The Effect of Building Energy Retrofits on Daily Heating Time

This paper analyzes the effect of building energy retrofits on daily heating time. Using German survey data and controlling for local differences in climate and energy prices, I show that retrofitted heating systems run significantly longer on a typical winter weekday than non-retrofitted ones. In particular lower-income households seem to respond to heating retrofits by increasing the heating time. My findings provide further evidence for the existence of direct rebound effects and have some important implications for energy and climate policy.

Achtnicht, Martin (2016), The Effect of Building Energy Retrofits on Daily Heating Time, Economics Bulletin 36(2) , 1128-1135