Webber, P, Gouldson, AP and Kerr, N (2015) The Impacts of Household Retrofit and Domestic Energy Efficiency Schemes: A large scale ex-post evaluation. Energy Policy, 84. 35 - 43. ISSN 0301-4215
Abstract
There is widespread interest in the ability of retrofit schemes to shape domestic energy use in order to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions. Although much has been written on the topic, there have been few large-scale ex post evaluations of the actual impacts of such schemes. We address this by assessing domestic energy use before and after the Kirklees Warm Zone (KWZ) scheme, which by fitting insulation in 51,000 homes in the 2007–2010 period is one of the largest retrofit schemes completed in the UK to date. To do this, we develop and apply a new methodology that isolates the impacts of retrofit activity from broader background trends in energy use. The results suggest that the actual impacts of the KWZ scheme have been higher than predicted, and that the scale of any performance gaps or rebound effects have been lower than has often been assumed. They also suggest that impacts on energy use in lower income areas are consistent with predictions, but that impacts in middle and higher income areas are higher than predicted. These findings support the case for the wider and/or accelerated adoption of domestic retrofit schemes in other contexts.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Energy; Efficiency; Retrofit; Households; Evaluation; Impacts |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/K012398/1 ESRC Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 15 Oct 2015 11:12 |
Last Modified: | 12 Feb 2019 13:56 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.04.020 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.04.020 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:90726 |