Determinants of energy savings and increases after installing energy-conserving devices

The purposes of this paper were to describe the savings and increases in energy that households accrued after installing retrofit devices and to identify factors that differentiated savers (those who used less energy after retrofit than before) from those who used more energy after installing retrofit devices than before. The data were a longitudinal component of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey, U.S. Department of Energy. Twenty percent of consumers who installed retrofit measures in 1982 consumed more energy in 1983, than prior to installation in 1981. Twenty-nine percent did not change consumption and 51% saved energy. While most households saved energy used for heating and cooling, some offset these savings by increasing energy used for other purposes, such as appliances and water heating. Logit analyses showed that savers were more likely to have experienced heftier price increases, consumed more energy prior to retrofit, and installed storm windows than those with greater post- than pre-retrofit consumption. Compared with savers, those increasing energy use over time had roomier houses, greater income boosts, higher ratios of energy expenditures to incomes, larger households and increases in household size, and were more likely to have retired or installed a freezer.