[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/esr/wpaper/wp544.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Home Energy Efficiency Upgrades on Social Housing Tenants: Evidence from Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Coyne, Bryan
  • Lyons, Sean
  • McCoy, Daire
Abstract
This research examines the impact of a home energy efficiency upgrade programme on social housing tenants. Employing a quasi-experimental approach we examine a range of self-reported and objectively measured outcomes, including metered gas consumption, for a control and upgrade group, before and after the upgrade. We draw our sample from a large home energy efficiency programme in Ireland, The SEAI Better Energy Communities Scheme, which provides funding for whole communities to upgrade the efficiency of their dwellings. Dwellings are selected for upgrade based on need, allowing us to control for observable dwelling characteristics correlated with selection into the trial. The upgrades undertaken are extensive relative to the average home energy improvement in Ireland, with many dwellings receiving a number of measures, such as cavity wall, external wall and attic insulation; new boilers; replacement doors and windows; CFL lighting and heating controls. Households report improvements across a range of outcomes associated with heating-related deprivation and comfort in the home. Panel regression models examine the elasticity of gas demand with respect to the thermal efficiency of the dwellings. Overall, we find that use of natural gas falls much less than 1:1 for each increment to thermal efficiency of the home. For the average household in this study, about half of a

Suggested Citation

  • Coyne, Bryan & Lyons, Sean & McCoy, Daire, 2016. "The Effects of Home Energy Efficiency Upgrades on Social Housing Tenants: Evidence from Ireland," Papers WP544, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp544
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.esri.ie/pubs/WP544.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hirst, Eric & White, Dennis & Goeltz, Richard, 1985. "Indoor temperature changes in retrofit homes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 10(7), pages 861-870.
    2. Thomas, Brinda A. & Azevedo, Inês L., 2013. "Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for U.S. households with input–output analysis Part 1: Theoretical framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 199-210.
    3. Dorothy Watson & Bertrand Maitre, 2015. "Is Fuel Poverty in Ireland a Distinct Type of Deprivation?," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 46(2), pages 267-291.
    4. Meredith Fowlie & Michael Greenstone & Catherine Wolfram, 2018. "Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1597-1644.
    5. Unknown, 1987. "Organized Symposia," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 19(1), pages 1-3, July.
    6. Brounen, Dirk & Kok, Nils & Quigley, John M., 2012. "Residential energy use and conservation: Economics and demographics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(5), pages 931-945.
    7. Collins, Matthew & Curtis, John, 2016. "An Examination of Energy Efficiency Retrofit Depth in Ireland," Papers WP532, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    8. Michael H. Riordan & David E. M. Sappington, 1987. "Information, Incentives, and Organizational Mode," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 243-263.
    9. Faruqui, Ahmad & Sergici, Sanem & Sharif, Ahmed, 2010. "The impact of informational feedback on energy consumption—A survey of the experimental evidence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1598-1608.
    10. Erdal Aydin & Nils Kok & Dirk Brounen, 2017. "Energy efficiency and household behavior: the rebound effect in the residential sector," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(3), pages 749-782, August.
    11. Sorrell, Steve & Dimitropoulos, John & Sommerville, Matt, 2009. "Empirical estimates of the direct rebound effect: A review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1356-1371, April.
    12. Dowson, Mark & Poole, Adam & Harrison, David & Susman, Gideon, 2012. "Domestic UK retrofit challenge: Barriers, incentives and current performance leading into the Green Deal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 294-305.
    13. Liao, Huei-Chu & Chang, Tsai-Feng, 2002. "Space-heating and water-heating energy demands of the aged in the US," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 267-284, May.
    14. Liddell, Christine & Morris, Chris, 2010. "Fuel poverty and human health: A review of recent evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2987-2997, June.
    15. Milne, Geoffrey & Boardman, Brenda, 2000. "Making cold homes warmer: the effect of energy efficiency improvements in low-income homes A report to the Energy Action Grants Agency Charitable Trust," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 411-424, June.
    16. Harold, Jason & Lyons, Seán & Cullinan, John, 2015. "The determinants of residential gas demand in Ireland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 475-483.
    17. Thomas, Brinda A. & Azevedo, Inês L., 2013. "Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for U.S. households with input–output analysis. Part 2: Simulation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 188-198.
    18. Murray, Cameron K., 2013. "What if consumers decided to all ‘go green’? Environmental rebound effects from consumption decisions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 240-256.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bercholz, Maxime & Roantree, Barra, 2019. "Carbon taxes and compensation options," Papers BP2020/1, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. Miriam Berretta & Joshua Furgeson & Yue (Nicole) Wu & Collins Zamawe & Ian Hamilton & John Eyers, 2021. "Residential energy efficiency interventions: A meta‐analysis of effectiveness studies," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), December.
    3. James Carroll & Eleanor Denny & Ronan C. Lyons, 2020. "Better energy cost information changes household property investment decisions: Evidence from a nationwide experiment," Trinity Economics Papers tep1520, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    4. O'Malley, Seamus & Roantree, Barra & Curtis, John, 2020. "Carbon taxes, poverty and compensation options," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number SUSTAT98.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coyne, Bryan & Denny, Eleanor, 2021. "Retrofit effectiveness: Evidence from a nationwide residential energy efficiency programme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Hammerle, Mara & Burke, Paul J., 2022. "From natural gas to electric appliances: Energy use and emissions implications in Australian homes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Hediger, Cécile & Farsi, Mehdi & Weber, Sylvain, 2018. "Turn It Up and Open the Window: On the Rebound Effects in Residential Heating," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 21-39.
    4. Ghosh, Neal K. & Blackhurst, Michael F., 2014. "Energy savings and the rebound effect with multiple energy services and efficiency correlation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 55-66.
    5. Aydin, Erdal, 2016. "Energy conservation in the residential sector : The role of policy and market forces," Other publications TiSEM b9cedba8-1310-4097-90fb-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve & Druckman, Angela & Firth, Steven K. & Jackson, Tim, 2014. "Who rebounds most? Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for different UK socioeconomic groups," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 12-32.
    7. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve, 2015. "Living up to expectations: Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for UK households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 100-116.
    8. Benjamin Volland, 2016. "Efficiency in Domestic Space Heating: An Estimation of the Direct Rebound Effect for Domestic Heating in the U.S," IRENE Working Papers 16-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    9. Kulmer, Veronika & Seebauer, Sebastian, 2019. "How robust are estimates of the rebound effect of energy efficiency improvements? A sensitivity analysis of consumer heterogeneity and elasticities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Heesen, Florian & Madlener, Reinhard, 2021. "Revisiting heat energy consumption modeling: Household production theory applied to field experimental data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Underwood, Anthony & Fremstad, Anders, 2018. "Does sharing backfire? A decomposition of household and urban economies in CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 404-413.
    12. Peñasco, Cristina & Anadón, Laura Díaz, 2023. "Assessing the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures in the residential sector gas consumption through dynamic treatment effects: Evidence from England and Wales," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    13. Chen, Zhenni & Du, Huibin & Li, Jianglong & Southworth, Frank & Ma, Shoufeng, 2019. "Achieving low-carbon urban passenger transport in China: Insights from the heterogeneous rebound effect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1029-1041.
    14. Du, Qiang & Han, Xiao & Li, Yi & Li, Zhe & Xia, Bo & Guo, Xiqian, 2021. "The energy rebound effect of residential buildings: Evidence from urban and rural areas in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    15. Chen, Qian & Zha, Donglan & Wang, Lijun & Yang, Guanglei, 2022. "The direct CO2 rebound effect in households: Evidence from China's provinces," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    16. Ouyang, Xiaoling & Yang, Yuchuan & Du, Kerui & Cheng, Zhenyu, 2022. "How does residential electricity consumption respond to electricity efficiency improvement? Evidence from 287 prefecture-level cities in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    17. Freire-González, Jaume, 2017. "Evidence of direct and indirect rebound effect in households in EU-27 countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 270-276.
    18. Bourgeois, Cyril & Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan & Quirion, Philippe, 2021. "Lump-sum vs. energy-efficiency subsidy recycling of carbon tax revenue in the residential sector: A French assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    19. Figus, Gioele & Turner, Karen & McGregor, Peter & Katris, Antonios, 2017. "Making the case for supporting broad energy efficiency programmes: Impacts on household incomes and other economic benefits," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 157-165.
    20. Ensieh Shojaeddini & Ben Gilbert, 2023. "Heterogeneity in the Rebound Effect: Evidence from Efficient Lighting Subsidies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(1), pages 173-217, January.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp544. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Burns (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esriiie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.