 Efficiency in Domestic Space Heating: An Estimation of the Direct Rebound Effect for Domestic Heating in the U.SNo 16-01, IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research Abstract: Improvements in energy efficiency are increasingly seen as a key strategy to reduce energy consumption in the domestic sector. Yet, concerns are mounting that households rebound, meaning that they adapt to efficiency gains by increasing their demand, as efficiency improvements reduce relative costs of energy. This study investigates the elasticity of household energy consumption for space heating with respect to changes in household heating efficiency. We account for the simultaneity of energy efficiency and energy consumption by applying an instrumental variable approach. Using data from the 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, we document that while there is substantial 'takeback' among US households, rebound rates are far too small to dominate energy savings from these improvements. Estimates of the direct rebound effect in domestic heating are about 30%. Moreover, we find no evidence for a substantial indirect rebound at the household level. However, we document that the degree of 'takeback' increases in energy prices, suggesting that price-based and efficiency-based policy instruments may counteract each other. Keywords: Energy efficiency; rebound effect; space heating. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irn:wpaper:16-01 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to econpapers@oru.se.
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.