Ex-post evaluation of a residential energy efficiency policy measure using empirical data

摘要

This paper presents an ex-post evaluation of residential buildingregulations for new dwellings in Ireland in terms of theenergy savings that can be attributed to the policy. Accordingto an ex-ante evaluation, the 2002 Building Regulations wereexpected to achieve a 20 % reduction in dwelling energy consumptioncompared to the previous building regulations inplace since 1997. The current analysis uses metered consumptiondata for gas-connected dwellings to quantify the actualimpact of the 2002 Building Regulations as compared to a controlgroup of 1997 Building Regulation dwellings. Initial resultsfocused on semi-detached dwellings in Dublin and founda substantial shortfall in the expected energy savings with astatistically significant reduction in energy consumption of just10.1 %. A separate analysis on the level of compliance with the2002 Building Regulations, for semi-detached dwellings in Ireland,found an 11.7 % level of non-compliance, higher than theEMEEES default value for non-compliance of 10 %.