IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v134y2024ics0140988324002718.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Realized dynamic effect of retrofits on energy consumption in Soviet-era multi-apartment buildings

Author

Listed:
  • Kažukauskas, Andrius
  • Li, Xiaoying

Abstract

Retrofit programs for old and highly energy-inefficient housing stock from the Soviet era are widely believed to offer a rare win-win opportunity for mitigating climate change and addressing acute energy poverty issues in Eastern European urban neighborhoods. However, despite government subsidies and a push for greater energy efficiency, many people do not undertake retrofits. This raises the question: do these retrofits truly deliver the promised returns? This paper aims to examine the effects of retrofit programs on old Soviet-era multi-apartment buildings' realized dynamic energy savings in Lithuania by analyzing monthly energy bills. Our findings suggest that retrofits are associated with a 50% to 59% reduction in average space heating consumption across various post-retrofit periods. Additionally, retrofits have a short-term effect on electricity savings of 3% to 3.6%. However, our cost-benefit analysis indicates that the energy savings were not sufficiently large to cover the initial investment costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Kažukauskas, Andrius & Li, Xiaoying, 2024. "Realized dynamic effect of retrofits on energy consumption in Soviet-era multi-apartment buildings," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:134:y:2024:i:c:s0140988324002718
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107563
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988324002718
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107563?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberini, Anna & Khymych, Olha & Ščasný, Milan, 2020. "Responsiveness to energy price changes when salience is high: Residential natural gas demand in Ukraine," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    2. Anna Alberini, Olha Khymych, and Milan `casný, 2019. "Response to Extreme Energy Price Changes: Evidence from Ukraine," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. Liang, Jing & Qiu, Yueming & James, Timothy & Ruddell, Benjamin L. & Dalrymple, Michael & Earl, Stevan & Castelazo, Alex, 2018. "Do energy retrofits work? Evidence from commercial and residential buildings in Phoenix," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 726-743.
    4. Asmare, Fissha & Giedraitis, Vincentas & Jaraitė, Jūratė & Kažukauskas, Andrius, 2023. "Energy-related financial literacy and retrofits of Soviet-era apartment buildings: The case of Lithuania," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    5. Joshua Graff Zivin & Kevin Novan, 2016. "Upgrading Efficiency and Behavior: Electricity Savings from Residential Weatherization Programs," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(4), pages 1-24, October.
    6. Krauss, Alexander, 2016. "How natural gas tariff increases can influence poverty: Results, measurement constraints and bias," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 244-254.
    7. Meredith Fowlie & Robyn Meeks, 2021. "The Economics of Energy Efficiency in Developing Countries," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(2), pages 238-260.
    8. Hancevic, Pedro I. & Sandoval, Hector H., 2022. "Low-income energy efficiency programs and energy consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    9. Anna Alberini, Will Gans, and Charles Towe, 2016. "Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    10. 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.
    11. Anna Alberini & Nithin Umapathi, 2024. "What Are the Benefits of Government Assistance with Household Energy Bills? Evidence from Ukraine," The Energy Journal, , vol. 45(3), pages 203-230, May.
    12. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    13. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    14. Anna Alberini & Olha Khymych & Milan Å Ä asný, 2019. "Response to Extreme Energy Price Changes: Evidence from Ukraine," The Energy Journal, , vol. 40(1), pages 189-212, January.
    15. Anna Alberini & Will Gans & Charles Towe, 2016. "Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(1), pages 259-290, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Omar Isaac Asensio & Olga Churkina & Becky D. Rafter & Kira E. O’Hare, 2024. "Housing policies and energy efficiency spillovers in low and moderate income communities," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(5), pages 590-601, May.
    2. Ta, Chi L., 2024. "Do conservation contests work? An analysis of a large-scale energy competitive rebate program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Lang, Ghislaine & Lanz, Bruno, 2022. "Climate policy without a price signal: Evidence on the implicit carbon price of energy efficiency in buildings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Hadush Meles, Tensay & Farrell, Niall & Curtis, John, 2023. "Are energy performance certificates a strong predictor of actual energy use? Evidence from high-frequency thermostat panel data," Papers WP749, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    5. 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.
    6. Qiu, Yueming Lucy & Wang, Yi David & Iseki, Hiroyuki & Shen, Xingchi & Xing, Bo & Zhang, Huiming, 2022. "Empirical grid impact of in-home electric vehicle charging differs from predictions," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Vincent P. Roberdel & Ioulia V. Ossokina & Vladimir A. Karamychev & Theo A. Arentze, 2023. "Energy-efficient homes: effects on poverty, environment and comfort," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 23-082/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Jaraitė, Jūratė & Kurtyka, Oliwia & Ollivier, Hélène, 2022. "Take a ride on the (not so) green side: How do CDM projects affect Indian manufacturing firms’ environmental performance?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    9. Xingchi Shen & Yueming Lucy Qiu & Pengfei Liu & Anand Patwardhan, 2022. "The Effect of Rebate and Loan Incentives on Residential Heat Pump Adoption: Evidence from North Carolina," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(3), pages 741-789, July.
    10. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan, 2020. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to energy savings in the building sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Yajima, Naonari & Arimura, Toshi H., 2022. "Promoting energy efficiency in Japanese manufacturing industry through energy audits: Role of information provision, disclosure, target setting, inspection, reward, and organizational structure," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    12. 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).
    13. Lauren Giandomenico & Maya Papineau & Nicholas Rivers, 2022. "A Systematic Review of Energy Efficiency Home Retrofit Evaluation Studies," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 689-708, October.
    14. Yujie Xu & Vivian Loftness & Edson Severnini, 2021. "Using Machine Learning to Predict Retrofit Effects for a Commercial Building Portfolio," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-24, July.
    15. Maya Papineau & Nicholas Rivers & Kareman Yassin, 2022. "Estimates of long-run energy savings and realization rates from a large energy efficiency retrofit program," Carleton Economic Papers 22-09, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    16. Qiu, Yueming & Kahn, Matthew E., 2019. "Impact of voluntary green certification on building energy performance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 461-475.
    17. 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).
    18. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    19. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clarke, Damian & Mühlrad, Hanna & Palme, Mårten, 2021. "Health and Labor Market Impacts of Twin Birth : Evidence from a Swedish IVF Policy Mandate," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1391, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    20. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Anna Petronevich & Laurent Faucheux, 2018. "How do lenders price energy efficiency? Evidence from posted interest rates for unsecured credit in France [Comment les créditeurs valorisent-ils l'efficacité énergétique? Une analyse des taux d'in," Working Papers hal-01890636, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity; Energy efficiency; Multi-apartment buildings; Retrofit; Space heating;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    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:eee:eneeco:v:134:y:2024:i:c:s0140988324002718. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.