dwellers' oversized energy footprints.
 
And when comparing big cities and small towns directly, a Philadelphia, Pa., obviously dwarfs the power consumption of a Philadelphia, Tenn. Urban and rural populations use energy differently, though, which complicates such broad comparisons.
 
"There are a lot of things that go into it," says Stephanie Battles, director of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Energy Consumption Division. "We know that urban areas are heat islands, for example. The temperature in the summertime is always higher [in cities], so they use more air conditioning. But in the wintertime, urban areas are also warmer, so they use less heat than rural areas."
 
The heat-island effect — created when concrete and asphalt replace soil and plants on a large scale — can therefore make cities more expensive in summer and cheaper in winter. Since it takes more energy to heat most homes than to cool them, this tends to benefit chilly Northern cities more than balmy Southern ones.
 
But aside from broader climate patterns, population sizes and pavement coverage, how do the owners of farmhouses and penthouses stack up head-to-head? Is it dense to live densely, or are rural residents being left out in the cold? The simplest way to answer such questions is by looking at per capita consumption, which zooms in to see how an average citizen uses energy.
 
Transportation
Despite hosting regular traffic jams, cities win the head-to-head efficiency matchup in transportation thanks to their mass transit systems and denser layouts, which promote walking and bicycling. Small-town and suburban residents usually have to drive themselves to get around, which isn't cheap.
 
According to EIA data, urban U.S. households own an average of 1.8 vehicles each, compared with 2.2 for each rural household. Urban families also drive about 7,000 fewer miles annually than their rural counterparts, saving more than 400 gallons of gasoline and roughly $1,300-$1,400 at current gas prices. 
 
Housing 
On the EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Surveys, respondents identify whether they live in a city, town, suburb or rural area. It's self-reported and unscientific data, but it does offer an idea of how the four demographics consume energy. Urban households are the largest group, with 47.1 million represented, and they use the most total energy, about 4 quadrillion Btu per year.
 
But a different picture emerges when you look at per capita consumption rates — cities have the lowest annual energy use per household (85.3 million Btu) and household member (33.7 million Btu) of all four categories. Rural areas consume about 95 million Btu per household each year, followed by towns (102 million) and suburbs (109 million).
 
Similarly, urban families as a whole spend at least $30 billion more for energy each year than their country cousins, but each individual urban family actually spends about $200-$400 less. That suggests that urban homes are more numerous but also more efficient.
 
Why the difference? Aside from environmental factors, it's a combination of infrastructure and behavior, Battles says. The compact construction of urban condo towers and apartment buildings helps insulate their indoor climates, while large homes common in less dense areas need more energy for heating and cooling, and have a harder time keeping air from leaking outside. Look at the infrared image at right, for example. The red, orange and yellow colors show where heat is escaping from the house during winter.
 
"Of course, in urban and rural areas the housing structure itself is different — you have more density and then you have larger, free-standing homes," Battles says. "It's also behavioral. For example, people in New York City are gone a lot, but people in rural areas, a lot of times they're home more often. It's different lifestyles, and different-sized families."
 
Conserving energy
Living in a suburb or small town doesn't doom a household to wastefulness, however. The U.S. Department of Energy and the EPA have a wealth of information online about improving a home's energy efficiency.
 
Sealing and insulating windows, doors and cracks is a big step, since space heating and cooling make up the biggest slices of the pie chart above. Checking air filters, unblocking A/C vents, replacing incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, upgrading to EnergyStar appliances, and turning everything off when it's not in use are also effective ways to reduce a household's energy consumption.
 
For more tips on becoming an urbane energy consumer, even if not an urban one, check out the DOE's Energy Savers site.
 
Images: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Transportation
MNN homepage photo: diane555/iStockphoto


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Comments(22)

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Posted By Aaron - Fri, Oct 30 2009 at 4:42 PM EST

City vs. Country

Having lived in both the city and the country and having driven long haul in a truck, I can tell you two things:

Energy-schmenergy, you can measure consumption guesses with statistics all you want, but it means nothing. What matters to make humanity more stable is to change our lifestyles. Period.

If you like living in the city, then good. We don't want you in the country. If you like living in the country, then great, stay out of their cities. How much energy you consume.... More

Posted By Anonymous - Fri, Sep 18 2009 at 4:25 AM EST

Sore spot!

Oh man some people are too funny. The article is about admittedly unscientific napkin calculations for energy use on average and people are taking it as the greatest personal insult. Yes, if you grow your own fuel and ride a horse around and "fertilize" your own garden than yeah, you're probably using less electricity than a city person, no one is trying to deny that (or limit the size of house you're allowed to live in). That's not most suburban families though so calm down, we still think.... More

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 10:36 PM EST

What about the streetlights?

when considering the consumption rate, shouldn't you add in all of the infrastructure that also goes with city life? Cabs? Streetlights? Buses? Public buildings? The list could go on ad naseum. I think to be fair you should consider at least some of these things in the calculation. I live in the sticks, grow my own trees for heat fuel, have a well and do some of my own gardening. I am sorry, but there is no way my 'carbon footprint' or what ever you want to call it can be larger than someone.... More

Posted By MotherLodeBeth - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 5:31 PM EST

Can I disagree?

So someone who lives in a rural 500 sq ft home and is off the grid using solar, has a grey water set up, only drives into town once a week, grows most of their own vegan diet food, and doesn't own a tv, cell phone etc is less energy efficient than someone in the city who eats out often, which means more use of natural resources to get the food to the stores or restaurants? Or doesn't use a grey water system which means valuable water is wasted and not reused. And what about all those buses that.... More

Posted By Richard - Mon, Sep 07 2009 at 11:17 AM EST

@ MotherLodeBeth

These are statistics. What has eating out got to do with anything? How many cars does it take to transport the same amount of people as a bus? (hint: about ten) Did you actually read this or did you get offended at "Urban or Rural: Which is More Energy-Efficient?" ?

Posted By Snarkilicious - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 9:04 PM EST

The stupid! It burns!

Wow! What a complete lack of understanding of basic statistics!

I once met a woman who was taller than me. Therefore, all women are taller than men.

Posted By Adam - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 2:32 PM EST

Hallelujah!

It's official, enlightened cityfolk are better in everyway than stupid smalltown people.

Posted By Anonymous - Thu, Sep 10 2009 at 12:41 PM EST

WT...

Are you serious? What an awful statement to make regarding small town people. I bet you shop your farmer's market every week and think highly of yourself to befriend the local farmer. Grow up!

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 2:14 PM EST

calculator oversimplifies

A calculator based solely on square footage isn't very useful. I live in a rural area but spend almost nothing on residential energy because I heat my home with wood from slash piles (which would go up in smoke anyway, but burn cleaner in my stove than when the timber companies put a match to them outdoors) and run my pump with a solar panel. I agree that small homes make a big difference, though, and I think it's high time for building codes that limit square footage to conserve energy.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 2:24 PM EST

Limit square footage?

Am I to understand that you want the government to limit how big your house can be!?!

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 2:18 PM EST

COOL!

Those damn hipsters.

Posted By A guy who lives in the country - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 11:39 AM EST

One study that disagrees

"When it comes to urban planning and population growth, our media and politicians tend to operate with a wide range of assumptions about the consequences of various public policy approaches. Well intended though these presumptions are, they remain only presumptions in many cases. In some cases,
they are factually mistaken.
One such area of presumption involves what some like to pejoratively call ‘urban sprawl’ (though there is virtually no evidence of its existence in Australia –.... More

Posted By Robb - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 11:38 AM EST

Consumption

My guess would be that, as you haven't factored in consumption patterns across ages, among other factors, that rural communities simply consume less across the board. Rural communities tend to have a higher percentage of middle-aged adults than 20-30somethings, and their carbon footprints are much lower as they're less active. Young city-dwellers consume ungodly amounts of goods which haven't been factored in here. And yes, they might drive to the grocery store, but they don't go every other.... More

Posted By Mike W - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 11:30 AM EST

Typical liberal tripe

Yes, it's the dream of liberals around the world to herd us all into urban tenements living like rats in a cage of socialism. Let's "re-wild" the countryside and live the megacities on top of each other.

Yes, what a beautiful dream!

Why don't we just stop creating so many darn people? That is the only true way to "save" the environment. 6 or 7 billion is 3 or 4 billion too many.

Even after we all move into Al Gore inspired 400 square foot apartments in cities, in 50 years we'll be.... More

Posted By J.B. - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 1:11 PM EST

Don't believe everything you hear about "liberals"

Ridiculous. I'm as liberal as it gets, and I'd love to live in a peaceful rural area. In fact, I do. It's great. Futhermore, no, we're not all commies.

The whole point of classical liberalism as defined by JS Mill is that the individual should be able to live freely with as little interference as possible from the state, and should be permitted to do as he pleases as long as it does not cause harm to others. This is the exact opposite of the "rats in a cage" situation you fear..... More

Posted By Sean Roberts - Tue, Sep 01 2009 at 10:21 AM EST

Who's more energy efficient?

It's the city mouse vs. country mouse story with a surprising twist. Maybe we should all move to a condo and live stacked on top of one another ... but that doesn't sound like much fun.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 4:14 AM EST

Stacked like mice? Not so much fun.

You're entirely correct. The transformation of a decent-sized suburb, say, Apex, NC into some beast that had the same population density as, say, Queens, NY, let's take for example. They both provide similar things: Apex feeds into RTP, Raleigh, and the surrounding area for a lot of their jobs; Queens feeds Manhattan.

Apex has a population of 3,1453, and a density of 1,918.2 people per square mile[1]. Queens is 2,293,007 and 20,991 respectively[2]. Let's not go quite as dense with.... More

Posted By Bill Johnson - Tue, Sep 01 2009 at 10:18 AM EST

Sending this to my rural b-in-law....

...who is constantly going on & on about how I live in the polluted city but he's raising his kids in "clean air and lots of green" out in the country (i.e. suburbs with big lots) ....of course, he never talks about his 40 minute commute to work every day (which puts another car on the road) and the fact that that they can't even buy a loaf of bread without getting in a vehicle. I'd pay $100 for a carbon-calculator belt that we could both wear for one day....I guarantee that my city carbon.... More

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Sep 02 2009 at 2:15 AM EST

your carbon-calculator belt

would make you look as gay as you sound

Posted By Grey Garvin - Tue, Sep 01 2009 at 10:15 AM EST

So I have this straight...

....If you want to take good care of the environment, stay away from it and live in cities.

Posted By Elizabeth - Tue, Sep 01 2009 at 10:43 AM EST

Oh please

You can still live a city life and enjoy the environment. Take a train up the Hudson for a day hike & lunch in a small coastal town or rent a Zipcar and drive to the country to pick some apples. (Both things I did while living in NYC... too easy).

Posted By Elizabeth - Tue, Sep 01 2009 at 10:45 AM EST

My comment was a reply @Grey Garvin

But it didn't post that way. Just clarifying! :)

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