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Upgrading Efficiency and Behavior: Electricity Savings from Residential Weatherization Programs

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Abstract:
Residential weatherization programs have become a major component of U.S. energy policy. Through these programs, households receive heavily subsidized energy efficiency upgrades as well as informational and behavioral treatments designed to encourage conservation. While previous work demonstrates that weatherization programs provide sizable energy savings, all have measured the composite effect of efficiency upgrades and behavioral treatments. In this paper, we present the first estimates which disentangle the energy savings provided by each of the individual interventions. Our results reveal that the actual energy savings achieved by the efficiency upgrades are substantially smaller than ex-ante, engineering predictions. Moreover, we present evidence that the energy savings provided by the simple behavioral interventions can exceed the savings resulting from the much more costly efficiency upgrades. Keywords: Energy efficiency, Weatherization, Electricity demand

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Energy Specializations: Energy Efficiency – Barriers to Adoption; Energy Efficiency – Residential and Commercial Buildings; Energy and the Environment – Policy and Regulation; Electricity – Generation Technologies; Electricity – Markets and Prices ; Natural Gas – Policy and Regulation

JEL Codes: Q41: Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices, Q40: Energy: General, D12: Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis, D11: Consumer Economics: Theory, Q54: Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming, C51: Model Construction and Estimation

Keywords: Energy efficiency, Weatherization, Electricity demand

DOI: 10.5547/01956574.37.4.jziv

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Published in Volume 37, Number 4 of the bi-monthly journal of the IAEE's Energy Economics Education Foundation.

 

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