Limited Attention and the Residential Energy Efficiency Gap

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Date

May 13, 2015

Authors

Karen Palmer and Margaret A. Walls

Publication

Journal Article

Reading time

1 minute

Inattention may be an important contributor to the energy efficiency gap and may be particularly acute in residential buildings where many different features will determine a home's energy use. Energy audits can provide information on how to reduce energy loss in a home, but the use of audits is rare. We use data from a national survey of 1700 homeowners to study the factors affecting a home owner's choice to have an audit. We create an index of energy inattention for our survey respondents. This index and two additional behavioral factors prove to be important determinants of the audit choice.

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Topics

Authors

Karen Palmer

Senior Fellow

Karen Palmer is a senior fellow at Resources for the Future and an expert on the economics of environmental, climate and public utility regulation of the electric power sector.

Margaret A. Walls

Senior Fellow

Margaret Walls is a senior fellow at RFF. Her current research focuses on issues related to resilience and adaptation to extreme events, ecosystem services, and conservation, parks and public lands.

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