Efficiency Gap Caused by the Input Data in Evaluating Energy Efficiency of Low-Income Households’ Energy Retrofit Program

Abstract

Energy efficiency policies are made to reduce the energy necessary to achieve a given level of indoor heating and to decrease the greenhouse gas emission worldwide. National and state regulators routinely tighten the energy efficiency building code appliance standards. In particular, for low-income households, the government has been implementing an energy efficiency program, and the most common measures include furnace replacement, attic and wall insulation, and infiltration reduction. The belief that the energy efficiency programs are beneficial and lead to energy reductions often fails, which is known as the ‘efficiency gap.’ This paper analyzed the effect of input data in calculating the energy savings of the energy efficiency program for low-income households as a cause of the energy efficiency gap in energy efficiency treatments for low-income households. According to the retrofit of the low-income household, the energy saving effect predicted through the input data of detailed measurement was 65%, which was higher than 41% of the conventional prediction method (walk-through audit). The resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction effect was also the same as the energy savings, and the results predicted by the existing prediction methods were less predicted than the detailed measurement results.

Why Does a High Humidity Level Form in Low-Income Households Despite Low Water Vapor Generation?

“…In particular, low-income people are more likely to be living in old buildings with poor envelope conditions [32]. 67.7% of the lowest income quartiles in Korea live in older homes built before 1995 [33]. Figure 1 shows the actual scene of the condensation problem, including the mold formation in aged low-income households in Korea.…”