Upgrading Efficiency and Behavior: Electricity Savings from Residential Weatherization Programs
首次区分了美国住宅节能改造项目中效率升级和行为干预各自的节电效果，发现效率升级的实际节电远低于工程预测，而简单的行为干预节电效果甚至超过成本更高的效率升级。
Residential weatherization programs have become a major component of U.S. energy policy. Through these programs, households receive heavily subsidized energy efficiency upgrades as well as informational and behavioral treatments designed to encourage conservation. While previous work demonstrates that weatherization programs provide sizable energy savings, all have measured the composite effect of efficiency upgrades and behavioral treatments. In this paper, we present the first estimates which disentangle the energy savings provided by each of the individual interventions. Our results reveal that the actual energy savings achieved by the efficiency upgrades are substantially smaller than ex-ante, engineering predictions. Moreover, we present evidence that the energy savings provided by the simple behavioral interventions can exceed the savings resulting from the much more costly efficiency upgrades.