Energy sufficiency policy for residential electricity use and per-capita dwelling size

Abstract

Energy sufficiency has recently gained increasing attention as a way to limit and reduce total energy consumption of households and overall. This paper presents both the partly new methods and the results of a comprehensive analysis of a micro-and meso-level energy sufficiency policy package to make electricity use in the home more sufficient and reduce at least the growth in per-capita dwelling size. The objective is to find out how policy can support households and their members, as individuals or as caregivers, but also manufacturers and local authorities in practicing energy sufficiency. This analysis needed an adapted and partly new set of methods we developed. Energy sufficiency does not only face barriers like energy efficiency, but also potential restrictions for certain household members or characteristics, and sometimes, preconditions have to be met to make more energysufficient routines and practices possible. All of this was analysed in detail to derive recommendations for which policy instruments need to be combined to an effective policy package for energy sufficiency. Energy efficiency and energy sufficiency should not be seen as opposed to each other but work in the same directionsaving energy. Therefore, some energy sufficiency policy instruments may be the same as for energy efficiency, such as energy pricing policies. Some may simply adapt technology-specific energy efficiency policy instruments. Examples include progressive appliance efficiency standards, standards based on absolute consumption, or providing energy advice. However, sufficiency may also require new policy approaches. They may range from promotion of completely different services for food and clothes cleaning, to instruments for limiting average dwelling floor area per person, or to a cap-and-trade system for the total electricity sales of a supplier to its customers, instead of an energy efficiency obligation.

Decarbonization pathways for the residential sector in the United States

“…'Su ciency' approaches to reducing GHG emissions are a recent addition to climate change mitigation literature, and target reduced demand for energy, materials and other natural resources, while delivering wellbeing for all 14,15 . For residential buildings, su ciency can be translated into a global convergence of oor area per person 16,17 to somewhere in the range of 15-40 m 2 /cap [18][19][20][21] . Current average oor area usage in the US is 67 m 2 /cap in single-family homes, 41 m 2 /cap in multifamily homes, and 60 m 2 /cap across all house types 22 .…”

Conceptualising the energy efficiency first principle: insights from theory and practice

“…24 The reason why behavioural failures occur at all is being investigated in neuroeconomics, attempting to understand the neural pathways that control how consumers make decisions (Fehr and Rangel 2011;Gillingham and Palmer 2014). Other authors associate them with lifestyles, social practices, and other structures that individuals act in (Thomas et al, 2019). Vol:.…”

Understanding the Multi-Faceted Drivers of Increasing Coal Consumption in Indonesia

“…Finally, we also perceive a future need to design and implement codes and regulations to lower the energy consumption of new residential buildings. This is important for avoiding the "rebound effect" observed in other nations, whereby greater energy efficiency in appliances is offset by a growth in per capita flooring area in households [102].…”