Analyzing Energy Conservation Retrofits in Public Housing: Savings, Cost-Effectiveness, and Policy Implications

摘要

Annual energy costs for the US's 1.2 million public housing units exceed one billion dollars. During the last decade, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and local public housing authorities have initiated major conservation programs. Our review of energy conservation work in public housing indicated that in spite of substantial retrofit activity, little documented information is available on energy savings from retrofits. In this paper, we calculate energy savings and economic indicators for 43 retrofits, using consumption and cost data collected from case studies, housing authorities, and utilities. These results are compared with savings from conservation measures in privately owned, multi-family housing. Heating system controls and window measures were the two most frequent retrofit strategies in the housing projects we examined. Median energy savings are 14% of pre-retrofit consumption, or 11.2 MBtu/unit-year; savings ranged from -7% to 62%. A median payback time of 12 years showed the retrofits, as a group, to be less cost-effective than a comparable sample of retrofit efforts in privately owned, multi-family buildings. We also examine the persistence of energy savings for a small sample of buildings for which we have several years of post-retrofit utility billing data; preliminary results suggest that proper maintenance is a critical factor in sustaining energy savings after temperature control retrofits in steam-heated buildings. Finally, we discuss qualitative factors that influence the acceptability of retrofits, including effects on comfort, building appearance, and security. (ERA citation 12:013640)