ABC’s of Building Efficiency for Urban Housing

• Lead Faculty: Michael Gevelber, Robert Kaufmann, Nalin Kulatilaka

The goal of this project is to develop a baseline understanding of energy consumption and efficiency in low-­‐income urban housing. With more than 40% of U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions coming from buildings, increasing building energy efficiency is key to urban dwelling quality of life and a sustainable energy future. In addition, utilities in public housing cost the US $1 billion/year. We believe that improved information and incentives for both landlord and tenants could reduce these costs and increase energy efficiency in a large number of properties. The project’s outcomes are intended to, in part, address these information and incentive gaps.

We propose to analyze existing patterns of energy use at residences owned by the Madison Park Development Corporation.  The target research group will include significant variations in housing stock, energy payment arrangements and household demographics. This variation will allow us to understand commonalities and differences across these groups that impact energy efficiency. The project hopes to also benefit the community through a community awareness program on energy efficiency as well as engage some local youth who will be hired and trained as project assistants.

This study will combine two methods for assessing energy efficiency: an engineering-­‐based approach that measures efficiency by inventorying appliance stock such as types of refrigerators and a statistical approach that relates consumption to weather, occupancy, and behavior. This hybrid assessment will be more robust than either one independently.

The two key desired outcomes of the initial three project phases are to:

• Produce a baseline assessment on how the residents of Madison Park, and the campus as a whole, currently use energy. This analysis will incorporate data on the housing stock (e.g. square footage, geographic orientation), resident demographics (e.g. the number and age of residents in a household), appliance stocks (e.g. air conditioners, TV’s, lights, etc.), and institutional arrangements (e.g. who pays for utilities) affect energy use.
• Develop a preliminary set of metrics for energy efficiency that can be used to identify and rank investment opportunities in energy efficiency for urban housing complexes. The metrics propose to control for the effects of building, demographic, appliance, and institutional differences that would impact energy efficiency.

In addition, the project has potential to lead to future studies and benefits that include:

• Providing tools for building managers to boost energy performance
• Informing residents and owners about opportunities to reduce energy costs
• Creating baseline metrics as a longitudinal study of energy consumption in urban neighborhoods.