IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v107y2017icp248-257.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increased house size can cancel out the effect of improved insulation on overall heating energy requirements

Author

Listed:
  • Viggers, Helen
  • Keall, Michael
  • Wickens, Kristin
  • Howden-Chapman, Philippa

Abstract

Stand-alone single-family dwellings are the dominant housing type in several countries. The floor-area of the average stand-alone dwelling has been increasing faster than the floor-area of the average apartment/flat/row-house in England, Australia, Canada, the USA and New Zealand. Standalone dwellings have a greater external heat transfer area than multiple family dwellings, for the same floor-area. Larger dwellings require more energy to heat than smaller dwellings insulated to the same level. Although insulation requirements have been increasing, the heating required to maintain newer larger stand-alone dwellings to a constant temperature can be similar to that required to heat older smaller stand-alone dwellings. Building regulations should be future-proofed by considering trends in dwelling size.

Suggested Citation

  • Viggers, Helen & Keall, Michael & Wickens, Kristin & Howden-Chapman, Philippa, 2017. "Increased house size can cancel out the effect of improved insulation on overall heating energy requirements," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 248-257.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:107:y:2017:i:c:p:248-257
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.04.045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517302707
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.04.045?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. Clune, Stephen & Morrissey, John & Moore, Trivess, 2012. "Size matters: House size and thermal efficiency as policy strategies to reduce net emissions of new developments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 657-667.
    2. Huebner, Gesche M. & Hamilton, Ian & Chalabi, Zaid & Shipworth, David & Oreszczyn, Tadj, 2015. "Explaining domestic energy consumption – The comparative contribution of building factors, socio-demographics, behaviours and attitudes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 589-600.
    3. Huang, Lizhen & Bohne, Rolf André & Lohne, Jardar, 2015. "Shelter and residential building energy consumption within the 450 ppm CO2eq constraints in different climate zones," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 965-979.
    4. Berry, Stephen & Davidson, Kathryn, 2016. "Improving the economics of building energy code change: A review of the inputs and assumptions of economic models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 157-166.
    5. Jonatan Pinkse & Marcel Dommisse, 2009. "Overcoming barriers to sustainability: an explanation of residential builders' reluctance to adopt clean technologies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(8), pages 515-527, December.
    6. Berry, Stephen & Whaley, David & Davidson, Kathryn & Saman, Wasim, 2014. "Do the numbers stack up? Lessons from a zero carbon housing estate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 80-89.
    7. Graham Palmer, 2012. "Does Energy Efficiency Reduce Emissions and Peak Demand? A Case Study of 50 Years of Space Heating in Melbourne," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(7), pages 1-36, July.
    8. Brecha, R.J. & Mitchell, A. & Hallinan, K. & Kissock, K., 2011. "Prioritizing investment in residential energy efficiency and renewable energy--A case study for the U.S. Midwest," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2982-2992, May.
    9. Dixon, Gene & Abdel-Salam, Tarek & Kauffmann, Paul, 2010. "Evaluation of the effectiveness of an energy efficiency program for new home construction in eastern North Carolina," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1491-1496.
    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. Konstantinos Ioannou & Georgios Tsantopoulos & Garyfallos Arabatzis & Zacharoula Andreopoulou & Eleni Zafeiriou, 2018. "A Spatial Decision Support System Framework for the Evaluation of Biomass Energy Production Locations: Case Study in the Regional Unit of Drama, Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Kuang, Biao & Shi, Yangming & Hu, Yuqing & Zeng, Zhaoyun & Chen, Jianli, 2024. "Household energy resilience in extreme weather events: An investigation of energy service importance, HVAC usage behaviors, and willingness to pay," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    3. Shen, Meng & Li, Xiang & Lu, Yujie & Cui, Qingbin & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2021. "Personality-based normative feedback intervention for energy conservation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Reyes, René & Schueftan, Alejandra & Ruiz, Cecilia & González, Alejandro D., 2019. "Controlling air pollution in a context of high energy poverty levels in southern Chile: Clean air but colder houses?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 301-311.
    5. Velvart, Joëlle & Dato, Prudence & Kuhlmey, Florian, 2022. "Tailored interventions in a major life decision: A home relocation discrete choice experiment," Working papers 2022/03, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    6. Jack, M.W. & Mirfin, A. & Anderson, B., 2021. "The role of highly energy-efficient dwellings in enabling 100% renewable electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    7. Clara Camarasa & Érika Mata & Juan Pablo Jiménez Navarro & Janet Reyna & Paula Bezerra & Gerd Brantes Angelkorte & Wei Feng & Faidra Filippidou & Sebastian Forthuber & Chioke Harris & Nina Holck Sandb, 2022. "A global comparison of building decarbonization scenarios by 2050 towards 1.5–2 °C targets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

    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. Fikru, Mahelet G., 2019. "Estimated electricity bill savings for residential solar photovoltaic system owners: Are they accurate enough?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Berry, Stephen & Davidson, Kathryn, 2016. "Improving the economics of building energy code change: A review of the inputs and assumptions of economic models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 157-166.
    3. Peralta-Ruiz, Y. & González-Delgado, A.-D. & Kafarov, V., 2013. "Evaluation of alternatives for microalgae oil extraction based on exergy analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 226-236.
    4. Ma, Jun & Cheng, Jack C.P., 2016. "Identifying the influential features on the regional energy use intensity of residential buildings based on Random Forests," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 193-201.
    5. Ascione, Fabrizio & De Masi, Rosa Francesca & de Rossi, Filippo & Ruggiero, Silvia & Vanoli, Giuseppe Peter, 2016. "Optimization of building envelope design for nZEBs in Mediterranean climate: Performance analysis of residential case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 938-957.
    6. Hong, Sanghyun & Bradshaw, Corey J.A. & Brook, Barry W., 2014. "Nuclear power can reduce emissions and maintain a strong economy: Rating Australia’s optimal future electricity-generation mix by technologies and policies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 712-725.
    7. McKenna, R. & Hofmann, L. & Merkel, E. & Fichtner, W. & Strachan, N., 2016. "Analysing socioeconomic diversity and scaling effects on residential electricity load profiles in the context of low carbon technology uptake," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 13-26.
    8. Maria Cecilia P Moura & Steven J Smith & David B Belzer, 2015. "120 Years of U.S. Residential Housing Stock and Floor Space," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Pesantez, Jorge E. & Li, Binbin & Lee, Christopher & Zhao, Zhizhen & Butala, Mark & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2023. "A Comparison Study of Predictive Models for Electricity Demand in a Diverse Urban Environment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    10. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Streimikiene, Dalia & Jusoh, Ahmad & Nor, Khalil M.D. & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2016. "Using fuzzy multiple criteria decision making approaches for evaluating energy saving technologies and solutions in five star hotels: A new hierarchical framework," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 117(P1), pages 131-148.
    11. Petricli, Gulcan & Inkaya, Tulin & Gokay Emel, Gul, 2024. "Identifying green citizen typologies by mining household-level survey data," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    12. Andrew Peterman & Arno Kourula & Raymond Levitt, 2020. "Organizational roles in a sustainability alliance network," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3314-3330, December.
    13. Ahn, Jonghoon & Cho, Soolyeon & Chung, Dae Hun, 2016. "Development of a statistical analysis model to benchmark the energy use intensity of subway stations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 488-496.
    14. Houda Elmustapha & Thomas Hoppe & Hans Bressers, 2018. "Understanding Stakeholders’ Views and the Influence of the Socio-Cultural Dimension on the Adoption of Solar Energy Technology in Lebanon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, January.
    15. Mohammadi, Neda & Taylor, John E., 2017. "Urban energy flux: Spatiotemporal fluctuations of building energy consumption and human mobility-driven prediction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 810-818.
    16. Aditya, L. & Mahlia, T.M.I. & Rismanchi, B. & Ng, H.M. & Hasan, M.H. & Metselaar, H.S.C. & Muraza, Oki & Aditiya, H.B., 2017. "A review on insulation materials for energy conservation in buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1352-1365.
    17. De Lauretis, Simona & Ghersi, Frédéric & Cayla, Jean-Michel, 2017. "Energy consumption and activity patterns: An analysis extended to total time and energy use for French households," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 634-648.
    18. Trivess Moore & Andréanne Doyon, 2018. "The Uncommon Nightingale: Sustainable Housing Innovation in Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Armando Cartenì & Ilaria Henke & Clorinda Molitierno & Luigi Di Francesco, 2020. "Strong Sustainability in Public Transport Policies: An e-Mobility Bus Fleet Application in Sorrento Peninsula (Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    20. Lamnatou, Chr. & Moreno, A. & Chemisana, D. & Reitsma, F. & Clariá, F., 2018. "Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) material: Critical issues and applications with emphasis on buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2186-2201.

    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:enepol:v:107:y:2017:i:c:p:248-257. 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/enpol .

    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.